The sun only began to rose in the sky, the fog is still gripped to the rivers beds when the morning tranquillity is cut by a muffled explosion followed by a slight whistling. The environment is no longer bathed in this beautiful orangey light produced by the rising sun but is now aggressed by an artificial white light. The attention caught by the noises, Roland sees the little light ball falling down slowly to the ground as it sparkles, followed by a smoke trail. Immediately, he turns his head to his left to look at his flight commander who, as he equally saw the flare raising in the sky, raise his hand and make turn his wrist, it's the sign to start the engines. After he has put on his flight helmet, he hurried to activate the commands to start the engine, located on the left panel of the dashboard. Slowly, the propeller began to turn before to be launched at high speeds in the roaring of the Hispano-Suiza 12Y-31 which spits on the both sides of the fuselage a whitish smoke. As the engines are already warm, the leader raise his right forearm before to launch it forward and to stop it at the parallel of the ground, it's the sign to launch the engine at full throttle. The flaps down, the radiator equally down, Roland's hand grasps the throttle lever and begin to pull it slowly backward, the engine takes its turns, the propeller goes faster and faster, the grass, under the fuselage and behind the fighter, lies flat under the propeller blast which equally raises a slight dust cloud. Finally, the engine reaches enough power to make the little fighter wheels move and, as and when the throttle lever moves back, the aeroplane takes more and more speed on the grass of the former racecourse, the stick slightly pushed forward, the tail skid bounces a bit on the ground before to finally raise, few seconds later, the stick is pulled slowly as the two legs of the undercarriage leave any contact with the ground in order to let the aeroplane join its leader in the airs. A manipulation on the landing gear command and the two green light bulbs, located on the right part of the lower central panel of the dashboard, switch off to let two other light bulb, red, this time, switching on informing the pilot that the undercarriage is up and locked in the wings as the belly antenna has been deployed. Once in the airs, the Adjudant's hand sneaks in his back in order to catch and make slide the canopy to close it. Immediately after they took off, the both Morane-Saulnier are entering in a formation, taking the most altitude they can by turning over the airfield. Suddenly, the voice of the Sergeant Tourneux, mechanic and ground radio operator, informs the pilots of their mission, a formation of German twin-engined aircrafts has been seen at around 6000m near the front line.

Going straight toward the enemy while taking climbing, the Flying Officer giving his instructions; they will fly at around 7000m in order to be able to swoop on the enemy and then to not be much exposed to the bombers machine guns. The radio announces that two other patrols of the III/I are about to take off to help them, hearing the indicatives used, Roland knows that the both flight leaders are excellent pilots, the first one is his friend and usual leader, the Adjudant Gagnaire, from the 1st Flight, and a pilot of the 2nd Flight, the Flying Officer Leenhardt.

