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The Golden AgeChapter 10: The Shadow of WarPart 3
The Shadow of War•“…would not the sight of a single enemy airplane be enough to induce a formidable panic? Normal life would be unable to continue under the constant threat of death and destruction.”General Giulio Douhet,The Command of the Air (1921)
•In the United States, the most strident propagandist for military air power was General Billy Mitchell, Commander fo the US air forces in Europe in 1918 and postwar assistant chief of the Army Air Service.•To Mitchell, the great appeal of heavy bombing-whether used for destroying cities or, as Mitchell advocated, to sink enemy ships approaching America’s shores-was that it provided a rationale for a powerful air force, independent of, and with equal status to, the other armed forces.
Disappearing Funds•The pressing problem for military aviation in the immediate postwar period was to persuade tight-fisted governments to fund it adequately. •The US air service contracted from 190,000 men in 1918 to 10,000 in 1920; the RAF shrank from a force of almost 300,000 to under 40,000 in the year after the war.
Symbols of Power•Whatever the tactics employed and the practical results achieved, there was something profoundly satisfactory to the European psyche in the deployment of aircraft against “primitive” peoples.•At a period when the unbridled assertion of white racial superiority and Western technological prowess was starting to be challenged by anti-colonial movements.
•When Mussolini’s black-shirted followers bullied their way to power in 1922, several Italian World War I air aces were prominent in their ranks. Mussolini himself idolized aviation, revering it as a symbol of power and modernity
Wings over Chicago•On the evening of July 15, 1933, a mass formation of 24 Italian flying boats, commanded by general Italo Balbo, flew over Lake Michigan toward Chicago after a 15-day, 5,750 mile transatlantic flight from Italy via Iceland.•Balbo received a hero’s welcome, and received celebratory dinners and parades-he even had a major avenue named after him.
German Rebirth•Germany was another country where no questions were raised about the importance of air power. •Formally denied the right to maintain an army or naval air force by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, throughout the 1920s German military leaders, aviators, and aircraft makers worked, often covertly, to maintain pilot training and keep up with advances in military aviation technology and tactics.
•Under secret military provisions of the treaty, Germany was allowed to carry out army and air-force training in Russia, in return for providing Soviet forces with training and the latest military technology.•A substantial German base was established in Lipetsk, 220 miles outside of Moscow, where, from 1925-1933, German pilots were secretly trained to fly state-of-the-art military aircraft, practicing bombing, fighter tactics, and maneuvers.
American Isolationism•In the US, the 20s were a lean period for military aviation. In a rection against America’s involvement in WWI, public sentiment was overwhelmingly “isolationist.”•Determined to keep out of foreign quarrels, Americans saw their military needs as purely defensive.•Since the only credible threat to the US was an attack from the sea, the navy received the lion’s share of a much reduced military budget.
Mitchell’s Demonstration•In July 1921 Mitchell assembled some Martin MB-2 bombers and, in front of naval observers, undertook an attempt to sink three German warships that had come into American hands a the end of the war.•The first two were easily dispatched, the third was a heavily armored battleship, the Ostfriesland.•It took three attempts but they sent it to the bottom of the sea.
Seaborne Aviation•Naval aviation in the US made better progress, despite financial stringencies. The example of Britain suggests that this progress may have been partly due to the absence of an independent air force. For, at the end of WWI, Britain had led the way In the development of carrier-borne aviation.
•In the US, the pivotal debate was not about the virtues of independent air power as opposed to an air force under naval command, but rather about the relative importance and roles of aircraft carriers and battleships.•As early at 1921, one naval commander, Admiral William Sims, predicted that “the aircraft carrier, equipped with 80 planes,” might be “the capital ship of the future.”
USS Langley•The first US aircraft carrier entered service in 1922. It was not an impressive vessel – a converted collier (cargo ship used to carry coal) with a top speed of 14 knots – but it was a start.
Naval Airships•Carriers were not the only means of providing aerial support at sea that were explored by the US. In the early 1930s, experiments were also conducted with the naval airships Akron and Macon.
Carrier Fleets•Despite financial stringencies, the US Navy achieved a respectable development of its carrier force in the 1930s, with the addition of the USS Yorktown and Enterprise thanks to money from Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
The 1930s•During this time, the world shifted from a period of aspiration toward disarmament into widespread rearmament.•During the second half of the decade, an arms race was underway, with the militarist governments of Germany and Japan and their potential enemies pumping money into military aviation.
The Luftwaffe Returns•After Adolf Hitlers’ rise to power in 1933, Nazi Germany began what would soon become a general rearmament in Europe. Like his fellow dictator Mussolini, Hitler found in aircraft an image of dynamism, modernity, and power that reflected his own vision of the Nazi state, as well as a practical tool for achieving his military ambitions.
Allied Developments•From 1935 onward, Britain and France were acutely aware of the threat posed by the resurgence of the Luftwaffe. It coincided with the realization that their existing air fleets were rapidly becoming obsolescent because of technological developments.
Soviet Innovators•Hitler had made it clear throughout his political career that the “Jewish Bolsheviks” of the Soviet Union were intended for destruction. •His rise to power brought a definitive end to the links between the Soviet and German aviation establishments that served both so well in the 1920s and early 30s.P-47 Thunderbolt
Seaborne Aviation•Naval aviation in the US made better progress, despite financial stringencies. The example of Britain suggests that this progress may have been partly due to the absence of an independent air force. For, at the end of WWI, Britain had led the way In the development of carrier-borne aviation.
