And they court-martialled Billy Mitchell because he pissed-off the conventional brass by sinking a warship from the air (something the Navy said could not be done) and then pretty much calling that same brass moronic and short-sighted.
Tell you what: Have the infantry move to take out an inland target without having first had air interdiction, and then ask the survivors of that infantry, if there are any, if they would have liked to have had their objective softened up by “tough love from above” before they ever went in.
There is nothing more satisfying and comforting than looking up and seeing the sky above you filled with a real “reach out and touch some one” force that is on your side.
“And they court-martialled Billy Mitchell because he pissed-off the conventional brass by sinking a warship from the air (something the Navy said could not be done) and then pretty much calling that same brass moronic and short-sighted.”
They court-martialed Billy Mitchell because he was an insubordinate @sshole. And WW II proved Mitchell wrong in some very important ways. Its one thing to sink an obsolete, unmanned ship that just sits in the water, not firing back. Its quite another when that ship has a skilled crew, is moving and fighting back. If Mitchell was right, then Japanese Kamikazes should have completely wiped the US Navy out. That didn’t happen. As for his prediction that only submarines would be effective in the future, the “prophet of airpower” completely missed the REAL future of military power....the advance of missiles, electronics, and computers; they made surface ships survivable against surface and air threats alike. Mitchell didn’t even foresee radar, which changed the game completely. Try attacking an Aegis cruiser and see how easy it is to sink.
“Tell you what: Have the infantry move to take out an inland target without having first had air interdiction, and then ask the survivors of that infantry, if there are any, if they would have liked to have had their objective softened up by “tough love from above” before they ever went in.”
No one ever, EVER said to abolish AIRPOWER. No one has ever denied that airpower is indispensable. No one EVER argued that troops should advance without air cover. The argument was that USAF doesn’t properly perform some of the close air support functions like they should.