Pretty quickly, the both Morane arrive at a visual range from the large German twin-engined bombers formation, the French are only at 6500m but they have no more time left, Flying Officer Marche asks to his wingman to get ready, at his commands, the both fighters will have to dive to attack the bombers in boom and zoom. Roland releases the stick as he lowers the switches of the weapons security, loads them as he wishes that the machine guns aren't frozen, and makes sure that the ammo metre is well adjusted and than raises the radiator. And then, as they are approaching, flying 500m higher, the German bombers formation, Roland keeps an eye on his leader who turns back to him showing a thumb lowered, it's the signal, the right paw on the stick, the index finger on the trigger behind the stick and the thumb ready to go push the button on the top of the stick which fires the 20mm canon and the left hand on the throttle lever, he only waits for an action of his leader who suddenly passes in inverted flight before to push on the stick, diving toward the large formation. Roland, in order to follow his leader, puts the hand in his pocket* before to noses up, throwing the stick on the left and once on the back, taking the throttle lever back to its most forward position before to pull at his turn on the stick, the sky passes under the engine hood while the yellow of the fields and the green of the forest are replacing it. Above his head, the stubby bombers are growing more and more, the Flying Officer Marche's Morane, swooping on the formation massive of two dozens of aircrafts, begins to spit short bursts of fire, the bullets cartridges evacuating the aeroplane by the lower surface of the wings. Now, taking care of his own trajectory, the fennec chooses one of the bombers, try to get it in the middle of his metallic sight and then pushes a bit on the stick, anticipating the deflection of his bullets, presses the machine guns trigger, letting go short bursts of only 6 to 10 bullets which run in direction of the enemy. The bombers located at the head of the formation already begin to fire at him but he keeps his head cool, it's more a suppression fire than an accurate one, he then sees some sparkles on his prey, he continues to approach dangerously of the bomber and, as he's only at around 50m from it, fires of all his weapons before to pass under it. He waits a handful of seconds before to push with his leg against the firestop surface in order to push with as much power as he can have on the stick, placing back the throttle lever at the most backward position, he's squashed in the bottom of his seat by the centrifugal force.
Looking once again above his head, he sees the result of his first attack; the right wing of the Heinkel has some wide open holes which let flowing an important white trail behind it, the left fuel tanks shredded, as Roland knows that the bomber will not be able to run much longer before to run out of fuel, he decides, to be more effective, to change of prey, he chooses the neighbour of his previous prey. Then, as his MS.406 is launched at nearly 500 km/h, he noses up completely his aircraft, aiming his new prey, he waits and when he judges that he his well placed, he presses the button to fire the Hispano-Suiza 20mm canon, the craft is shaken, the two first shells passes in front of the left engine but the five following shells don't miss and hit directly the left engine nacelle. Not willing to get in the sight of the machine gunners when he will be out of speed, Roland pushes the stick before he even overtake his enemy, skimming another bomber at the top of his looping, looking through the glassed roof of the cockpit, he glimpses the German pilot and navigator staring at him and even if the oxygen mask and the goggles are hiding their faces, he nearly can read the fear from what he saw quickly. And as he's diving back to the ground, Roland sees a large black trail leaking from the left engine of his second prey but he also notices that the left nacelle is ripped open and that the leg of the undercarriage is hanging pitifully. And soon, the same nacelle leaks flames which begin to lick the metal of the wing, the flames are growing bigger and bigger, and now, as the nacelle is drowned in the flames, a little metal plate is torn off the underside of the bomber and a little black silhouette falls from the opening, quickly followed by three others and then it's on the top of the front part that another panel is removed to let another silhouette leave the dying aircraft which now dives to the ground.

Suddenly, as he sees his leader at a hundred of metres from him, approximately at the same level, Roland notices that their both aircrafts are surrounded by smoke trails, raising the muzzle, he sees several pale blue aircrafts firing at them as they're diving, he only is able to yell in his laryngophone "Messers!", he barely saw them that the black crossed fighters were already under them, letting some impacts of 7.92mm in the wing of the Flying Officer and in the fuselage of the Adjudant. Abandoning the bombers, the both French fighters dive to engage the fight with the enemy fighters composed of 7 Messerschmitt Bf-109, the Flying Officer Marche, as he notices a group of three 109 beginning a chandelle dives straight to them and when they arrive at a comfortable fire range, he opens the fire on their flight leader, the German fighter, mortally wounded, lets a long and thick black smoke, continuing his ascension, he stalls and dives straight to the ground, letting Marche chasing one of his wingmen. Bulard, for his part, his alone and faces a group of four 109s which chase him rather than he chases them. Seeing the situation of his wingman, Marche abandon his prey and hurries up in the six o'clock of the first of the Bulard's pursuer and shoots with his 20mm canon in the right wing of the 109, the Morane crosses like an arrow the formation which splits at the passage of the French fighter while the damaged Messerschmitt shakes a bit before to have its wing torn off as the spar gives way, turning on itself as it's going down, letting the rest of the aircraft diving in a spin, the pilot, with a lot of luck, succeeds in getting away from the deadly trap in the one he was sat and manages to open his parachute. Roland, getting closer to his leader engaged in a pursuit with another 109, notices, unfortunately to late, one of the aircrafts carrying the black crosses diving in direction of the Morane, unable to prevent the attack, he tries to warn his chief by radio but too late, the 406 is already in the middle of few dozens of little blue comets and, reached by a shell in the fuel tank, located between the engine and the cockpit, explodes, disappears in a fire ball before to exit of it, in a deadly spin, eat into the flames... No parachute will ever get away from the carcass. The aeroplane will crash, few moments later, in the courtyard of a farm of the commune of Anizy-le-Château, in northern France.
Carried by the anger, Roland launches himself in the pursuit of his leader's murderer without paying attention to the other fighters. The hunted aircraft, ignoring his situation noses up and begins a large turn when he sees the MS.406, heading toward him from his six, too late to act, a burst of several shells are flying in his direction but only two of them hit, the first one hits the engine while the second enter in the fuselage, just behind the cockpit, penetrating in the fuel tank which, as the other Morane did few seconds earlier, blows up as it's set afire, the fuselage, cut in two parts, will, as the one of the 406, never let any parachutes escaping from its loins.

