The War in the Air, 1914-1994

388 Pages·2001·3.503 MB·English

by  Alan Stephens, Raaf Aerospace Centre

The War in the Air
1914–1994
American Edition
Edited by
Alan Stephens
RAAF Aerospace Centre
In cooperation with the
RAAF Aerospace Centre
Air University Press
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
January 2001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The war in the air, 1914-1994 / edited by Alan Stephens ; in cooperation with the
RAAF Air Power Studies Centre––American ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58566-087-6
1. Air power––History––Congresses. 2. Air warfare––History––Congresses.
3. Military history, Modern––20th century––Congresses. I. Stephens, Alan,
1944-II. RAAF Air Power Studies Centre.
UG625.W367 2001
358.4′00904––dc21 00-068257
Disclaimer
Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of
the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Air University, the United States Air
Force, the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency.Cleared for public
release:distribution unlimited.
Copyright ©1994 by the RAAF Air Power Studies Centre.No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.Inquiries should be made to the copyright
holder.
ii
Contents
Page
DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Essays
Airpower in World War I, 1914–1918 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Robin Higham
The True Believers: Airpower between the Wars . . . . . . 29
Alan Stephens
Did the Bomber Always Get Through?:
The Control of Strategic Airspace, 1939–1945 . . . . . . . . 69
John McCarthy
World War II: Air Support for Surface Forces . . . . . . . . 85
Vincent Orange
World War II: The Bombing of Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Richard J. Overy
Definite Limitations:
The Air War in Korea 1950–1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Jeffrey Grey
The Air War in Vietnam: Reevaluating Failure . . . . . . . . 169
C. D. Coulthard-Clark
iii
Essay Page
Airpower as a National Instrument:
The Arab-Israeli Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
R. A. Mason
It Was a Bit of a Close Call:
Some Thoughts on the South Atlantic War . . . . . . . . . . 221
R. G. Funnell
Airpower in Peripheral Conflict:
From the Past, the Future? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Dennis M. Drew
Soviet Airpower in the New Russian Mirror . . . . . . . . . . 301
Benjamin S. Lambeth
Air Operations in the Gulf War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Sir Patrick Hine
New Era Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Charles A. Horner
The Future of Airpower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Richard P. Hallion
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
iv
Foreword
This book is the Air University Press edition of the proceedings
of a conference on aerial warfare held by the Royal Australian Air
Force (RAAF) in Canberra in 1994. Because of the stature of the
contributing authors and the excellence of their essays, the orig-
inal publication by the RAAF’s Air Power Studies Centre has
been in great demand and increasingly short supply. This
American edition is essentially a reprint, although it is a some-
what shortened version with stylistic changes. Its publication
will allow a wider audience access to an important segment of
airpower literature.
Among the book’s virtues are the high levels of expertise of its
contributors and the diversity of their backgrounds. Here the
American student can sample the views of Australian and British
airmen and scholars, as well as some perhaps more familiar
American vistas. Each of the book’s contributors speaks with
authority, and each discusses a specific area or period in the evo-
lution of air and space power from World War I to the near future.
Essay subjects include World War I; doctrinal development in the
interwar period; strategic bombing and support of surface forces
in World War II; and airpower in the Korean War, Vietnam War,
Arab-Israeli Wars, Falkland Islands War, and Persian Gulf War.
They also include coverage of airpower in such peripheral con-
flicts as Operation El Dorado Canyon, the Malayan Emergency,
and the Israeli raid on the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.
We at the Air University Press are pleased to republish this
important work and are grateful for the opportunity. Special
thanks are due to Dr. Alan Stephens, who not only edited the
original book but who did it again for our edition; the Aerospace
Centre for allowing us to publish this work; and Professor
Dennis M. Drew of Air University’s School of Advanced Airpower
Studies, who recognized the value of the original work and the
need for a new edition.
SHIRLEY BROOKS LASETER
Director
Air University Press
v
About the Authors
Professor Robin Higham
Professor Robin Higham was born in the United Kingdom
and educated on both sides of the Atlantic. He served as a first
sergeant pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1943 to 1947,
ending up in Southeast Asia Command on Dakotas with No.
