In this video, we take a look at the Dewoitine D.520, a French fighter from World War II. We first briefly talk about several of the reasons why France fell so quickly in WW2, from the significant political and social turmoil, to lingering effects from the Great Depression, to poor military strategy and planning. We then talk about an early effort to modernize their military, and how, over the span of 4 years, that built up to the D.520 design.
We then talk about how the D.520 was initially ignored by the French Air Force, and how Dewoitine continued the project regardless. We talk about the D.520's performance, and how it was better than France's other major fighter in the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406. We talk about the significant delays in the D.520 project, and French Air Force focusing more on the M.S.406. We talk about the D.520's impressive yet futile performance in WW2, and its interesting post-fall-of-France service with both Vichy France and the Free French. We end by talking about how the D.520 could have helped France, at the very least, survive longer in the war, if it was given more attention.