•In the US, the pivotal debate was not about the virtues of independent air power as opposed to an air force under naval command, but rather about the relative importance and roles of aircraft carriers and battleships.•As early at 1921, one naval commander, Admiral William Sims, predicted that “the aircraft carrier, equipped with 80 planes,” might be “the capital ship of the future.”
USS Langley•The first US aircraft carrier entered service in 1922. It was not an impressive vessel – a converted collier (cargo ship used to carry coal) with a top speed of 14 knots – but it was a start.
Naval Airships•Carriers were not the only means of providing aerial support at sea that were explored by the US. In the early 1930s, experiments were also conducted with the naval airships Akron and Macon.
Carrier Fleets•Despite financial stringencies, the US Navy achieved a respectable development of its carrier force in the 1930s, with the addition of the USS Yorktown and Enterprise thanks to money from Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
The 1930s•During this time, the world shifted from a period of aspiration toward disarmament into widespread rearmament.•During the second half of the decade, an arms race was underway, with the militarist governments of Germany and Japan and their potential enemies pumping money into military aviation.
The Luftwaffe Returns•After Adolf Hitlers’ rise to power in 1933, Nazi Germany began what would soon become a general rearmament in Europe. Like his fellow dictator Mussolini, Hitler found in aircraft an image of dynamism, modernity, and power that reflected his own vision of the Nazi state, as well as a practical tool for achieving his military ambitions.
Allied Developments•From 1935 onward, Britain and France were acutely aware of the threat posed by the resurgence of the Luftwaffe. It coincided with the realization that their existing air fleets were rapidly becoming obsolescent because of technological developments.
Soviet Innovators•Hitler had made it clear throughout his political career that the “Jewish Bolsheviks” of the Soviet Union were intended for destruction. •His rise to power brought a definitive end to the links between the Soviet and German aviation establishments that served both so well in the 1920s and early 30s.P-47 Thunderbolt
New Generation of Fighters•In all the major air forces, the 1930s saw the same progress from biplane fighters – the sort of airplanes seen attacking King Kong on the top of the Empire State Building in the famous 1933 movie – sleet cantilever-wing monoplanes such as the Spitfire.
Heavy Bombers•For most American and British air commanders, however, the crucial airplanes in their force were not the fighters but the heavy bombers.•The US Army Air Corps and the RAF held that strategic bombing could be a war-winning use of the air power, given the right aircraft to do the job.
•Whereas the British concept of strategic bombing was essentially as a form of psychological warfare, centered on terrorizing civilians, American air commanders (USAAC) developed a notion of bombing as economic warfare.•The precision bombing of factories and transportation systems, the air force would undermine the enemy’s capacity to continue a war.
Bomber Prototypes•If strategic bombing was to have any credibility, the American and British air forces needed the aircraft to do the job. They had to have the range to reach distant targets deep within enemy territory, the capacity to carry enough bombs to cause substantial damage, and the speed and firepower to brush aside air defenses – there was no place in either British or American doctrine for the concept of an escort fighter.
Strategic Bombing•To the countries of continental Europe and Japan strategic bombing did not seem such an attractive use of air power. Whether primarily defense-oriented, is in the case of France and the Soviet Union, or bent on aggressive expansionism, as were Germany and Japan, they believed that in any war the crucial battles were going to be fought between armed land forces.
•Nazi Germany found a chance to try out its aircraft and tactics when a civil war broke out in Spain in 1936. Right-wing “Nationalist” Spanish officers, who had failed to overthrow the country’s left-wing Republican government in an insurrection, asked for the Nazis’ help to mount a sustained military campaign.
Aerial Artillery•While Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy provided air support for the Nationalists, the Soviet Union sent pilots and aircraft to fight for the Republican side.•In the end of 1936 Soviet I-15 and I-16 fighters had won air superiority and were able to inflict serious damage on ground forces, notably with the destruction of an Italian motorized column at Guadalajara in March 1937.
•While the Luftwaffe was drawing invaluable insights and accurate conclusions from the actual experience of combined-arms operations, the attention of the world at large was fixed upon a single issue: the terror-bombing of civilians.•This was somewhat peripheral to air operations in the civil war but central to the fears and anxieties of the citizens of London, Paris, and even New York, who could not help but see the events in Spain as prefiguring their own possible future fate.
Civilian Reaction•There was no question the air attack frightened people. Esmond Romilly, a British volunteer fighting with the Republican International Brigades, described being trapped in a subway station during an air raid in Madrid: “A panic-stricken crowd made it impossible to move…women screamed and on the steps men were fighting to get into the shelter.”
Theories of War•Meanwhile in 1937 Japan had invaded China, giving another demonstration of the effectiveness and frightfulness of air power. Cities such as Shanghai and Nanking were subjected to bombing on a significant scale.
•The other answer to the threat of bombing was to prepare air defenses to block an attack and civil defense to limit causalities.
Defensive Measures•One reason given for believing bombers could not be stopped was their raids would come as a surprise, striking before fighters could be scrambled to intercept them.•However, in the 30s, forms of radar were being developed and refined in all advanced countries-though not all were being applied to air defense-along with primitive IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems that allowed ground controllers to distinguish between enemy aircraft and their own.
The First Jets•August 27, 1939, four days before the start of WWII, the first jet aircraft took off from and airfield in Germany. Test pilot Erich Warsitz kept the Henkel He 178 in the air for just six minutes, but it was enough to open a new era in aviation.•Aircraft manufacturer Ernst Heinkel commented: “ the hideous wail of the engine was music to our ears”