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H203

H203 . Interwar Airpower Theory. Theory and Uncertain Technology. The Experience of the Great War. Common Readings. Command of the Air Interwar Strategic Bombing Influence Avoidance of a prolonged ground war. Romance of the aerial warrior. Technology. Giulio Douhet .

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H203

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  1. H203 Interwar Airpower Theory

  2. Theory and Uncertain Technology The Experience of the Great War

  3. Common Readings • Command of the Air • Interwar Strategic Bombing Influence • Avoidance of a prolonged ground war. • Romance of the aerial warrior. • Technology.

  4. Giulio Douhet • Major Points of Theory: • Strategic airpower promised quick victory • Independent Air Force; not under Army or Navy • To conquer command of the air means victory • Superiority of offense over defense in war • Bombing against enemy population and industrial centers • Use of the “battleplane” • Destroy aircraft on the ground

  5. Command of the Air “A nation which once loses the command of the air and finds itself subjected to incessant aerial attacks aimed directly at its most vital centers and without the possibility of effective retaliation, this nation, whatever its surface forces may be able to do, must arrive at the conviction that all is useless, that all hope is dead.”

  6. THE NEW NATURE OF WAR “Any distinction between belligerents and nonbelligerent is no longer admissible today either in fact or theory. . . when nations are at war, everyone takes a part in it: the soldier carrying his gun, the woman loading shells in a factory, the farmer growing wheat, the scientist experimenting in his laboratory . . . nowadays the offensive may reach anyone; and it begins to look as though the safest place may be the trenches.” Giulio Douhet, The Command of the Air,1921

  7. Geography and Air Power “Let us not forget this: since the day of the air, the old frontiers are gone. When you think of the defense of England, you no longer think of the White Cliffs of Dover; you think of the Rhine.” Stanley Baldwin to the House of Commons, 1934

  8. AMERICAN DOCTRINE • Major Points of Theory: • Influence of Airpower is decisive • Independent Air Force • Strategic bombing of vital centers • Destroy aircraft in air to air battles • Multiple types of aircraft

  9. Essential Assumptions to Air Corps Strategic Bombing Doctrine • Vital targets in the enemy economy existed • These targets could be identified • They were vulnerable to precision bombing • Unescorted bombers could penetrate enemy air defenses • The bombers could bomb the targets accurately • Enough targets could be bombed enough times to collapse the enemy economy

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