48 Squadron and then as an airfield controller. He graduated
cum laude from Harvard in 1950 and received his PhD there
in 1957. He has taught military history at Kansas State
University since 1963.
Professor Higham has been the editor of Military Affairs
(1968–88) and Aerospace Historian (1970–88), and remains
editor of the Journal of the West (1977–). He has published a
number of books, including Britain’s Imperial Air Routes; The
British Rigid Airship, 1908–1931; and Air Power: A Concise
History, and many papers and articles. He is currently
researching a book on the RAF and its preparation for war in
the period 1933–41.
Dr. Alan Stephens
Dr. Alan Stephens is a senior research fellow at the RAAF’s
Aerospace Centre. Before joining the center, he was a princi-
pal research officer in the Australian Federal Parliament, spe-
cializing in foreign affairs and defense; prior to that he was an
RAAF pilot, where his postings included the command of No.
2 (Canberra) Squadron in 1980–81.
Dr. Stephens is the author or editor of numerous books and
articles on security and airpower. He is currently writing an
official history of the RAAF from the end of the Second World
War to the withdrawal from Vietnam.
Associate Professor John McCarthy
Associate Professor John McCarthy has been a teaching fel-
low at the University of New South Wales, resident scholar at
the Australian National University, lecturer and senior lecturer
in history at the Faculty of Military Studies, and associate
vii
professor at the University College, University of New South
Wales. His work includes the publication of such books as
Australia and Imperial Defence, 1918–1939; Australian War
Strategy, 1939–1945; and A Last Call of Empire, and numer-
ous articles on defense and foreign policy. He was the founda-
tion president of the Association of Historians of Australian
Defence and Foreign Policy and is a member of the Australian
Institute of International Affairs.
Dr. Vincent Orange
Dr. Vincent Orange was born in England and served for
three years in the Royal Air Force. For many years he has been
a New Zealand citizen, and since 1962 has taught at the
University of Canterbury where he is a reader in history. He is
also a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Dr. Orange has written four biographies of New Zealand air-
men, including Sir Keith Park and Coningham. With the coop-
eration of family members he is currently preparing a book on
the life of Tedder.
Professor Richard Overy
Professor Richard Overy is professor of modern history at
King’s College, London. He moved to King’s in 1980 after
teaching for some years at Cambridge. He has written exten-
sively on the history of airpower, the Third Reich, and the
Second World War. His books include The Air War, 1939–1945;
Goering: The “Iron Man”; The Road to War; and War and
Economy in the Third Reich. He is currently completing a his-
tory of the Nazi economy and has been commissioned to write
the Oxford history of the Second World War.
Dr. Jeffrey Grey
Dr. Jeffrey Grey is a graduate of the Australian National
University and the University of New South Wales, and cur-
rently is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the
University College, Australian Defence Force Academy. He is
the author or editor of half a dozen books, including most
recently Australian Brass: The Career of Lieutenant General Sir
viii
Horace Robertson and Vietnam: War, Myth and Memory. He is
an author in the current series of official histories, Australia’s
Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts, 1948–1975; he has
completed the volume on Konfrontasi and is now engaged in a
volume on the Royal Australian Navy.
Dr. Chris D. Coulthard-Clark
Dr. Chris Coulthard-Clark is a former army officer and pub-
lic servant who is presently working as consultant on a history
of Australian Defence Industries Ltd. He received his PhD from
University College, Australian Defence Force Academy, in 1991.
Dr. Coulthard-Clark has authored, edited, or contributed to
16 books, mostly in the field of Australian defense studies,
and has written numerous journal and newspaper articles.
His contribution to air history includes The Third Brother and
a volume of the official war history series covering the RAAF’s
involvement in Vietnam. He is also working part-time on a
biography of F. H. McNamara, Australia’s only Victoria Cross
winner in the air from the First World War.
Air Vice-Marshal R. A. Mason
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Mason is the Leverhulme airpower
research director of the United Kingdom-based Foundation for
International Security. He retired from the RAF in 1989, where
his last appointment was air secretary.
