Posted on 07/02/2014 3:37:41 PM PDT by Kaslin
Sometime during the spring of 1944, Allied commanders concluded that their air forces had secured air superiority over an area stretching from Great Britain to central France as well as parts of Belgium and Holland.
Driving the German Luftwaffe from western European skies was a costly process paid for with the blood of Allied airmen. Though there was no definitive "air superiority" moment, Allied intelligence confirmed pilot reports. Over France, the Luftwaffe had little stomach for a dogfight.
With a few teeth-clenching exceptions (the Korean War's MiG Alley battles), since 1944, American land, sea and air forces have enjoyed the military and diplomatic benefits of U.S. air superiority. Unfortunately, in 2014 there are strong indications that America's air advantage is diminishing.
Military analysts generally recognize three levels of air control within a combat zone. Air Supremacy means complete domination of the skies. Obtain Air Superiority and you can basically conduct air, land and sea operations at will. Enemy planes lurk but cannot "prohibitively" interfere. Air Parity means combatants control the airspace above their respective ground forces.
Air superiority and supremacy provide the military, which obtains these conditions, with operational flexibility. Air dominance also gives commanders strategic confidence; with dominating air power they can quickly respond to inevitable setbacks, including surprise enemy counter-attacks.
France 1944 illustrates this point. With good reason, Allied commanders demanded air superiority over the entire operational battle zone. Without air superiority over the French coast, D-Day would probably fail. The Luftwaffe would sink transport ships and slaughter troops on confined beachheads.
Allied dominant air forces also targeted communications systems, transportation routes and panzer divisions in reserve positions. Their attacks disrupted German western front command and control and delayed armor reinforcements. Close air support provided by stout planes such as the P-47 Thunderbolt, blunted Germany's heavy tank advantage. Panthers and Tigers would shred U.S. Sherman tanks. P-47s turned the tables and hammered the German giants. The U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II is the P-47's offspring. Facing budget reductions, the USAF intends to retire the A-10.
Though airpower alone does not win wars, the ability to obtain air dominance over the forces or territory of a current or potential adversary translates into extraordinary diplomatic and political leverage.
The ability to provide an ally with air support is a major U.S. diplomatic tool and plays a role in war deterrence. Attack Japan or South Korea or the Philippines and you will face B-52s flying from Guam. So far, the U.S. has denied Iraq air support in its battle with Islamist extremists. Now Russia has stepped forward and sold Iraq a squadron of SU-25 ground attack planes complete with mercenary pilots. The SU-25 is Russia's A-10. At the moment I see this as another deft Vladimir Putin stunt, not a fatal American error. However, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey may give American reluctance to provide an ally with air support a different interpretation.
American air superiority faces threats beyond budget cuts. New technology is challenging America's aeronautical engineering and "pilot training" advantages. Unmanned aircrafts are cheaper and potentially more agile and faster than manned planes. It takes years to train competent combat pilots. If a software program could emulate an air ace's skills, in theory any nation with the money to buy drones could field an air force capable of fighting for the skies.
Pentagon budget cutters argue that strategic debt is an American enemy; the USAF cannot buy everything. Smart munitions means aircraft like the F-16 can perform close air support as well as the A-10. USAF seers are quite aware that the software for robotic aircraft is improving; America has its own advanced drone programs. However, autopilots fail. Satellites directing drones can be blinded. American air warriors believe a "mix" of piloted aircraft, like the F-22, operating with a "package" of drones and flying smart munitions, may be the way to retain the air advantage won in 1944.
The Germans, Russians, Japanese and British were also turning out really nice airplanes by 1944. The U.S. had one huge advantage.
We could train our pilots completely away from the war. We were also out producing the others.
So why did they continue daylight bombing. The answer is simple. It was the only way they could draw German fighters into the air..so that they could be attacked and destroyed, to make sure that when the invasion came, the Allies would have total air superiority.
Chilling decision to make...but they felt it was the only way. They knew that Hitler could not let Germany be bombed unopposed....the bombers were the bait to lure the German fighters into the air.
March 1944 - the P-51D arrives. Everything changes.
The pictures in the post aren’t US Airplanes.
bfl
The British (and some others) could also train pilots completely away from the war — following the “British Commonwealth Air Training Plan”. Most of this training occurred in Canada.
trained
Probably the greatest pilot of WWII was Erich Hartmann. He was actually pretty unsuccessful for a long time then just took off.
He is officially credited with 352 aerieal victories and guys who know what they are doing say he actually shot down even more.
I read his book and if my memory is right, Hartmann thought a pilot named Marseille or something like that was the best.
In 1955 I was assigned to what was then the Armament Laboratory at Wright Field. Most of our work was intended to solve the "accuracy" problem. This was before lasers and GPS, of course, so we had to deal with free-fall bombs. That meant correcting for wind drift, and getting velocity, range and azimuth correctly. Eventually we did pretty well. However, the stuff we did then is now obsolete.
To indicate what was possible with what we did then, bombardiers were trained at March Field in California. One of their "practice targets" was the American Can Company factory. They didn't actually drop bombs, of course, but everything was measured, and the point of impact calculated. If you did a good job of manipulating the radar bomb sight, you could hit the factory. The company gave little coin banks, with their logo, to bombardiers who hit (as I recall) the northwest corner of a thousand-foot-long building.
I was sent to take a one-week "familiarization" course there. It included only radar bombing, not any of the celestial navigation, etc., the people getting the full course took.
With only one week's training, I was able to "hit" the required corner of the building. Nearly 60 years later, my coin bank is still sitting on a shelf in my home office.
A few years ago, the local air show was privileged to have a P-47 on display. Beautiful.
The next day, I was driving when it flew right over me, heading home. The big P&R R2800 shook my truck with a rumble I had never heard.
The P-47 was a bad, bad, bad, bad mutha.
Seems "Taiwan" was omitted from that list, probably deliberately.
FYI..my dad was a C-47 pilot...he dropped Pathfinders on June 5th
Mine has a picture of Thomas Jeffferson handing the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock. Other dignitaries in the background.
I noted you linked to an eBay page. No way I'm going to sell mine. Let my kids sell it after I'm dead. They won't appreciate the story behind it anyway.
My father was in the Navy. He'd have been manning a landing craft for the invasion of Japan, except for the atomic bomb. That may have saved his life.
Hopefully your kids/grandkids will recognize how "important" and thus "valuable" it is to you, and keep it after you've gone..but alas, that never happens...I have a library of some 2000 books..mostly history and military history..and about 1500 LPs..many classical..which if I don't dispose of myself...will no doubt end up in a dumpster later on..
I remember years ago..back in the early 90's..when my two daughters were teenagers...they asked me to take them to an Army/Navy surplus store...kids in their HS were starting to wear old military clothing/uniforms...I had up in the attic several bags of my old Marine uniforms and assorted stuff..all neatly dry cleaned, and starched..with lots of moth balls..hadn't looked at them in decades...and no way I could ever fit in them again..well, needless to say, a few days later my daughters were the "best dressed" in their class..and their friends were very impressed that the names matched their own...
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