World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe D.520 fighters were introduced before the war, but French belief (that of Maurice Gamelin, et. al.) that the coming war was to be fought on the ground was among the reasons why they did not see production until the French entrance to the war after the invasion of Poland. The prototype flew on 2 Oct 1938 and the contract eventually grew to 1280 units, but by the time Germany invaded France, only 79 fighters were in service. They saw combat against the German Luftwaffe on 13 May 1940, downing four German aircraft without loss; by the end of the invasion, they confirmed 108 kills with a loss of 54. While some D.520 fighters fled to North Africa and Britain, many remained in service with Vichy France. In Apr 1941, Vichy France Air Force began production on the D.520 design once again, and began receiving fighters by Jun 1941. Some of them eventually made their way to the Luftwaffe mainly as training aircraft. 120 also went to Bulgaria and 60 to Italy.

SPECIFICATIONS

D.520C.1

Machinery	One Hispano-Suiza 12Y-45 liquid-cooled V-12 engine rated at 930hp
Armament	1x20mm cannon, 4x7.55mm machine guns
Crew	1
Span	10.20 m
Length	8.70 m
Height	2.60 m
Wing Area	16.00 m²
Weight, Empty	2,090 kg
Weight, Maximum	2,780 kg
Speed, Maximum	529 km/h
Range, Normal	1,250 km

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1.  Alan Chanter says:
1 Jul 2017 12:41:45 AM

When German forces evacuated Toulouse on August 22, 1944, S.N.C.A. de Sud-Est (the nationalised French aviation industry) and former Arméé de l’Air personnel seized all airworthy D.520s and those undergoing overhaul and, on September 16th, formed Groupe de Chasse I/8 under Marcel Doret, strafing the retreating German columns and attacking German pockets at Royan, Pointe de Grave, Rochefort and Oléron.