Suddenly, the last Morane is hit at its turn by bullets in its fuselage as two 109s are chasing him, it's then that smoke trails appear around of them and that the Messerschmitt spilt to face their new opponents, in the sky appear the 6 Morane-Saulnier 406 which took off a bit later after Marche and Bulard, 4 of them have the markings of the "Canards"(Ducks) and only two have the markings of the "Renards"(Foxes).

"La Bulle, you return home, we take care of the others." Announces a deformed voice in the radio, he confirms the order and leave the fight before to take the heading of the airfield from where he took off earlier this morning and lands there gently.
After he has parked his aeroplane and has cut his engine, he notices a crowd coming for him, all the pilots who didn't took off, including the 2 Polish officers who have lost one of their mate 3 days earlier, and the mechanics who, without any news of the fight and seeing one of theirs coming back in a quite bad shape, come to get news. Feeling the unease of the fennec, they don't insist much but one of the mechanics can't wait any longer and asks the situation of his pilot, the Lieutenant Paul Marche. Lowering the head, Roland announces of a muffled voice "The Flying Officer will not come back, this time..." He was flying the Morane-Saulnier 406 n°730, coded 7, normally assigned to the Adjudant Edgar Gagnaire, but as the Flying Officer Marche's aircraft was too seriously damaged the eve, he was obliged to use another aircraft, for him, the luck haven't knocks twice...

The announce froze the atmosphere, the Lieutenant Marche was one of the oldest pilots of the GC III/I, born in 1902, he was flying in the French Air Force since 1922 and was the commander of the 1st Flight "Renards", fromer SPA 84, and the Squadron Leader's lieutenant, after the departure of the Flying Lieutenant Pompe at the end of the month of April 1940.
As the time flies, news aren't coming from the fighters gone in mission, everyone is nervous, as he stills in his flight suit, the leather helmet under the arm and the parachute in the back, Roland is ready to take off again if he receives the command to do so. And then, suddenly, the radio announces something, two aircrafts are coming back, the first one, the red insignia of the "Renards" on the sides and the aircraft in a really bad shape, lands very badly but is till on its undercarriage as it stops and cuts the engine on the runway, in the cockpit, the Sergeant Pralon is bathing in his blood, severely wounded, he still have managed to get his aircraft back to its airfield. The second one, carrying a white duck on its sides and as much damaged, lands in a better way and parks at the edge of the forest, the pilot, Flight Sergeant Pinochetti, exits of it, still trembling from the experience he just had in the air but has no serious wounds. Few minutes later, the 4 others Morane are back to their airfield, the Flying Officer Tony Leenhardt, the Adjudant Edgar Gagnaire and the both Sergeant Kléber Doublet and Albert Durand each recorded an individual victory against a 109.

Finally, on the 7 Messerschmitt and the 8 Morane-Saulnier engaged, only 1 Messerschmitt will return to its base while the French fighters have only lost one aircraft and its pilot and two aircrafts severely damaged with one pilot gravely wounded. After the death of the Flying Officer Paul Marche, the Flying Officer Tony Leenhardt has been declared commander of the 1st Flight "Renards".


*: to put the hand in one's pocket is a phrase used in France which is no longer used, it means to go full throttle, it's explained by the fact that the throttle levers in France were inverted compared to German, British, American, Russian or Japanese as well as nowadays aircrafts. It created some problems to the Free French pilots when they had to fly on foreign aircrafts and it was common to see a French pilot placing the throttle lever fully frontward instead of backward as a reflex, happily, mechanics always kept an eye on the pilot's actions and many accidents were avoided.

