Download or read book The Development of Air Doctrine in the Army Air Arm 1917 1941 Hap Arnold Chennault Douhet Mitchell Foulois Drum Board Alexander de Seversky General Eaker World War I and II written by Department of Defense and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph recounts the development of air doctrine in the Army air arm from 1917 to 1941. It includes concepts, both strategic and tactical, that emerged during World War I and the period following, up to the entry of the United States into World War II. The study is based primarily on official Air Force records and upon interviews with officers of the air arm who have been especially associated with air doctrine. When the debacle at Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into a war for survival, the nation marshalled its forces on land and sea and in the air. And although land, sea, and air forces all played vital roles in securing the triumph, the part of the air arm was unique. For the first time in the history of war, airpower was employed as a major striking force, drastically altering the course and nature of the struggle and decisively influencing the outcome. CHAPTER 1 - THE AIR SERVICE IN WORLD WAR I, 1917-1918 * Prewar Organization and Concepts * American Participation in World War I * General concepts of warfare and air employment * Over-all air operations, organization, and control * Pursuit aviation Bombardment aviation * Attack aviation * Air plans during the armistice * CHAPTER 2 - THE HEROIC AGE OF DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT, 1919-1926 * Diverging Views of the Nature of War * The War Department view * Views of Air Service leaders * The Struggle for the Control of Airpower * Demands for complete separation * Arguments of the air crusaders * Rebuttal by the high command * Creation of the Army Air Corps (1926) * Evolving Doctrines of Air Employment * The general functions of military aviation * Argument with the Navy regarding coast defense * Pursuit aviation * Bombardment aviation * Attack aviation * Comparative summary of doctrines in 1926 * CHAPTER 3 - DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIR FORCE IDEA, 1926-1935 * Development of the High-speed Bomber * Efforts to stimulate improved aircraft design * Successful development of two-engine bombers: the B-9 and B-10 * The B-17 "Flying Fortress" * Trend of Doctrine at the Air Corps Tactical School * Concepts of the nature of war: influence of Mitchell and Douhet * The employment of airpower * Bombardment aviation; the precision doctrine and the escort problem * Pursuit aviation * Attack aviation * The Impasse with the Navy Regarding Land-based Bombardment * Establishment of the GHQ Air Force (1935) * CHAPTER 4 - REFINEMENT AND SUBSTANTIATION OF THE LONG-RANGE BOMBARDMENT CONCEPT, 1935-1939 * Hemisphere Defense Policy as a Factor in Strategic Concepts and Air Doctrine * Elaboration of Air Theory at the Air Corps Tactical School * The nature of war and the employment of airpower * Bombardment aviation * Pursuit aviation * Attack aviation * The Crucial Fight for Production and Development of the Long-range Bomber * Bomber program related to coast defense * Andrews presses for exclusive procurement of four-engine bombers * Air Corps demands for unlimited development of the bomber * The General Staff blocks the way * President Roosevelt removes the block * The Influence of Foreign Wars upon American Air Doctrine * China * Ethiopia * Spain * Munich * Adjustments in Air Organization * CHAPTER 5 - PREPARATION OF AIR DOCTRINE FOR WORLD WAR II, 1939-1941 * General Influence of the European War upon the Theory and Position of Airpower * Tactical Lessons from the Air War Abroad * Final Shaping of Air Doctrines on the Eve of American Involvement * Purpose and nature of warfare * The role and employment of airpower in war * Bombardment aviation * Pursuit aviation * Attack and light bombardment aviation * Blueprint for action: AWPD/1 * Establishment of Army Air Forces (1941) * CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSIONS

