Amiot 354 - Various users

As these aircrafts went beyond our radar, we have decided to post them now because we felt that it was needed.
Those two users are Vichy France and the Third Reich.
Vichy France, wanting to keep the connections with the French colonies, specially with Djibouti and Madagascar, asked the German authorities for permisson to use Amiot twin-engined airplanes qualified as mail airplanes to carry mail, medicines and supplies. They all served with Air France for that matter and most of them were Amiot 351 that were converted into 354 standard, unarmed in order to keep the aerial link between French metropolitan land and the aforementioned colonies of Madagascar and Djibouti. One of them suffered an accident when landing in Dakar, Senegal and was forced to remain there until after the end of the war, until 1946.
Germany, captured four of them when they entered in Amiot's factory and assigned two of them to the Luftwaffe that served until 1942 with the famous 1./KG 200 special service geschwader and, one of them were used by the high command of the Luftflotte 3.

Sources:
1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_354 (translated)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_354

Amiot 354

The Amiot 354 was the most advanced of the 350 family that was actually completed and entered production. It was powered by two Gnome-Rhône 14N-48/14N-49 (depending on the rotation of the engine, the engine received a number or another) delivering each of them 1060hp of power, that was 200hp more of power than the Amiot 351.
It had a streamlined fuselage and engine cowlings with most of them produced with a single tail fin with, some few others completed with the double fin.
It was armed with two 7.5mm MAC 1934 machine guns, one in the nose and another one in ventral position, and one 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon mounted on the dorsal side of the airplane, at the end of the cockpit. However, the first eleven airplanes lacked the cannon due to production shortages and replaced it with another MAC machine gun. It could carry up to 2756lb (1250kg) of bombs.
It was ordered in small numbers as, of the 880 bombers of the 300 series ordered on 1st December 1939, only 40 of them were of the 354 model. As the production was slow, by 1st May 1940 only 37 of them were in active service with the Armée de l'Air.
The first unit to receive the 354 was the G.B 9 (Groupe de Bombardement 9) and operated them together with the Bloch M.B.210. The other aircrafts were assigned to G.B. I/34, G.B. II/34, G.B. I/21 and G.B. II/21 on 7th April 1940 and 10th May 1940 respectively. By 22nd June, most of the groups moved on to Oran, in Algeria, leaving only seven aircrafts in metropolitan France. During the French campaigns of May-June 1940 those groups were forced to push the 354 into combat as soon as they received it and they realized armoured reconnaissance missions over Netherlands on 16 and 17 May 1940, without any setback.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_354
2. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_amiot_354.html
3. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 189 - French Bombers of World War II in Action