Air Warfare

I

Introduction

Air Warfare, military operations carried out above the surface of the Earth. Tactically, these operations include support of land and sea forces by aerial observation of the enemy; directing the fire of naval and ground weapons; and transporting troops, equipment, and supplies. Strategically, air warfare includes combat between fighter planes and bombardment of enemy factories, communications systems, and population centres.

II

Balloon Observations

The idea of warfare conducted from an aerial ship was proposed as early as 1670 by the Italian Jesuit, Francesco de Lana Terzi, in his book of inventions Prodromo Overo Saggio di Alcune Invenzioni Nuove. A balloon was first used for military purposes in 1794, during the French Revolution, when French army observers stationed in a balloon directed ground fire against Austrian forces. Contemporary engravings illustrate another military application: a fanciful proposal to employ balloons as troop carriers to invade England. In 1862 and 1863, during the American Civil War, the Army of the Potomac used balloons to observe movements of Southern Confederate forces.

III

World War I

As the threat of war in Europe grew before 1914, potential German use of zeppelins (see Airship) for military purposes led Britain's military authorities to look seriously at military aviation; early in World War I, Paris and London were first bombed by zeppelins, which were subsequently withdrawn from use because of their extreme vulnerability. The first United States military aircraft, built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, was tested and accepted in 1909.

The future of air warfare lay with propeller-driven aircraft, first used by the Italian army during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912 to observe movements of the Turkish forces. Britain founded the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1912. When hostilities broke out in 1914, the Allies and the Germans had about 200 aircraft each on the Western Front. The first planes were primarily scout and reconnaissance types, such as the Vickers FB5, slow and vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. In 1915 the French flying ace Roland Garros became the first person to shoot down a plane by firing a machine-gun through his propeller. The Dutch aircraft designer Anthony Fokker, working with the Germans, developed the Fokker Eindecker, using an interrupter gear to permit machine-guns permanently mounted on a plane to fire through the propeller without damaging the blades; with this modification, and the development of speedier planes, the era of fighter aircraft was born.

Aerial combat produced the aces whose fame became legendary: Germany's Baron Manfred von Richthofen (known as the Red Baron), Georges Guynemer and Charles Nungesser of France, Britain's Albert Ball, William Bishop of Canada, and Eddie Rickenbacker of the United States.

Earlier in the war, bombs were dropped by hand over the side of the cockpit. Later, heavier aircraft were developed, and bombsights and standardized bomb fittings ensured greater effectiveness in striking military and civilian targets. By the war's end in 1918, 254 tonnes of bombs had been dropped in raids over England, causing 9,000 casualties. Although not to be compared with World War II statistics, these raids were psychologically and strategically important, resulting in the diversion of aircraft from the front for air defence at home. The use of massed air power at the front reached its peak in 1918 in the battles of Château-Thierry, St Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne. The effect of raids by the RFC on the German forces in March 1918 helped to stop them breaking through.

IV

Between the Wars

After World War I, the chief European proponents of the development of air power were Hugh Trenchard, leader of the Royal Flying Corps and first commander of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on its creation in April 1918, and Giulio Douhet, an Italian army officer who commanded his nation's first aviation unit from 1912 to 1915. In 1921 Douhet proposed the idea of strategic bombing of enemy centres. As the war ended, Trenchard and the US general, Billy Mitchell were planning extensive attacks on German war production sites and dropping soldiers behind German lines. Mitchell's attempts to focus attention on the effectiveness of bombing by means of demonstrations conducted in 1921 and 1923 (several battleships were sunk in these tests) led to his gaining national prominence as a prophet of air power. His ideas bore fruit in World War II.

Between 1935 and 1936, Britain and Germany developed the prototypes of the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, and Messerschmitt Me 109 fighters; the Junkers Ju 87, better known as the Stuka dive bomber; and the Bristol Blenheim and Heinkel He 111 bombers. The development of high-speed offence bombers during the 1930s culminated in America's long-range Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Fighter aircraft did not receive the same attention in the United States, because design modifications made bombers self-defending. The United States thus entered World War II in 1941 with the P-39 and P-40 as its main fighter planes. In 1935 Ethiopia became the first victim of fascist aggression when Italy attacked it using sophisticated weaponry, mustard gas, and aircraft. The war in Ethiopia and Spanish Civil War air battles, starting in 1938, served as testing grounds for aircraft design and tactics.