The Journey of Flight.pdf - Valkyrie Cadet

Chapter Chapter 4 4 - - Air Air Air P PPower
P ower Goes Goes Goes to to W WWar
W ar
The German Luftwaffe developed both jet and rocket weapons during
World War II.
time than the atomic bombings
were to the Japanese 6 years later.
During those 6 years, the entire
nature of war, as practiced for
over 6,000 years, changed. The
airplane became the dominant
weapon of war, and the aircraft
carrier became the primary naval
weapon. While no claims are
made that the war was won by air
power alone, neither can it be
argued that control of the air was
not essential to the success of
every major military operation of
World War II.
Air power in the United States
grew during World War II, and its
leaders learned a great deal about
how to use it effectively. First, in
North Africa, the Allies learned that they needed to centralize the control of their air assets. This let
them put all their assets together and overpower the Luftwaffe. Moreover, this provided the Allies with
air superiority. Once that was achieved, the battle on the ground turned around. Air superiority became
the number one priority of the air campaign.
Secondly, the American bombing doctrine that was initially developed to fight the war did not
work. After terrible losses, the campaign was stopped and new technology and tactics were added in
order to gain air superiority over Europe. The flexibility demonstrated by the Air Force leaders turned
that losing situation into a winner.
The Pacific Campaign was very similar in that flexibility was again the key to air power’s victories.
General Kenney developed new tactics, procedures and weapon systems that were successful.
Later, General LeMay did the same thing. He changed from high-altitude daylight bombing into lowaltitude
bombing at night. The changes were devastating for the Japanese and led to their defeat.
In the final analysis, the war was won by the technological and wartime production capabilities of
the allied powers. Of all the allied nations, it was the United States that combined the manpower and
materiel into the greatest manufacturing effort in history.
The final lesson that World War II hopefully taught us was the utter futility of war in a modern
society. Twenty million people were killed during the war. Four million of these were civilians. At
least three times this many were injured, and many were severely and permanently disabled. Warfare
had finally reached a point where no one could win or lose, and the only sensible solution was to
prevent wars rather than to fight them.
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