Over 20 years he has written several books and many arti-
cles on airpower, including Airpower in the Nuclear Age with
M. J. Armitage, The Soviet Air Forces with J. W. R. Taylor, War
in the Third Dimension, and Airpower and Technology. He has
recently concluded “Aerospace Security in the Middle East,” a
study for agencies in Israel and Jordan. His next book,
Airpower in International Security, A Centennial Appraisal, is
being published by Brassey’s.
Air Vice-Marshal Mason lectures internationally to military
colleges and universities on airpower and is a regular defense
analyst for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is a con-
sultant to the Society of British Aerospace Companies on the
European Fighter 2000 program. He is a senior visiting fellow
ix
to the Post-Graduate School of International Security Studies
at the University of Birmingham and to the Mosher Defense
Institute, Texas, and is a senior research fellow at the Conflict
Studies Centre, Sandhurst.
Air Marshal R. G. Funnell
Air Marshal Ray Funnell was educated at the Brisbane
State High School. He entered the RAAF in January 1953 as
a cadet at the RAAF College and graduated as a pilot in
December 1956.
His early career was spent mainly in fighter flying and in
flying instruction. In midcareer he occupied numerous staff
positions in the RAAF, in the central defense staff, and on
exchange with the United States Air Force (USAF).
Operational commands were held with No. 79 (F) Squadron at
Ubon, Thailand, in 1966; and No. 6 Squadron at Amberley
from 1972 to 1975 when it converted from the F-4E Phantom
to the F-111C.
His appointments at air rank included director General
Military Staff, Strategic and International Policy Division,
Department of Defence; chief of Air Force Operations and
Plans; vice chief of the Defence Force; and chief of the Air Staff.
Air Marshal Funnell retired from the RAAF in October 1992.
In January 1994 he was appointed as the first principal of the
Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies.
He is a graduate of the RAAF Staff College, the USAF Air War
College, and the Royal College of Defence Studies. He holds a
master’s degree in political science and a graduate diploma in
administration. He has written and spoken extensively on mil-
itary issues both in Australia and overseas.
Col Dennis M. Drew
Col Dennis M. Drew is professor of military theory, strategy,
and doctrine, and associate dean, School of Advanced Airpower
Studies, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
Colonel Drew retired from the United States Air Force in
1992 after 28 years duty, including war service in Vietnam
and Thailand during 1966–67. He was an intercontinental
x
ballistic missile (ICBM) combat crew commander with
Strategic Air Command (SAC), and also held several staff
appointments at SAC Headquarters. For the last 15 years of
his USAF career, Colonel Drew was on the faculty of the Air
University, attaining the academic rank of full professor. After
retirement from the military he joined the civil service in his
present position.
He was the project director and coauthor of Air Force
Manual 1-1, Basic Aerospace Doctrine of the United States Air
Force (1992 edition). Other publications include The Eagle’s
Talons: The American Experience at War; Making Strategy: An
Introduction to National Security Processes and Problems (both
with Donald Snow); and Nuclear Winter and National Security:
Implications for Future Policy. His book Lexington to Desert
Storm has recently been released.
Dr. Benjamin S. Lambeth
Dr. Benjamin S. Lambeth is a senior staff member of the
RAND Corporation, with principal interests and background
in the Russian military field. He received his doctorate in polit-
ical science from Harvard University.
His articles on Soviet military doctrine and strategy have
appeared in numerous journals and symposium volumes, and
he has lectured widely on these subjects. Prior to joining
RAND in 1974, Dr. Lambeth served in the Office of National
Estimates at the United States Central Intelligence Agency. He
is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the edi-
torial board of The Journal of Slavic Military Studies.
In addition to his work in the Soviet military area, Dr.
Lambeth has written extensively on tactical airpower. He is a
licensed pilot and has flown over 20 different fighter types with
the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the
United States Marine Corps, the Air National Guard, the
Canadian Forces, and the Royal Australian Air Force. In
December 1989 he became the first American citizen to fly the
Soviet MiG-29 fighter and the first Westerner invited to fly a
combat aircraft of any type inside Soviet airspace since the
end of World War II.
xi