Is Aerial Warfare Doomed?
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http://rwebs.net/avhistory/history/doomed.htm
[History is so much fun... -- JL]
Dire predictions of the terrible destruction and wholesale slaughter by airplanes in the next war are popular subjects for writers of leading magazines and newspapers. Alleged experts with little regard for facts have told us that the airplane is invincible and invulnerable and has doomed to the scrap heap practically every other weapon of war.
Battleships are to be bombed off the seas. Cities and enemy military positions are to be demolished with bombs and poison gas hurled from the sky, with the odds for victory 100 per cent in favor of the aerial attacking forces.
During the World War airplanes sank no battleships, destroyed no city, and failed in every attempt to bomb or gas an enemy out of a military position. The airplane of today is somewhat improved. It can fly faster and farther. It can go higher and carry slightly heavier loads. Essentially, however, it is still the same old airplane of the World War period. It cannot operate in all weather. It cannot rise vertically. It cannot stand still in the air. Its cruising radius and carrying capacity is still very limited. It is highly vulnerable and cannot be adequately armored. In short, it retains all its inherent limitations. In a military sense it offers at best only a hit and run method of fighting. It can take nothing. It can hold nothing. It cannot stay and fight!
The natural hazards of military aviation even in times of peace are recognized by every government in the form of increased pay to the men who choose aerial duty. The mortality of peacetime naval aviation averages 100 per cent every five years.
Anti-aircraft Guns Stopped Raids
The hazards of military aviation in time of war will be infinitely greater. Indeed, it is not difficult to find many intelligent flying officers in both the United States Army and Navy who predict that the first 30 days of any major war will see the complete elimination of the air forces of belligerent powers. This estimate, of course, may be too high. Nevertheless, our own War Department conservatively estimates that 25 per cent of our air service personnel and equipment will go out of action during every 90 days of actual war conditions.
(More at site...)
[History is so much fun... -- JL]
Dire predictions of the terrible destruction and wholesale slaughter by airplanes in the next war are popular subjects for writers of leading magazines and newspapers. Alleged experts with little regard for facts have told us that the airplane is invincible and invulnerable and has doomed to the scrap heap practically every other weapon of war.
Battleships are to be bombed off the seas. Cities and enemy military positions are to be demolished with bombs and poison gas hurled from the sky, with the odds for victory 100 per cent in favor of the aerial attacking forces.
During the World War airplanes sank no battleships, destroyed no city, and failed in every attempt to bomb or gas an enemy out of a military position. The airplane of today is somewhat improved. It can fly faster and farther. It can go higher and carry slightly heavier loads. Essentially, however, it is still the same old airplane of the World War period. It cannot operate in all weather. It cannot rise vertically. It cannot stand still in the air. Its cruising radius and carrying capacity is still very limited. It is highly vulnerable and cannot be adequately armored. In short, it retains all its inherent limitations. In a military sense it offers at best only a hit and run method of fighting. It can take nothing. It can hold nothing. It cannot stay and fight!
The natural hazards of military aviation even in times of peace are recognized by every government in the form of increased pay to the men who choose aerial duty. The mortality of peacetime naval aviation averages 100 per cent every five years.
Anti-aircraft Guns Stopped Raids
The hazards of military aviation in time of war will be infinitely greater. Indeed, it is not difficult to find many intelligent flying officers in both the United States Army and Navy who predict that the first 30 days of any major war will see the complete elimination of the air forces of belligerent powers. This estimate, of course, may be too high. Nevertheless, our own War Department conservatively estimates that 25 per cent of our air service personnel and equipment will go out of action during every 90 days of actual war conditions.
(More at site...)
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