Régiment de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen (Fighter Regiment 2/30 Normandie-Niemen) is a French Air and Space Force (Armée de l'air et de l'espace) fighter regiment which flies the Dassault Rafale C from BA 118 Mont-de-Marsan Air Base. During a dormant period in 2009, the squadron was equipped with Dassault Mirage F1CT fighters and stationed at the BA 132 Colmar-Meyenheim Air Base.

The Normandie-Niemen Fighter Regiment ( – () has adopted a number of formations and designations since 1942. Originally formed as Groupe de Chasse Normandie 3 in 1942, it was re-designated as a regiment (with and without the "Niemen" designation) in 1944 and received four different squadron numbers (in 1953, 1962, 1993, and 1995) and two later regimental designations (in 2008 and 2011).

The squadron, which served on the Eastern Front of the European theatre of World War II with the 1st Air Army, is notable as one of only three units from Western Allied countries to see combat on the Eastern Front during the war and was the only Western Allied unit which fought with Soviet forces until the end of the war in Europe.The first was the No. 151 Wing RAF – Nos. 81 and 134 RAF squadrons – which were stationed in Murmansk in September and October 1941. In Operation Orator (September 1942), a RAF-RAAF light bomber wing was stationed briefly at Vaenga. The 3rd Fighter Group (Groupe de Chasse 3, or GC 3) in the Free French Air Forces was initially a group of French fighter pilots sent to aid Soviet forces on the Eastern Front at the suggestion of Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces, who felt it important that French servicemen serve on all fronts of the war. The group, first commanded by , fought in three campaigns on behalf of the Soviet Union between 22 March 1943 and 9 May 1945. It destroyed 273 enemy aircraft and received a number of orders, citations and decorations from the Free French and Soviet governments, including the French Légion d'Honneur and the Soviet Order of the Red Banner. Joseph Stalin named the squadron Niemen for its participation in the Battle of the Niemen River.

In 2005, the squadron (now known as Escadron de chasse 1/30 Normandie-Niemen) flew Dassault Mirage F1CT aircraft. It was disbanded in June 2010 and reactivated the following year as a Dassault Rafale unit, with its formal reactivation on 25 June 2012 as Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen at the BA 118 Mont-de-Marsan Air Base. The squadron was reattached to the 30e Escadre de Chasse on 3 September 2015, and reformed at the BA 118 Mont-de-Marsan Air Base, it has since been renamed to Régiment de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen

History

Timeline

1 September 1942: Creation of the Groupe de Chasse Normandie n° III (GC Normandie 3) in Riyaq, Lebanon. 7 February 1944: GC Normandie 3 becomes the Régiment de Chasse Normandie (RC Normandie), with four escadrilles. 21 July 1944: The Régiment de Chasse Normandie receives the designation Niémen, becoming the Régiment de Chasse Normandie-Niémen (RC Normandie-Niémen). 1953: RC Normandie-Niémen is split in two parts, one becoming the Escadron de Chasse 2/6 Normandie-Niémen 1962: The 6th Escadre de Chasse is dissolved, attached to the 30e Escadre de Chasse, and renamed Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niémen (EC 2/30). 13 October 1993: EC 2/30 is dissolved and renamed Escadron de Chasse 1/13 Normandie-Niémen. 1 July 1995: The squadron returns to its name of Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niémen. 27 June 2008: Renamed Régiment de Chasse 1/30 Normandie-Niémen. 1 September 2011: The squadron becomes Regiment de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niémen.

Creation When General Charles de Gaulle called on Frenchmen to join him in London in his appeal of 18 June 1940, some went to Great Britain to fight with the Allies. Britain became an important Free French military base and rallying point.

When Operation Barbarossa broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 22 June 1941, Soviet authorities declared their representatives of Vichy France persona non grata and asked them to return to France. Colonel Charles Luguet, the air attaché of the Vichy government in Moscow, changed his allegiance to Free French.

De Gaulle, believing in the importance of French soldiers serving on all fronts of the war, decided to engage forces on the Eastern Front in 1942. He initially proposed to send a mechanized division (the future 1st Free French Division, under General Edgard de Larminat) to the Eastern front. British opposition and the advice of Free French Air Forces commander Martial Henri Valin, however, made him opt for an air unit instead of a division.Yves Courrière, Normandie Niémen. Un temps pour la guerre, Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1979, p.35Roland de la Poype, L'épopée du Normandie-Niémen, Paris, Éditions Perrin, 2011, p.100.

Soviet diplomats liaising with the French National Committee, primarily Ambassador Alexander Bogomolov, announced that the Soviet government welcomed French aviators on the Eastern Front. On 19 February 1942, de Gaulle designated Luguet and Captain Albert Mirlesse (under the authority of General Valin) to negotiate with the Soviet Union.Yves Courrière, Normandie Niémen. Un temps pour la Guerre, Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1979, p.39 Negotiations were lengthy, and Colonel Pougachev (military chief of the mission in London) opposed a separate French group near the Red Army. Parallel negotiations in Moscow and Kuybyshev, the alternate Soviet capital, were fruitless.

On 25 February 1942, the first list of pilots was given to the Soviets. The first commandant, Joseph Pouliquen, was tasked by De Gaulle with forming and commanding Fighter Group 3 (GC 3) in Lebanon while awaiting Soviet approval. Fighter Group Normandie was created in late 1942 (the first date mentioned in the Marching Journal was 15 September)Yves Courrière, Normandie Niémen. Un temps pour la guerre, Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1979, p.128. as "Normandie". Joseph Pouliquen suggested the name for GC 3; he had wanted to use the name of his province, Brittany, but it was already in use by a bombardment group. The first volunteer group consisted of 14 French fighter pilots and 58 mechanics, joined by 17 Soviet mechanics.

