The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Brig. Gen. William Mitchell - Dec. 15th, 2003

Aviation History Magazine ^ | September 1997 | C.V. Glines

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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Brig. Gen. William Mitchell
(1879 - 1936)

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Billy Mitchell: Air Power Visionary

As Brig. Gen. William Mitchell faced court-martial charges in 1925, the Kansas City Star described him as 'a zealot, a fanatic, a one-idea man...' but added that someday his dream might come true.

As the U.S. Air Force celebrates its 50th anniversary in September 1997, it is fitting that the man who did much to help bring the Air Force into being should be remembered. William "Billy" Mitchell was a crusader who had the vision to understand the potential of air power long before his contemporaries.


Born in Nice, France, in 1879, on his parent's extended tour of Europe, Mitchell was brought back to Milwaukee at age 3. This photo was taken in 1898, when Mitchell first entered the military service. Mitchell held the rank of junior lieutenant.

The name Billy Mitchell brings different images to mind. To most, he was a hero, without whose dire warning the United States might never have been able to field the world's largest air force in time to fight World War II. To others, he was an ambitious egotist and zealot who ran roughshod over anyone who opposed his views on air power, especially his military and civilian superiors.

In a sense, the barnstorming era of the 1920s was also the Billy Mitchell era, because it was his voice that first loudly proclaimed the need for strong air defenses. Long before anyone else, he vigorously advanced the theory that the airplane would replace the fleet as America's first line of defense. He also saw the flying machine as a strategic weapon that could take a war to an enemy's industrial resources.


Billy Mitchell's first solo landing, spring, 1917

Mitchell was born in Nice, France, in 1879, the son of a U.S. senator. At age 18, he enlisted in the Army as a private when the Spanish-American War broke out. He was commissioned and served in the Army Signal Corps in Cuba, the Philippines and Alaska before becoming interested in aviation. As early as 1906, however, he prophesied in the Cavalry Journal that "conflicts, no doubt, will be carried out in the future in the air." After the first aircraft was purchased by the Army, he wrote several more articles pointing out that airplanes would be useful for reconnaissance, for preventing enemy forces from conducting reconnaissance and for offensive action against enemy submarines and ships.


General Billy Mitchell, standing in an allied trench somewhere in France, ca. 1918.

Mitchell was assigned to the Army General Staff in Washington in 1912 as a captain; at age 32, he was the youngest officer ever assigned to that important post. He prepared a report on the needs of American aviation and argued that, with the advances then being made in aeronautics, the United States was being drawn ever closer to its potential enemies and that distance would soon have to be measured in time, not miles.

Promoted to major, Mitchell was considered too old and held too high a rank for flight training. Convinced that his future lay in aviation, however, he paid for his own flying lessons at a civilian flying school at Newport News, Va., and later received a rating as a junior military aviator.


Billy Mitchell was a strong believer in the importance of air power

In April 1917, by then a lieutenant colonel, he was assigned to the American Expeditionary Forces in France and became one of the first Americans on the scene after the United States declared war on Germany. He immediately fought for the creation of American air units in France but was frustrated by the delay in getting American planes and pilots into the war. It galled him that the French had to provide air protection over the American lines, resulting in what Mitchell viewed as a lack of control and effectiveness. Mitchell met British General Hugh "Boom" Trenchard and quickly adopted his thesis that military air power could and should be used in a "relentless and incessant offensive" in wartime and, if so used, would one day become much more important in military strategy than sea power.



Slowly, American pilots arrived, were assigned to squadrons and were put in the air in French planes. In March 1918 the Germans began a desperate push against the Allies, and Mitchell was placed in charge of all American aviation units at the front. On Sunday, April 14, 1918, a year after the United States entered the war, Mitchell declared that America had finally put its first squadron into combat. His flair for combat leadership was subsequently proved at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel when he coordinated a force of 1,481 British, French and Italian planes to support American ground forces. He was promoted to brigadier general and became more vocal about the importance of a strong military air arm. He quickly earned the enmity of his nonflying contemporaries for his aggressiveness in building airfields, hangars and other facilities. His flamboyance, ability to gain the attention of the press and willingness to proceed unhampered by precedent made him the best-known American in Europe.


Mitchell (at center, with walking stick) and his staff pose at Koblenz, Germany, in January 1919. His World War I experiences, he said, had "conclusively shown that aviation was a dominant element in the making of war."

Mitchell returned to the States as a hero in 1919 and was appointed assistant chief of the U.S. Army Air Service. He was appalled at how quickly the organization he had helped to build in war had disintegrated in peacetime. He decided that the nation must not be deluded into the belief that "the war to end all wars" had really accomplished that end. "If a nation ambitious for universal conquest gets off to a flying start in a war of the future," he said, "it may be able to control the whole world more easily than a nation has controlled a continent in the past." Such statements embarrassed his superiors. He soon provoked the Navy admirals into open hostility through his tirades against their super-dreadnought concepts.

