I hope I didn’t upset your Sunday morning too badly. But now that I have your attention . . .
Nazi Air Siege Called ‘Main Bout’; Result Is in Doubt, Seversky Holds – 6-7
This essay is a great example of the “Douhetist” school of aviation warfare doctrine, to which henkster (I think it was) referred some time ago. That is, the idea that the “big bomber,” which “will always get through,” is by itself sufficient to destroy the enemy’s ability to resist. From the final paragraph: “It will take time for people to recognize the fact that air power makes possible the defeat of an enemy without occupation. [Emphasis added by Homer.] In 1945 General Eisenhower will threaten to resign from his position of Supreme Allied Commander because the strategic bombing commanders didn’t want to stop bombing the German homeland in order provide tactical support for the Normandy invasion. I couldn’t understand how these otherwise intelligent men could be so thick headed on this one issue, but now I understand they were simply Douhetists. They thought the invasion was a needless waste of troops since, with a little more time, the Allied strategic bombers would force Germany to her knees.
When you think of it there really are not too many other aerial strategists these men could look to. The two perdominant theorists at the time were Douhet and Billy Mitchell.
I did notice that Major Seversky spends a lot of time in his article outlining what would be the Douhetian philosophy of air superiority. This is probably the most important aspect of Douhet strategy that continued on after many of the other strategies were proven impractical. Both Mitchell and Douhet were proponents that you much first take control of the sky by destroying the enemies aerodromes and aircraft construction facilities and also by removing the enemy’s aircraft from the air. From there you could then focus on conquering the enemy with a rain of fire from the skies.
Then of course there is the misguided belief that you can win a war solely with air power. Both Douhet and Mitchell believed this. In fact Mitchell went so far as to say, “we believe the air force will be the first line of defense and that surface navies, at least, will dissappear”. Clearly Seversky believes this as well since he feels the 50 destroyers deal will have no effect on the war.
This really is a developmental time for air power. We still don’t realize that a bomber armed with machine guns cannot defend itself. We are still learning the true value of close air support, the Germans are teach lessons on that. There still even are varying philosophies on bombing in general that need to be figured out: big strategic bombers or small tactical ones, precision bombing or area bombing, target civilian populations or just military targets, victory solely from the air or boots on the ground.
You’ll see many Douhetian attitudes going forward throughout the entire war, even after some of the points have been made clearly irrelevant.