The first 14 fighter pilots of GC 3 came from units of the Royal Air Force or from the Île-de-France fighter group in England and from the Alsace Fighter Group North Africa. The eight British pilots were Aspirants , Yves Mahé, Marcel Albert, Marcel Lefèvre, Albert Durand, Yves Bizien, Roland de la Poype, and Lieutenant Didier Béguin. The six "Libyans" were Aspirant Noël Castelain, Lieutenants Raymond Derville, André Poznanski and Albert Preziosi, Captain Albert Littolff, and commander Jean Tulasne.

De Gaulle ordered the creation of GC 3 on 1 September 1942, commanded by Pouliquen. Mechanics, pilots and hardware travelled by rail and air via Tehran to Baku.

After lengthy negotiations with Colonel Levandovich, the military chargé d'affaires of international relations at the Soviet Air Ministry general staff headquarters,Yves Courrière, Normandie Niémen. Un temps pour la Guerre, Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1979, p.64. the group left Riyaq airfield on 12 November 1942 and arrived on 28 November at Ivanovo air base (250 km north-east of Moscow), via Iraq and Iran. The group were trained at Ivanovo in handling their first aircraft: the Yakovlev Yak-1.

Second World War The squadron's training on the Yakovlev Yak-7 and Yak-1 lasted from 2 December 1942 to 14 March 1943. On 20 March, French mission military chief in Moscow Ernest Petit, Ivanovo base commander Shumov, commander of the aerial base of Ivanovo, and Colonel Levandovich of the Soviet air force high command reviewed the group for two days. According to the reviewers, "By its military qualities and morals, this unit is ready to be sent to the front";Marching Journal of Normandie-Niemen. it became operational on 22 March 1943.

First campaign (22 March6 November 1943) GC 3, equipped with the Yak-1 fighter, saw combat between Polotnyany Zavod and Monastyrshchina. It became the fourth squadron of the 18th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. The squadron was part of the 1st Air Army. Pilots Albert Preziosi and Albert Durand shot down two Fw 190s on 5 April near Roslavl while escorting a Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber. Eight days later, three pilots were shot down; three Fw 190s were also shot down.

The squadron fought in the July Battle of Kursk, in which group commander Jean Tulasne and deputy commander Albert Littolff were killed.Selon Yves Courrière, 1979, le prix payé fut lourd: six morts en quatre jours pour 17 victoires homologues (heavy casualties: six fatalities in four days for 17 victories). Pierre Pouyade, who joined the squadron after deserting from Vichy in Indochina, became commander. It became the focus of Soviet propaganda, and Wilhelm Keitel decreed that any French pilots were to be shot on sight.Yves Courrière, 1979, p. 199.

In August, the French mechanics commanded by Alex Michel and Louis Duprat were sent to the Middle East and replaced by Soviet mechanics at the order of Captain Sergueï Agavelian.Yves Courrière, Normandie Niémen. Un temps pour la guerre, Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1979, pp. 195-197. On 11 October, de Gaulle awarded the squadron the Order of Liberation. Only six pilots remained from the original group, which had 72 air victories, by the time GC 3 moved to Tula on 6 November. In their first year at the front, they claimed 86 kills (77 confirmed, 9 "probables") and 16 enemy aircraft damaged against a loss of 25 Yak fighters.

Second campaign (1944) The squadron became a regiment in 1944, with a fourth escadrille reinforced by North African pilots. After training on the Yakovlev Yak-9D fighter in Tula, the regiment rejoined the front for its second campaign. The campaign was fought near Dubrovka and Gross-Kalweitchen (in East Prussia) until 27 November 1944. The following day, Joseph Stalin gave the regiment the name Nieman (making it Normandie-Niemen) in recognition of its participation in the battles to take over the Neman River region;M. M. Kozlov, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voina 1941-1945, Moskva: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1985 it was common to give Soviet units the battle honour names of places at which they had fought. On 16 October, the first day of an unsuccessful offensive against East Prussia, the regiment's pilots claimed 29 enemy aircraft destroyed with no losses; twelve more German aircraft were shot down the following day, again with no losses, for a two-day record. The regiment was based in Germany by November, the first French troops in Germany since the September 1939 Saar Offensive. At the end of the month, Colonel Pierre Pouyade ordered the 303rd Aerial Division emblem (to which Normandie-Niemen belonged) painted on the Yaks.Yves Courrière, Normandie Niémen. Un temps pour la guerre, Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1979, p.364. Pouyade was released from command at the end of the year; replaced by commander Louis Delfino, he returned to France with other veteran pilots. By the end of 1944, 201 kills were claimed. The regiment went to Moscow in early winter for de Gaulle's diplomatic visit with Stalin; one-quarter of the pilots were given leave in France, reducing it to three escadrilles.

Third campaign (1945)

The squadron began its third campaign (from Dopenen to Heiligenbeil) on 14 January 1945, concentrating on East Prussia. From January to May 1945 (V-E Day), it participated in the invasion of East Prussia and the siege of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad).

In June 1945, Joseph Stalin decreed that combatants could return home with their arms.Courrière (1976). The squadron flew to Posen on 15 June, and to Prague the following day. They were received by General de Lattre de Tassigny in Stuttgart on 17 June. On 20 June, the squadron arrived at Saint-Dizier three days later. They were welcomed at Paris–Le Bourget Airport, and their 38 Yak-3s paraded down the Champs-Élysées.

WWII statistics