Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

LESSONS BEFORE WORLD WAR I1
1’ArmCe de 1’Air franGaise (de septembre 1939 a juin 1940),” pp 167-195; and P.
Buffotot and J. Ogier, “L‘ArmCe de I’Air pendant la bataille de France (du 10 mai ii
I’armistice): Essai de bilan numerique d’une bataille aerienne,” pp 197-226, all in
Service Historique de 1’Armee de 1’ Air, Recueil d’articles et etudes (1974-1975),
(Vincennes, 1977); and Faris R. Kirkland, “The French Air Force in 1940: Was it
defeated by the Luftwaffe or by Politics?” Air University Review XXXVI (1985), pp
101-18.
On Italian military aviation, in addition to the essays by Goergio Apostolo,
Andrea Curami, and Ciancarlo Garello in Carlier, Colloque 1984, another short work
will prove indispensable. See James J. Sadkovich, “The Development of the Italian
Air Force Prior to World War 11,” Military Anairs 51 (July 1987), pp 128-136, for a
non-Italian evaluation.
The story of Soviet military aviation development can be followed both in
translation of Russian studies as well as original works in English. The former
include S. A. Tyuskevich, The Soviet Armed Forces: A History of Their Organizational
Development (Moscow, 19781, published for the United States Air Force by
the Government Printing office, n.d.; and A. S. Yakovlev, Fifty Years of Soviet Aircrafi
Construction (Moscow, 19681, published in English in Jerusalem by Israel Program
for Scientific Translation, 1976. Publications in English, for example, include
Colin Munro, Soviet Air Forces (New York: Sports Car Press, 1972); Robert Jackson,
The Red Falcons: The Soviet Air Force in Action, 1919-1939 (London: Clifton
House, 1970); and Robin Higham and Jacob Kipp, eds., Soviet Aviation and Air
Power: A Historical View (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1977).
Obviously more coverage has been given German experiences. In addition to
what can be pieced together from International Military Tribunal, Trial ofthe Major
War Criminals Before the International Tribunal, Proceedings and Documents (Nuremberg,
1947-49), 42 vols., one should commence with Williamson Murray, Strategy
For Defeat; The Lufiwaffe, 1933-1945 (Maxwell Air Force Base: Air University
Prgss, 1983). Edward L. Homze, Arming the Lufiwaffee: The Reich Air Ministry and
the Germany Aircraft Industry, 1919-39 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1976) suggests the importance of military-industrial linkages and winning technological
air superiority. West German historian Horst A. Boog must be consulted for a
mildly revisionistic portrayal of the Luftwaffe in “The Luftwaffe and Technology,”
Aerospace Historian 30 (1983); and Die deutsche Luftwaffenfiihrung, 1935-1945:
Fuhrungsprobleme, Spitzengliederung, Generalstabsausbilden [Beitrage zur Militar-und
KriegsgeschichteL (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Amstalt, fur Militargeschichtliches
Forschungsamt, 1982). Still useful are Hermann Hauptmann, The
Luftwaffe: Its Rise and Fall (New York: Putnams, 1943); Heinz Joachim Rieckhoff,
Trumpf oder Bluff? 12 Jahre Deutsche Luftwafie (Geneva: Verlag Inter-Avia, 1945);
and Richard Suchenwirth, The Development of the German Air Force, 1919-1939
[USAF Historical Study 1601 (Maxwell AFB: USAF Historical Division, Aerospace
Studies Institute, Air University, June 1968). Larry H. Addington integrates air and
ground tactics properly into the discussion of “blitzkrieg” in his The Blitzkrieg Era
and the German General Staff, 1865-1941 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press, 1971).
Most readers will be more familiar with the British story. Thus, British sources
include Denis Richard, The Fight at Odds, [Royal Air Force, 1929-19451 (London:
Her Majesty’s Stationary office, 1974); Brian Bond, British Military Policy Between
the Two World Wars (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980); and H. Montgomery Hyde, British
Air Policy Between the Wars, 1918-1939 (London: Heinemann, 1976). Useful theoretical
pieces include Brigadier P. R. C. Groves, “For France to Answer,” The Atlantic
Monthly CXXXIII (1924); B. H. Liddell Hart, Paris or the Future of War (New
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