Download or read book The Development of Air Doctrine in the Army Air Arm 1917 1941 written by Air University (U.S.). Extension Course Institute and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1957 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Foundations of U S Air Doctrine written by Air University Press and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-10 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study revolves around friction, meaning the ubiquitous uncertainties and inescapable difficulties that form the atmosphere of real war. More specifically, it attempts to utilize the Clausewitzian concept of general friction as a basis for assessing--and, if necessary, reshaping--the foundations of US air doctrine. This critical application of friction gives rise to four primary conclusions: (1) The key assumptions underlying mainstream US doctrine for conventional air warfare have not evolved appreciably since Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) theorists elaborated their theory of precision, industrial bombardment during the 1930s. (2) Judged by their essential premises and logic, post-Hiroshima theories of deterrence are little more than an updating for the nuclear age of ACTS bombardment doctrine. (3) Both ACTS bombardment doctrine and deterrence theory appear fundamentally flawed insofar as they omit the frictional considerations that distinguish real war from war on paper. (4) Reflection upon the extent to which friction pervades the elemental processes of actual combat suggests that the range of situations in which greater numbers or superior weapons guarantee victory is relatively limited; even in the age of thermonuclear weapons, the outcomes of battles still turn, more often than not, on the character and intelligence of a few brave individuals. The first step in giving substance to these claims is to explain what the central beliefs of US airmen traditionally have been. The reader should be warned, however, that I have approached the writings on war of airmen like Major General Haywood S. Hansell, Jr., and nuclear strategists like Bernard Brodie--as well as those of Carl von Clausewitz himself--from the perspective of two interrelated questions. What overriding assumptions about war did these individuals embrace? And what image of war as a total phenomenon is bound up in their assumptions? In large part, answering these questions is a matter of historical inquiry and, to be candid, I have been far less concerned with writing history for its own sake than with using the past to illuminate the problems of the present. I, therefore, leave it to the reader to judge whether I have managed to do so without injuring the historical record.Contents: 1 INTRODUCTION * Notes * 2 DOUHET AND MITCHELL * Douhet's Image of War: Unrestrained Offense * Mitchell's "Aerial Knights" * Notes * 3 THE FIRST US STRATEGIC AIR WAR PLAN * Daylight, High Altitude, Precision Bombardment * Doctrine * AWPD-1 * The Image of War in AWPD-1 * Notes * 4 THE POLICY AND STRATEGY OF DETERRENCE * Brodie's Assumptions * Brodie's Image of All-Out War in the Missile Age * A Paradox of Deterrence Theory * Notes * 5 A CLAUSEWITZIAN CRITIQUE * The Core Beliefs of Mainstream US Air Doctrine * Some Ramifications * Friction * Collective Risk * Notes * 6 FRICTION IN 20TH CENTURY WARFARE * Part 1: Friction in the Combined Bomber Offensive, World War II * Weather * October 1943: Information, Doctrinal Rigidity, Enemy Countermeasures * Big Week and the Problem of Industrial Impact Assessments * March and April 1944: Friction as a Weapon * Epilogue in Korea: Railway Interdiction, August 1951-May 1952 * Part 2: Friction in the Missile Age * The Not-So-Delicate Balance of Terror * The Emergence of Friction in Brodie's Thought * The Cuban Missile Crisis * Notes * 7 TOWARD A LESS MECHANISTIC IMAGE OF WAR * US Air Doctrine and Laplacian Determinism * Cartesian Hypotheses, Uncertainty, Undecidability * The Human Cost of War * Combat Psychology as Context * Some Consequences of Embracing a More Organic Image of War * Learning from History * Nurturing Military Genius * Exemplars for Future Wars: Friction as a Weapon and Entropy * Summing Up * Notes * APPENDIX * General Eaker's Presentation of the Combined Bomber Offensive Plan to the Joint Chiefs of Staff * SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Download or read book Ideas and Weapons written by Irving Brinton Holley and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Paths of Heaven The Evolution of Airpower Theory written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Airpower is not widely understood. Even though it has come to play an increasingly important role in both peace and war, the basic concepts that define and govern airpower remain obscure to many people, even to professional military officers. This fact is largely due to fundamental differences of opinion as to whether or not the aircraft has altered the strategies of war or merely its tactics. If the former, then one can see airpower as a revolutionary leap along the continuum of war; but if the latter, then airpower is simply another weapon that joins the arsenal along with the rifle, machine gun, tank, submarine, and radio. This book implicitly assumes that airpower has brought about a revolution in war. It has altered virtually all aspects of war: how it is fought, by whom, against whom, and with what weapons. Flowing from those factors have been changes in training, organization, administration, command and control, and doctrine. War has been fundamentally transformed by the advent of the airplane.

