THE ROW OVER AIRPOWER

Williams, Major Al

The Row Over Airpower By MAJOR AL WILLIAMS IT BEHOOVES people to think twice before they point to any phase of this war as a definition of the capacities of modern airpower or any modern...

...If the Japs had had the vision, they could have sailed a few transports into Pearl Harbor after the attack and today would possess the key to that ocean...
...If you possess weapons which easily and profitably can be employed against the enemy's soft but vital points, would you advise using that weapon against the strongest point in the enemy's line ? We knew the Italians were going to surrender before the Nazis knew it...
...Questions Anent Cassino In this war there is dreadful necessity for infantry...
...Why weren't we ready to push our airpower and our land and sea drive while the Germans were solving the fearful military problem of disarming and demobolizing Italian armies in the distant Balkans, Southern France, and Italy...
...This war will have to be fought with what we have, airpower, seapower, and landpower—all dominant weapons...
...Before the first land attack was launched against Cassino, why wasn't our airpower, reported to control the air over that zone, turned loose on the Nazi lines of communication between Cassino and the base of supplies absolutely essential for the defense of Cassino...
...Airpower at this stage of its development must not be used against the strongest fortified point in the enemy's line...
...Today that lack of vision is costing the Japs control of the Pacific...
...The Row Over Airpower By MAJOR AL WILLIAMS IT BEHOOVES people to think twice before they point to any phase of this war as a definition of the capacities of modern airpower or any modern weapon...
...The Japs had the Pacifie in their pockets, but their top-side command only stabbed at Pearl Harbor without much faith in what the stab could do...
...The Italians had the dreams and the plans, but didn't have the materials or resources...
...Nowhere in the history of warfare is there a parallel of the general overall proof of political and military leadership's inability first to understand airpower, and then to use it properly...
...That is the exact spot where preponderance of airpower would have turned the entire campaign into a rout...
...The British missed it entirely...
...Those islands were unsinkable aircraft carriers, and one Jap admiral called them that, but the saying didn't put the hundreds and thousands of airplanes on those islands which would have made them impregnable...
...There have been so many grievous mistakes and dumb errors made in the employment of airpower that it just isn't funny...
...Certainly not...
...Japan's Lack Of Vision Not only that, but the Japs were so steeped in the traditions of big steam seapower, that they failed to understand the necessity for aircraft production facilities...
...These comments are prompted by this nonsense regarding the "failure of airpower at Cassino," only equaled in absurdity by Churchill's claim that the airpower-seapower episode . of the Skagerrak constituted the "greatest naval victory since Jutland...
...Witness the comparative ease with which our combination of air and sea forces are jumping Jap-held islands which easily would have been impregnable if the Jap leadership had had even a glimpse of what true airpower means...
...They picked a soft spot and went over it...
...But when, as, and if orthodox landpower, composed of infantry and artillery, cannot crack a tough nut like Cassino and then airpower is launched against it, we should be deploring the obvious fact that we didn't set about the Cassino affair with balanced three-arm strategy...
...We couldn't think airpower because we were talking too much, but we are making up for our deficiency of vision by working a near miracle because of our unimaginable resources in manpower, production facilities, and the efficiency of American business...
...You didn't see the Nazis pounding the Maginot Line day and night with big bombs, did you...
...The Germans with the most daring conception of airpower aimed far short of this arm's true objective...

Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 21


 
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