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Ever since the defeat of 1940, the search for the “guilty ones” has held the attention of a public traumatized by the magnitude of the debacle. Out of this sprang the legend of France's lack of aircraft. The truth is quite different, as this article explains, based mainly on the writings of Captain Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and in particular his book Flight to Arras (Pilote de guerre in the French edition) that was published in the United States in 1942. In the book he describes the conditions facing the French Air Force in May-June 1940 when it suffered heavy losses, especially those to Reconnaissance Group II/33 under which he served: “In the space of three weeks we lost seventeen aircraft and crew out of twenty-three. We melted like wax.”