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CLOSE AIR SUPPORT; An illustrated history, 1914 to the present.
H/B - USA-(0-517 56907- 8)
A profusely illustrated history of how aircraft have influenced the outcomes of land battles from before the Great War to the modern day. This deeply researched and profusely illustrated volume takes a fresh and comprehensive look at the use of tactical air power on the battlefield, how the concept developed, how various nations adopted or rejected the concept and what practical results followed.
Although in the forefront of such developments in the 1917-18 period, between the wars the RAF violently rejected it, and the Lord Trenchard school of thought, summarised as "Bomb Berlin" which, it was claimed, could win the war unaided, became the gospel. This blinkered (both costly and futile in practice) approach culminating in one high-ranking RAF officer, Air Vice Marshal J C Slessor, vehemently asserting, even after the debacles in France and Greece in 1940/41 and with Britain awaiting invasion, "We don't want aircraft skidding around over Kent looking for tanks..." Just how great a change in policy has taken place since then can be seen in the results of the Gulf War when the A-10A destroyed almost one quarter of Saddam Hussain's tank force on its own!
While the RAF had to be dragged kicking and screaming into accepting Close Support, other nations adopted it whole-heartedly and made it the corner-stone of their policy, Germany and the Soviet Union being the prime examples during World War II. Even as late as Korea and Vietnam the US Air Force was a doubtful and reluctant convert. In American only the US Marine Corps was totally convinced of it value. With the more recent development of stand-off weapons of high accuracy and potency the use of close support has increased, but always the balance between the missile defence and the rate of expected attrition has made the policy controversial.
Many of the "small-scale" wars that have followed between 1950 and the present day have reinforced the value of aerial support to the troops on the ground. This volume is a comprehensive appraisal of one of the most significant military innovations of the past century.