Customer Reviews

Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power (Midland Books: No. 180)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an Air Force officer, I read this book because I wanted to learn more about Billy Mitchell and also because it was on the Air Force Chief of Staff recommended reading list.

The book fulfilled my expectations of being a very good introduction to Mitchell and it heightened my appreciation for this amazing airpower visionary. I only gave it 4 stars because it was at times difficult to follow and not exactly a "page-turner." It was, however, very short (less than 200 pages) and thus a fairly quick read.

Before reading this book I didn't know much about Billy Mitchell except that he was old enough to have been around since before there were airplanes and the fact that he was court-martialed. After reading this book, I learned the following on this remarkable airpower pioneer (all of this was amazingly done in the early to mid 1920's):

1. Since World War I, he pushed for a separate Air Force to operate under a new Department of Defense, which he also pushed for. He wanted the Air Force, Army and Navy to all have equal footing under this yet non-existent DoD. This he pushed very hard and was what eventually got him court-marshaled.

2. He was the first one to stress the importance of airpower in future conflicts and basically said that whoever had air superiority would also control the ground.

3. He mentioned having 60% of the force as fighters to gain and maintain air supremacy, 20% strategic bombers, and 20% recon planes.

4. He wrote doctrines on strategic bombardment and stressed, as his Italian counterpart Giulio Douhet originally did, that air forces must target the enemy's vital centers and their capabilities to wage war - factories, fuel, railroads, headquarters, ammo dumps, etc. This went against the early uses and thoughts on airpower - to be used to attack enemy frontline forces only.

5. He foresaw the importance of aircraft carriers and the role they would play in the next conflict.

6. He visited Japan and reported that war with Japan was inevitable. He also posited that the Japanese would attack the US from aircraft carriers and would hit Wake Island, the Philippines, and then finally the islands of Hawaii.

7. He visited Germany and reported back that the Germans were still "militaristic" and that war with Germany was inevitable in the next decade or two. He noted the Germans heavy investment and interest in aviation and foresaw the usage of airpower in the coming Blitzkrieg.

8. He was one of the first to realize the strategic importance of Alaska as a future US state due to it's proximity to Russia, Japan, and the other Pacific islands. He proposed stationing strategic bombers and fighters there - a vision that would be fulfilled in the Cold War. The same can be said for Mitchell's recognition of Guam as a strategic staging island for US bombers.

Nearly all of his predictions would come eerily true in the decade or two after his death in 1936.

The author also handled the court-marshal in a balanced way, in my opinion. He conveyed to the reader that although Mitchell's ideas were revolutionary, and ultimately mostly correct, the means he used to get his point across were less than professional.

Overall, a good read for anyone interested in the origins and development of airpower.

"Billy Mitchell: Crusader For Air Power" by Alfred F. Hurley (Professor of History, University of North Texas, publisher of `Air Power History, and a retired USAF Brigadier General) is the biography of the pioneer aviation visionary Billy Mitchell (1879-1936) whose contributions to modern military develop simply cannot be underestimated. The subject of a court-martial in 1925, Brigadier General William `Billy' Mitchell has been celebrated in books, film and television before. But Alfred Hurley's biography of this influential general goes beyond the more sensational aspects of a controversial military career to provide a fuller and more complete picture of the man who dropped out of college in 1898 at the age of 18 to enlist in a volunteer regiment of the army and fight against Spanish forces in the liberation of Cuba, was an avid horseman and hunter, and became the youngest Army captain at the age of 24, and the youngest member of the General Staff at the age of 32. Enhanced with the inclusion of an appendix, notes, bibliography, index, and historic photos, "Billy Mitchell: Crusader For Air Power" is an impressive and strongly recommended addition to community and academic library Military History, Aviation History, and American Biography collections.

I'm always interested in WWII heroes, combats, etc. So with this book it didn't disappoint. Didn't know exactly what to expect, but have enjoyed it very much.

The book was pretty much what I expected, but there were some bits of information that I had never read before.