Page 228 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

warfare, air 2005

the axis of the fuselage, a major leap in the efficiency of remained at the core of aerial warfare for sixty years.Also,
air warfare. In 1916, the fighter arm of the air services the Women’s Royal Air Force was organized in April
evolved from single daring pilots targeting the enemy in 1918, incorporating women into the military for the first
a dueling fashion to formations of long-range fighters time.
escorting bombers deeper into German-held territory.The
French Air Service implemented this formation concept at Between the Wars
Verdun in 1916. In early 1917 Germany created Flying The golden age of flight advanced military aircraft little.
Circuses, which were several squadrons bound together By the late 1930s, Germany and Japan led the world
into as many as fifty machines to conduct offensive oper- with the most modern air force, having more than fifty
ations at points along the British sector. From 23 to thousand planes each, while the United States and its
29 March 1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal allies had fewer than ten thousand mostly outdated
Naval Air Service carried out the first large-scale use of air machines. Hermann Goering pioneered the next phase in
power impacting the outcome of a battle when seventy air warfare with the German Luftwaffe. The Spanish
aircraft led low-level attacks that caused the German Civil War in 1936 provided an opportunity to develop
offensive to falter. dive-bombing tactics, and monoplanes replaced biplane
The physical battlefield of the air spawned doctrinal design, producing such fighters as the Messerschmitt
guidelines and tactical principles that were published and Me-109 in Germany. But tactics in the Second World War
distributed throughout the air services, especially with the began virtually where they had left off twenty-two years
introduction of formation flying. No radio communica- earlier, except the machines were far more advanced.The
tions existed between pilots and ground forces. Speed British Spitfire fighter, introduced in 1938, could go
was hard to regulate. Pilots were dependent on their com- more than 550 kilometers per hour and had a ceiling of
manders’ signals, while still vulnerable to attack from over 12,000 meters. Sir Hugh Trenchard of the Royal Fly-
enemy aircraft overhead. Since two out of three air battles ing Corps and the Italian army officer Giulio Douhet
took place behind German lines, going down meant cer- were the chief European proponents of strategic bombing
tain capture. to destroy enemy centers. In 1918 Trenchard and the
By 1918, an air force existed as a separate entity in the American general Billy Mitchell had planned to carry out
defense forces of every major power. Airplanes revolu- extensive attacks on German industrial sites and drop
tionized warfare forever, by removing the element of sur- troops behind the German frontlines, but the war ended
prise from the battlefield. Technology had gone from before they could do so.
flimsy, linen-covered machines armed with rifles or
revolvers, capable only of 100-kilometer-per-hour speeds World War II
and 3,000-meter ceilings, to powerful tools of war car- (1939–1945)
rying over 450-kilogram bombs. Duel-like “dogfights” World War II began with land and sea campaigns. Air-
gave way to killing machines like the German DVII, power played a subordinate role, supporting land forces.
French Spad, and British SE5 and Sopwith Camel, armed Germany invaded Poland in 1939, bombing its major
with two machine guns firing eight hundred rounds per cities and destroying its air force. Germany’s blitzkreig
minute, and flying up to 250 kilometers per hour at attack on London in 1940 was the first battle fought
6,700 feet in formation.Aviators were a new breed of sol- exclusively in the air. British fighter pilots recognized the
dier, signifying a relationship between man and machine same tactics applied that their forebears had perfected
that characterized all future wars.The legacy of innovative in 1917 and 1918: the fighter going one on one with
pilots like Oswald Boelcke, Albert Ball, Edward Man- the enemy bomber. England developed strategic bomb-
nock, Billy Mitchell, and Eddie Rickenbacker essentially ing capability while Germany concentrated on more