Patrouille de France and Red Arrows flyover Paris
 

The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team Red Arrows joined French Air Force display team Patrouille de France to perform flyover Paris this morning. It marks 80 years since an historic speech by Charles De Gaulle to the French people from London on 18 June 1940.
https://aerobaticteams.net/en/news/i...ver-Paris.html

They're doing a second flyover in just over half an hour, this time over my house.

They're up! (I think - can't tell through the clag)

Well BBC were their normal rubbish. Reporter wasn't sure what was leading, then said it must be the 'Reds' becuase the leading aircraft were red :ugh:

DCO over London; very nice.

That would be the same Charles de Gaulle who, such was his gratitude, blocked UK succession to the European Common Market ?

In which case the RAFAT/MOD press office hasn't done a very good job of breifing the press....

President Charles de Gaulle blocked Britains entry to the Common Market because he felt that Britain was compromised by its relationship with the United States and he felt that we were not European enough. In the wake of recent events, I wouldn't disagree with his assessment.

Or maybe they didn't understand the word breifing(sic) so didn't bother! LOL

Perhaps, certainly, that de Gaulle had forgotten that our relationship with the US was instrumental in liberating his country from Nazi rule.

... as was the arrival of the “doughboys “, our US allies, important in achieving victory over the Kaiser in the first world conflict, preventing the French people from having to speak German !

de Gaulle was quite fluent in German though.......................;)

regardless of all that you've got to admit it did look good

Does anyone know if the Reds return went as planned? I know a few people in Norfolk who were waiting on the published return route, but they report that they didn't see anything.

I suspect that the defeat of the Nazis was more to do with the offensive of the Red Army on the Eastern Front. For every 1 German soldier facing the western allies on D-Day there were 20 fighting the Red Army in the east.

The "Kaisers Offensive" in early 1918 came as quite a shock to Foch and the General Staff but it was a last gasp offensive before the American Armies built up sufficient strength to be decisive. The Sedan offensive of 1917 where the German Army had been bled white while being held by the French Army with their order "They shall not pass" was heroic on a grand scale as is proven by the vast French military cemeteries and ossuaries in the Sedan area. The Sedan Offensive of 1917 was called "The Stalingrad of the First World War" so there was never any danger of the French Nation having to speak German.

Make the most of it. The PdF may not be long for this world, with no future support arrangements for the Alpha Jet.

Thanks for telling us that. We’d never have known otherwise. Where do you stand on Bomber Harris? I’m sure your views are fascinating!

Enjoyed views of the 2 teams forming-up and proceeding London-bound from the Newbury area this afternoon. Great stuff.

They could be around for another 15 years...

La Patrouille de France pourrait garder ses Alphajet jusqu'en 2035 | Zone Militaire

I, as a member of the Bomber Command Association wholeheartedly back his "old lags" and his methods.

I don't recall the Russians liberating France though eh!

I believe they requested climb as they passed to NE of Chelmsford for the transit back to base. They may have been on route but high and above cloud.

Not seen here just S of the published route near Dedham,sky was largely clear with just a little cumulus.I'd have logged it as Cloudy,Fine,& Clear when I was working.

I thought, from watching some of the news footage, that the PdF were almost lost in the Reds' smoke. I was hoping that we may have seen one big arrow, with Red One leading, the rest of the Arrows to starboard and the PdF to port. Trailing red, white and blue, it would have been most impressive.

I was slightly north of the published route to try get a pic looking across and with sun behind and they took me by surprise being north of me so may that's your answer.

Looked absolutely brilliant over central London, well done both teams! PdF were far enough behind not to be lost in RA smoke. They both looked superb and the combined effect was stunning. They also looked lower and faster than I am used to seeing on these sort of flypasts, but that may just have been the effect of the two arrow formations being so close.