[snippy_about_it]

MARTYR--Gen. William Mitchell, right, and his counsel, Frank R. Reid, Illinois Congressman, at the famous courtmartial in 1926 for his too aggressive advocacy of airpower. Mitchell was first to voice vigorous views on vulnerability of naval craft to bombs. Tests proved him right.

Milwaukee Aviation History - General Mitchell International Airport



Milwaukee formally entered the aviation era on July 3, 1919, when it established the first county-operated airport, named Butler Airport, on the current site of James Currie Park and Golf Course, located in the northwest corner of Milwaukee County. At this humble airport facility, the Lawson Airliner was assembled. On August 27, 1919, the airliner departed on a demonstration flight to the east coast of the United States. Airmail service began for the Milwaukee region on June 7, 1926, and soon the local residents and aviators realized the current airfield was too small, but a small river to the east and a railroad line to the west prevented any significant expansion.

On October 5, 1926, the Milwaukee County Board approved the $150,000 purchase of a new airport facility. The land was owned by Thomas Hamilton, a local aviator who operated a propeller manufacturing business and small airport. Soon after the Hamilton land purchase, aviation activity at the Currie Park site ceased and was transferred to the new location. The first airport terminal, the Hirschbuehl Farmhouse, opened on the Hamilton Airport site in July of 1927. That same month Northwest Airlines, Inc., initiated air service from Milwaukee to Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul. World-famous aviator Charles A. Lindbergh visited the Milwaukee airport on August 20, 1927.

During the late depression years (from 1938 to July, 1940), a new two-story terminal building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In 1941, the name of the Milwaukee County Airport was changed to "General Mitchell Field" after Milwaukee's military advocate, Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell.

Shortly after the completion of the first terminal and through the early 1950's, the Mitchell Field airport experienced growth in the number of flight operations, including the large propeller-driven StratoCruisers and Constellations. Due to congestion at the Layton Avenue terminal building, construction began on a larger terminal facility to be situated on Howell Avenue. On July 19, 1955, at a cost of $3.2 million, a new three-concourse, two-level structure opened with a capacity of 23 aircraft gates. The airfield then included 1,530 acres of land for runways and taxiways.

Milwaukee entered the jet age in July of 1961 with the arrival of a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 720 four-engine jet (similar to a Boeing 707 jet). In 1983, Mitchell Field entered the space age and welcomed Eastern Airlines "Spirit of Milwaukee," an advanced technology Boeing 757 jet aircraft which utilized the same computer system as that of the American Space Shuttle.

In the late 1970's, deregulation and continued growth prompted another expansion project. The focus of this project was to renovate the existing terminal building. Today, the $44 million terminal expansion project is complete. The expanded facility now houses new and larger shops and an enlarged ticketing and baggage claim area.

In keeping with the new appearance of the airport and its increased national recognition, a new name was also appropriate. On June 19, 1986, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors officially renamed the airport "General Mitchell International Airport," also reflecting the presence of United States Customs at the airport.

[Darksheare]

Thanks!

[SpookBrat]

P.S. Are you guys going to watch that show about the Alamo on the History Channel? Looks like they'll be saying a lot of nasty things. Should be interesting if I can stomach it. I hope it isn't what I think it's going to be. It's blasphemous to say anything bad about the Alamo. I cry every time I go in there.

[Darksheare]

Well, they state that Jim Bowie was beyond criminal in an ad on Sci Fi channel.

[SpookBrat]

Sick and perverted, I tell you!!!! Sick! Sick! Sick! How dare they?

[Darksheare]

Well, that's History channel revisionism.
The only thing I know of that they could be referring to would be teh famous knife fight in the bar.
And Bowie didn't even start it.

[SAMWolf]

I know you're busy so don't worry about posting. We appreciate you dropping in when you can.

Look at it this way, Jonah has all the weapons, he'll be the Power in the n eighborhood. :-)

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the history of Mitchell Field. I've only been there twice, back when I lived in Chicago.

[SAMWolf]

I wanted to see it but I don't get History Channel anymore. :-( I heard it;s supposed to popint out some facts that have been overlooked or forgotten over the years.

Like it was a early dawn attack that overran the defenders and some of the defenders were Mexicans who lived in Texas and didn't like Santa Anna either. They're alos supposed to point out that Bowie was pretty much a crook and that Crockett may have been captured and executed.

