The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
as ill informed of the combat as of the materiel phase of aeronautics,
and it was necessary to learn from the Allies all but the very rudiments
of flying. By Armistice Day the basic lessons had been absorbed, and
the Air Service, AEF, had shown some evidence of boldness of con-
cept in the application of air power; here, as in production, there was
great promise if only limited achievement. It is no reflection upon the
bravery and skill of American pilots to suggest that both achievement
and promise owed much to the genius of Brig. Gen. William Mitchell,
who was in a very real sense the founder of American air power.32
Mitchell, after a varied career in the Signal Corps, had become
interested in military aeronautics in its infancy and had followed its
progress in the European war through such information as was avail-
able in Washington. He had learned to fly in 1916and, as a major, had
for a while been in charge of the Signal Corps’ tiny Aviation Section.
Sent to Spain as a military observer in March 1917,he had moved up
to Paris with the American declaration of war. With characteristic
energy and disregard of military protocol, he had plunged immedi-
ately into the task of learning a t first hand the true nature of the air
war. Until Pershing’s arrival he was something of a free lance, and his
inspections took him to various headquarters, to depots and airfields,
to-and over-the front lines. Sentiments which were later to stud his
public utterances began to appear in his diary: “The only real defense
against aircraft is other aircraft.” “A very significant thing to me was
that we could cross the lines of these contending armies in a few
minutes in our airplane, whereas the armies have been locked in the
struggle, immovable, powerless to advance for three years. , . .They
get nowhere, as far as ending the war is concerned.” After experienc-
ing a night raid by German planes, he had come to have a wholesome
respect for the material and morale effects of bombardment: “NOone
can ever tell me that there is nothing in airplane bombing. It will have
a great effect on all the operations, if efficiently carried out.” “Several
generations will have to be born and pass away before people can
adopt and maintain the same attitude toward this form of warfare as
they exhibit toward the old familiar ones.” ’’
In May, Mitchell visited Maj. Gen. Hugh M. Trenchard, then com-
mander of the Royal Flying Corps, and was profoundly impressed by
his advanced ideas of air power. Mitchell quoted approvingly Tren-
chard’s dictum that “an airplane is an offensive and not a defensive
weapon” and the views the latter expressed on behind-the-line bom-
I 2