Download or read book Ideas Concepts Doctrine written by Robert Frank Futrell and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first of a two-volume study, Dr. Futrell presents a chronological survey of the development of Air Force doctrine and thinking from the beginnings of powered flight to the onset of the space age. He outlines the struggle of early aviation enthusiasts to gain acceptance of the airplane as a weapon and win combat-arm status for the Army Air Service (later the Army Air Corps and Army Air Force). He surveys the development of airpower doctrine during the 1930s and World War II and outlines the emergence of the autonomous US Air Force in the postwar period. Futrell brings this first volume to a close with discussions of the changes in Air Force thinking and doctrine necessitated by the emergence of the intercontinental missile, the beginnings of space exploration and weapon systems, and the growing threat of limited conflicts resulting from the Communist challenge of wars of liberation. In volume two, the author traces the new directions that Air Force strategy, policies, and thinking took during the Kennedy administration, the Vietnam War, and the post-Vietnam period. Futrell outlines how the Air Force struggled with President Kennedy's redefinition of national security policy and Robert S. McNamara's managerial style as secretary of defense. He describes how the Air Force argued that airpower should be used during the war in Southeast Asia. He chronicles the evolution of doctrine and organization regarding strategic, tactical, and airlift capabilities and the impact that the aerospace environment and technology had on Air Force thinking and doctrine.

Download or read book Planning and Organizing the Postwar Air Force 1943 1947 written by Herman S. Wolk and published by . This book was released on 2002-07-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this excellent work of narrative and analysis, Herman Wolk of the Office of Air Force History untangles the complex history that led to the birth of the United States Air Force after World War II. After surveying the struggle for independence to 1941, and planning during World War II for a postwar air force, Mr. Wolk details the evens that resulted in the formation of a separate Air Force in September 1947. Significantly, the new Air Force at its birth already possessed a long history and a rich heritage; some forty years as part of the Army, service in two world wars, and a fully developed understanding of its usefulness in war. The new Air Force already possessed leaders who knew that how the service was constructed and how it was led and administered would affect how air power could be used, and whether it could contribute fully to the nation's security.

Download or read book The quest Haywood Hansell and American strategic bombing in World War II written by Charles Griffith and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains the following chapters concerning Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II: the problems of air power, (2) the early years: education and acts, (3) planning, (4) the frictions of war, (5) the global bomber force, (6) triumph, and (7) tragedy.

Download or read book The War in the Air 1914 1994 written by Alan Stephens and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains the proceedings of a conference held by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in Canberra in 1994. Since its publication by the RAAF's Air Power Studies Center in that year, the book has become a widely used reference at universities, military academies, and other educational institutions around the world. The application of aerospace power has seen significant developments since 1994, most notably through American-led operations in Central Europe and continuing technological advances with weapons, uninhabited vehicles, space-based systems, and information systems. But notwithstanding those developments and the passing of six years, the value of this anthology of airpower in the twentieth century seems undiminished.

Download or read book Bombing the European Axis Powers written by Richard G. Davis and published by www.Militarybookshop.CompanyUK. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Bombing the European Axis Powers Dr. Richard G. Davis, currently a division chief for the US Army Center for Military History, provides a detailed chronological narrative of the Anglo-American strategic bomber offensive against Hitler's Germany, his European allies, and German-occupied territory. Davis also includes several in-depth discussions covering such topics as the evacuation of Sicily, Allied airpower and the Holocaust, the bombing of Dresden, and overall Anglo-American policy concerning city-area bombing. An accompanying web site contains a spreadsheet key and seven Excel worksheets that chronicle bombing data from 1939 through 1945. Originally published in 2006.