[SAMWolf]

My understanding is that Bowie abandoned a family and was in trouble in Louisiana. I hope they're not gonna try and make SAnta Anna look like just a nice guy trying to keep his out lying territories in line against the evil, white, European slave holders.

[Darksheare]

I hope so too.
BUT, the guys doing the 'special' are mainly revisionists.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the post and the song, Spooky!

Hi Sam; hope you had a good trip coming back, Snippy. Good to see you all.

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening Victoria.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Victoria. Nice to see ya back.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hiya Snippy.

Nice to see ya back

LOL, I never left. :-)

[PhilDragoo]

Mitchell courtmartialled by twelve Elbonians

The man's a fool! It's obvious if God had wanted man to fly, He'd have given him wings!

And he predicted the whole thing, the Japanese attacking without a declaration of war. So the counterattack was done in a plane named after him.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Phil Dragoo.

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo was a really good flick. rmember seeing that as a kid. Made me go out and buy my first B-25 model.

The whole idea of putting twin engine medium bombers on a carrier and heading towards Japan is something only Americans could come up with.

I think the evil Catbert talked the Elbonians into courtmarshalling Mitchell

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Johnny Gage]

Here's what I was able to find:

The Martin MB-1 was the first standard U.S. bomber adopted by the Army Air Service in 1921.

In 1916, Glenn L. Martin withdrew from the Wright-Martin combine that he had been involved with and struck out on his own. The Glenn L. Martin aircraft company was established in Cleveland, Ohio in late 1917.

One of the first Army contracts landed by the new company was the design a new bomber that would hopefully outperform the British-designed Handley-Page, which was at that time scheduled to be built in the USA by Standard Aircraft of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

The aircraft that emerged was designated MB-1 by the Martin company. It was a wooden, fabric-covered biplane powered by a pair of liquid-cooled 400 hp Liberty 12A engines suspended between the wings. The engines were cooled by a set of radiators situated in the front of the engine mounts just above the propeller shaft. Two bays of struts were outboard of the engines. The fixed mainwheels were aligned on a single axle. The tail consisted of twin rudders, mounted on top of a single horizontal stabilizer. A crew of 3 could be carried, a bombardier in a nose position, a pilot, and a gunner in a position in the upper fuselage just aft of the top wing.. The armament consisted of five 0.30-inch machine guns, two in the nose position, two in the aft fuselage position, plus one firing downward and to the rear through a trapdoor. Maximum bombload was 1040 pounds.

The original contract for six examples was issued on January 17, 1918. It was increased to 50 on October 22, 1918, but then was cut back to ten in January 1919.

The first MB-1 flew on August 17, 1918. A total of ten examples were built, the last being delivered to the US Army Air Service in February of 1920. They were designated GMB by the USAAS, where the letters stood for "Glenn Martin Bomber". Their serials were 39055/39060 and 62948/62951. They were the first American-designed bombers to enter service with the USAAS.

The Martin MB-1 had a good performance for its day. However, the Martin bombers were too late to see any action during World War 1. They formed the nucleus of the first Army bomber squadrons during the immediate postwar years. High power and a relatively small size made the GMB also capable of carrying out the long range observation and the escort fighter roles. The first four were built as observation aircraft, and the next three were built as bombers. The eighth (designated GMT for "Glenn Martin Transcontinental") was a special long-range version capable of 1500-mile range, and the ninth (designated GMC for "Glenn Martin Cannon") was fitted with a 37-mm cannon in the nose.

The last example was completed as a transport by removing all the military equipment, raising the top of the fuselage, and adding cabin windows and seats. The pilot's cockpit was enclosed in a glazed enclosure. It was originally given the designation GMP (for "Glenn Martin Passenger"), but was later designated T-1, where the T was in the T-for-Transport series.

Six modified MB-1s were turned over to the US Postal Service and flew air mail delivery runs for a short time during the period when the US government took over the delivery of air mail.

So far as I am aware, no MB-1 aircraft survive today.

Specification of the Martin MB-1:
Two 400 hp Liberty 12A liquid-cooled Vee engines.
Maximum speed 105 mph at sea level, 100 mph at 6500 feet. 92 mph cruising speed at sea level. Landing speed 53 mph.
Service ceiling 10,300 feet. Absolute ceiling 12,250 feet. Initial climb rate 630 feet per minute. An altitude of 6500 feet could be attained in 14 minutes.
Range 390 miles with 1040 pound bombload.
Empty weight 6702 pounds, gross weight 10,225 pounds. Wingspan 71 feet 5 inches,
length 44 feet 10 inches,
height 14 feet 7 inches,
wing area 1070 square feet.

Armaments:
Five 0.30-inch Lewis machine guns.
Bombload was normally 1040 pounds.

[Darksheare]

Court martialed by Elbonians...
*snicker*