---

Please, take note that this short story, written over this message, isn't historically accurate and even if it's inspired by real-life events, to wit the activity of the Groupe de Chasse III/I on 19th May 1940, and has the same results, the facts didn't happened like described here as it was written in a single evening and without detailed researches on what happened this day, it was just written in order to stick with the image above. Plus, even if 95% of the character presented there existed, I did not described them, in their characters, as they really were, the only fictional character presented there is the Adjudant Roland Bulard.

In the facts, the GC III/I sent, between 6 and 7 am, a double patrol (6 aircrafts) with another double patrol from the GC II/2 to intercept some He-111 bombers in a bombing mission on French bombers squadrons but they fell against three dozens of Messerschmitt Bf-109 and Bf-110, the 109s were part of the 5/JG.27, four victories were recorded by Edgar Gagnaire, Kléber Doublet, Tony Leenhardt and Albert Durand. Another mission was led in the afternoon, several aircrafts from the GC III/I took off at 4.50pm to intercept another bombers formation and also faced 109s, those ones were part of the Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen", two 109s were shot down by the Lt. Marche before the latter was shot down by the Hauptmann Bernhardt Mielke from the 3/JG.2. Reached by a shell in the fuel tank, the aircraft crashed in a farm at Anizy-le-Château and the pilot was buried near of the crash site until 1941 when his remains were transferred to the national necropolis of Vauxaillon. In the 2010s, the association Axo'lidarité found back the family of the Lt.Marche and built a monument on the place where his aircraft crashed, the inauguration was made with the son of the Lieutenant Paul Marche.

As for the three Polish officers mentioned in the short story, they were the Lt. Kazimierz Bursztyn, the Lt. Wladyslaw Chciuk and the S/lt. Wladyslaw Gnys, the pilot who was said shot down was the Lt.Chciuk who, after his aircraft was severely damaged had to crash land on 16th May 1940, because of his approximate French and of his strong foreign accent, he escaped at the last moment to the death by shooting and find back his squadron 5 days after he was shot down but was again shot down on 21st May 1940, the day after or the same that he returned to his squadron but will, once again, return to his comrades using a bicycle found in an abandoned village. Kazimierz Bursztyn, was the leader of the Polish flight within the SPA 84 until he was missing in action and declared more than probably killed on 25th May 1940. Wladislaw Gnys, whose the aircraft was coded II, was the wingman of the Lt. Brusztyn until his death, Gnys was famous for being the first allied pilot to shot down a German aircraft, back in September 1939, during the Poland Campaign, he joined the RAF after the Battle of France as a pilot of the n°302 sqn (Polish) RAF, then of the n°309 and n°316 sqn before to become the Squadron Leader of the n°317 sqn on 25th August 1944 but on 27th August 1944, Gnys was shot down by the Flak over Rouen, France, and had to crash land, captured and wounded by German soldiers, he escaped few days later from the POW hospital, he passed away in 2000. Wladyslaw Chciuk, after the Battle of France, joined the n°308 sqn "City of Krakow" and was shot down on 24th July 1941 after he shot down a German officer, suffering of several burns, he baled out and was taken as POW, the pilot he shot down would also have survived to the crash and visited Chciuk at the Oflag IV/B of Warburg, passing by the Oflag X/C of Luebeck he then was transferred to the Stalag Luft III in Zagan from where he had to flee with the German soldiers the soviet advance and was freed by the British forces.

---

This drawing represent Roland Bulard just back from a mission as he still has his flight suit and his parachute though he already released himself from the radio system, behind him, his aircraft, a Morane-Saulnier 406, has the markings of the SPA 84, 1ère Escadrille (1st Flight) of the GC III/I nicknamed "Renards", and his motto; "Vaincre ou Mourir" (Vanquish or Die).

I've made a video a while ago from the video game IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 about the Battle of France and I think I could share it there as it sticks well to the both pieces I present here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3aFrr5gPcg

Ps: I really should stop to try to color things...