The Command of the Air

PART I

PART I CHAPTER I The New Form of War THE TECHNICAL MEANS OF WARFARE AERONAUTICS OPENED up to men a new field of action, the field of the air. In so doing it of necessity created a new battlefield; for wherever two men meet, conflict is inevitable. In actual fact, aeronautics was widely employed in warfare long before any civilian use was made of iU Still in its infancy at the outbreak of the World War, this new science received then a powerful impetus to military development. The practical use of the air arm was at first only vaguely understood. This new arm had sprung sudd~nly into the field of war; and its characteristics, radically different from those of any other arm employed up to that time, were still undefined. Very few possibilities of this new instrument of war were recognized when it first appeared. Many people took the extreme position that it was impossible to fight in the air; others admitted only that it might prove a useful auxiliary to already existing means of war. At first the speed and freedom of action of the airplane-the air arm chiefly used in the beginning-caused it to be considered primarily an instrument of exploration and reconnaissance. Then gradually the idea of using it as a range-finder for the artillery grew up. Next, its obvious advantages over surface means led to its being used to attack the enemy on and behind his own lines, but no great importance was attached to this function because it was thought that the airplane was incapable of transporting any heavy load of offensive materiel. Then, as the need of counteracting enemy aerial operations was felt, antiaircraft guns and the so-called pursuit planes came into being. 1 It was first employed by Italy in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12 for reconnaissance and liaison purposes.-Tr. 8 ...