World War II - The Air University - U.S. Air Force

185 Pages·2010·7.35 MB·English

A Companion for
Aspirant Air Warriors
A Handbook for Personal Professional Study

DaviD R. Mets, PhD

Air University Press
Air Force Research Institute
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
May 2010
Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center Cataloging Data
Mets, David R.
A companion for aspirant air warriors : a handbook for personal professional study / David R. Mets.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-58566-206-7
1. Air power—History. 2. Aeronautics, Military—History. 3. Aeronautics, Military—Biography. 4. Military art and
science—History. I. Title.
358.4—dc22
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 Air Force Research Institute, the United States Air Force, the
Department of Defense, or any other US government agency. Cleared for public release: distribution unlimited.
Air University Press
155 N. Twining Street
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6026
http://aupress.au.af.mil
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Dedicated to Maj Lilburn Stow, USAF, and his C-130 crew,
who lost their lives over the A Shau Valley, Vietnam, 26 April 1968,
while supporting their Army countrymen on the ground

Contents
Chapter Page
DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 THE INFANCY OF AIRPOWER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 NAVAL AVIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3 AIRPOWER IN WORLD WAR I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4 LAYING THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS, 1919–1931 . . . . . . 15
5 AN AGE OF INNOVATION, 1931–1941 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6 NAVAL AVIATION BETWEEN THE WARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7 WORLD WAR II: THE RISE OF THE LUFTWAFFE . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8 WORLD WAR II: EUROPE—THE STRATEGIC
BOMBING DIMENSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
9 WORLD WAR II: EUROPE—THE TACTICAL AIR CAMPAIGNS . . . . . 37
10 WORLD WAR II: EUROPE—NAVAL AVIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
11 WORLD WAR II: ROYAL AIR FORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
12 WORLD WAR II: SOVIET AIR FORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
13 WORLD WAR II: THE FALL OF THE LUFTWAFFE . . . . . . . . . . . 55
14 WORLD WAR II: PACIFIC—JAPANESE AIRPOWER . . . . . . . . . . 61
15 WORLD WAR II: PACIFIC—THE USAAF IN THE SOUTHWEST. . . . . 67
16 WORLD WAR II: CENTRAL PACIFIC—NAVAL AIRPOWER . . . . . . . 73
17 WORLD WAR II: PACIFIC—THE MERGE AND HIROSHIMA . . . . . . 79
18 THE DAWN OF THE COLD WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
19 THE KOREAN WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
20 NAVAL AVIATION IN THE KOREAN WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
21 THE REBIRTH OF US ARMY AVIATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
22 LIQUID MOBILITY: AIR REFUELING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
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CONTENTS
Chapter Page
23 SOLID MOBILITY: AIR TRANSPORT TO AIR MOBILITY . . . . . . . . 107
24 THE AGE OF MASSIVE RETALIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
25 THE DAWN OF THE SPACE AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
26 THE VIETNAM WAR: AIR WAR OVER THE NORTH . . . . . . . . . . 123
27 THE VIETNAM WAR: AIR WAR OVER THE SOUTH . . . . . . . . . . 129
28 EQUALITY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND AIRPOWER . . . . . . . . . . . 133
29 THE AGE OF NUCLEAR PARITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
30 THE END OF THE COLD WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
31 DESERT STORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
32 REMOTELY PILOTED VEHICLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
33 EXPEDITIONARY AIRPOWER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
34 A NEW AGE OF INNOVATION: THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY . . . . 161
35 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
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Foreword
Many defense professionals have commented that too often those military officers ar-
riving at the strategy-making level are not sufficiently prepared. The road to the top re-
quires excellence in one’s tactical or technical specialty. Development of this quality is
punctuated by many periods of deployment to acquire the experience that is the founda-
tion of that expertise. Usually, that includes only a couple of widely separated years at
the professional schools where strategy is one of many subjects covered. Some of the
greatest strategists founded their expertise on a lifetime program of personal profes-
sional study. Napoleon, Carl von Clausewitz, Alfred Thayer Mahan, George Patton, Omar
Bradley, and Dwight Eisenhower are only a few of the exemplars of that. Had any of
them waited until they arrived at the colonel level, it would have been too late. This com-
panion to personal professional study is intended to promote the early development of
such a lifetime program and to serve as a tool to facilitate its planning and execution.
All of the great captains named above argued that military history and biography are
among the tools for the desired study. But until fairly recently, those focused on air war
were rather scarce. By now, the discipline is maturing, and the instruments for your study
have become so numerous that a well-founded guide can expedite your program. Each of
the entries that follow is arranged in a chronological sequence. They can collectively create
a structure for the historical study of airpower to include some insights into aviation in
the Army, Navy, and some foreign air forces as well. A few of the entries are topical treat-
ments of subjects of special current interest, as is the case with those on diversity and
remotely piloted vehicles. Each entry suggests more reading that would expand on the
introduction of the subject to yield more depth to your understanding. These are in no way
comprehensive or even authoritative but only suggestions for starting points.
One of the requirements that the great Dr. Samuel Huntington identified for the pro-
fessional is a lifetime of study to maintain and develop a special expertise that rises
above the level of the craftsman. The Airman’s profession is not flying airplanes—it is
the preparation for and the conduct of air, space, and cyberspace war. The occupational
specialty is important and must be mastered, but it is only a part of the preparation. The
doctor is generally responsible for the life of just one patient at a time. The lawyer can
serve only one client at a time. But the lives of many thousands of citizens can be at
stake in the decision-making process of a single air warrior. In that sense, your study of
your profession is a heavier burden than those for doctors and lawyers—and a good
outcome can be even more rewarding for you than it is for them.

Dr. John Shaud
Director, Air Force Research Institute
General, USAF, Retired
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About the Author
Dr. David R. Mets is a military defense analyst at the Air Force Research Institute at
Maxwell Air Force Base. He is responsible for doing research and writing studies on stra-
tegic and historical matters as directed. Dr. Mets was commissioned in the Air Force upon
graduation from the US Naval Academy in 1953. He served as a navigator (Military Air
Transport Service), instructor pilot (Air Training Command), aircraft commander (Strate-
gic Air Command and twice in the Pacific Air Forces), squadron commander, assistant
professor at the Air Force Academy and West Point, and editor of the Air University Re-
view. He also served in a civilian capacity as a historian at Eglin Air Force Base and as a
professor for the first 13 classes of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.
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