Download or read book With Courage written by Bernard C. Nalty and published by . This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The four years between 1941 and 1945 were years in which the nation raised and trained an air armada and committed it to operations on a scale unknown to that time. With Courage: The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II retells the story of sacrifice, valor, and achievements in air campaigns against tough determined adversaries. It describes the development of a uniquely American doctrine for the application of air power against an opponent's key industries and centers of national life, a doctrine whose legacy today is the Global Reach - Global Power strategic planning framework of the modern U.S. Air Force. The narrative integrates aspects of strategic intelligence, logistics, technology, and leadership to offer a full yet concise account of the contributions of American air power to victory in that war.

Download or read book Let Us Kill the War written by Nino Salvaneschi and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Command Of The Air written by General Giulio Douhet and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.

Download or read book The Icarus Syndrome written by Carl H. Builder and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the Reagan era, many in the U.S. Air Force began to express their concerns about the health of their institution. They questioned whether the Air Force had lost its sense of direction, its confidence, its values, even its future. For some, these concerns reflected nothing more than the maturation of the most youthful of America's military institutions. For others it was a crisis of spirit that threatened the hard-won independence of the Air Force. Although the diagnoses for this malaise are as numerous as its symptoms, The Icarus Syndrome points a finger at the abandonment of air power theory sometime in the late 1950s to early 1960s as the single, taproot cause of the problems. That provocative diagnosis is followed by an equally provocative prescription the Air Force must follow to regain its institutional health. Author Carl H. Builder begins with an overview of this crisis of values within the Air Force, along with a litany of concerns about what seems to have gone wrong within that institution. The history of the U.S. Air Force, along with the role played in it by air power theory, is explored and is used to support Builder's thesis. The remainder of the book is an analysis of what went wrong and when, how these wrongs might be corrected, and the challenges for Air Force leadership in the future. Now available in paperback, The Icarus Syndrome will be of great interest to U.S. Air Force professionals, military and aviation historians, and institutional psychologists.

Download or read book Air Power and Armies written by Sir John Cotesworth Slessor and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2009-08-31 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of Sir John Cotesworth Slessor (1897–1979), one of Great Britain's most influential airmen Sir John Slessor played a significant role in building the World War II Anglo-American air power partnership as an air planner on the Royal Air Force Staff, the British Chiefs of Staff, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff. He coordinated allied strategy in 1940–41, helped create an Anglo-American bomber alliance in 1942, and drafted the compromise at the Casablanca Conference that broke a deadlock in Anglo-American strategic debate. Slessor was instrumental in defeating the U-boat menace as RAF Coastal Commander, and later shared responsibility for directing Allied air operations in the Mediterranean. Few aspects of the allied air effort escaped his influence: pilot training, aircraft procurement, and dissemination of operational intelligence and information all depended to a degree on Slessor. His influence on Anglo-American operational planning paved the way for a level of cooperation and combined action never before undertaken by the military forces of two great nations.

Download or read book Air Power Myths and Facts written by Col Phillip S Meilinger and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Airpower, especially strategic bombing, frequently generates controversy. Ever since the US Army bought it first "aeroplane" in 1909, debates have raged over the utility, effectiveness, efficiency, legality, and even the morality of air power. These debates continue despite (or perhaps because of) the hundreds of books that have been written on the subject and the scores of examples witnessed. Much of the debate regarding airpower and strategic bombing has been colored by accusations, misconceptions, inaccuracies, myths, and simple untruths. If airpower needs criticizing it must be based on accurate information. This manuscript highlights points and counterpoints that attempt to clear away some of the detritus that obscures the subject, thus allowing more informed debate on the real issues concerning air power and strategic bombing.

Download or read book Air Forces Escape Evasion Society written by Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 1992 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the brave American men who flew and were shot down in Europe during World War II, but were able to escape imprisonment due to the efforts of those who aided them. A source of information on the European underground resistance groups of World War II. The book contains rare photographs, maps, and war documents.