Practices_Air+warfare

__ What Were the Characteristics of the First World War? __ - Air power was in its infancy - Initially planes were used for reconnaissance - Gradually started to be used in an offensive role - Progression from pistols and rifles to synchronised machine guns - First instances of ‘dog fights’

__ Between the Wars __ Theoretical Development: - Widespread belief by theorists in the use of airpower to win conflicts single handed -Any future conflicted could be won entirely from the air - Manifests itself in the allied bombing campaign of Germany

Technological Development: - Transition from biplane technology to monoplanes - Aircraft were now much faster and stronger - Made from metal as opposed to wooden frames

Germany: - Aircraft development restricted by the Treaty of Versailles - Pilots were trained in the Soviet Union - Huge interest in glider flying - Civilian and commercial flying encouraged - Experience during the Spanish Civil War

Britain - Royal Air Force lucky to survive as an independent service - Stanley Baldwin – ‘The bomber will always get through’. - Process of modernisation not complete at the start of the conflict

__ The Second World War __ The Evolution of the Bomber: - High losses led to greater defensive capability - RAF mass raids at night - Formation flying for mutual support - Introduction of drop tanks for fighters - One Thousand Bomber Raids for greater impact - Development in bombing techniques for greater accuracy

Strategic Bombing: - Both sides extensively targeted the civilian population and military installations - Hoped that the population would lose the will to work and fight, Total War - Americans by day, Britain by night - Did not have the desired effect during the Blitz or Allied bomber offensive

Introduction of the Jet Aircraft: - Great strides were made in aircraft design during the conflict - From biplanes to jet aircraft - Me 262 (Germany) first mass produced jet aircraft - Simply too few were produced to stop the allies - Hitler initially viewed ME 262 as a bomber

Radar: - Radio Detection and Ranging - Early warning system - Basic by today’s standards - Used extensively during the Battle of Britain - Not just ground based, also fitted to night fighters

Ballistic Missiles: - V1 and V2 rockets - Were not accurate enough to be used for precision targets - Used to create fear amongst civilians - Scientists played a key role in the US space program

__ The Manhattan Project __ - German scientists split the atom 1938 nuclear fission is discovered, and the seeds and implications of an atomic bomb begin to grow in relation to the rise of fascism and particularly Adolf Hitler within Europe. - The United States of America (which had been developing the nuclear technology subsequent to the discovery of nuclear fission) entered the Second World War in response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. - 75,000 people would ultimately be employed at the Oakridge, Tennessee site to develop the atomic bomb. - German armed forces surrendered in 1945, Japan remains at war - The Trinity atomic bomb test is successful 1945 - The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are decimated by two American atomic bombs 1945

** Role of Air Warfare in WWII **
 * Air Warfare played a major role in the outcome of WWII
 * There were several different functions of air warfare


 * Strategic bombings
 * Civilian targets
 * Purpose was to cripple economies and cause surrender
 * Major Targets
 * London
 * Warsaw
 * Shanghai
 * Netherlands


 * Tactical Air Support
 * Germany used the Luftwaffe to support the army
 * The Red Air Force was used by Russia in the same role
 * ‘flying artillery’


 * Air Superiority
 * Air forces were responsible for the protection of a nations airspace
 * Germanybelieved that air superiority was key to the invasion of Britain
 * German defeat in the Battle of Britain meant that the German invasion was postponed
 * By 1944, the Luftwaffe was reduced by 78%
 * As a resultGermanycould not be properly protected
 * Fell victim to allied aerial bombing
 * Loss of Air Superiority was a major factor in German defeat


 * Airborne Troops
 * Used to transport troops long distances in shorter times
 * Paratroopers
 * ‘ Operation Market Garden’
 * Allied invasion of Holland
 * ‘Operation Uranus’
 * German re-supply of troops to Stalingrad
 * Limited success overall


 * US Bombing of Japan– ended the war in the Pacific
 * Bombed steel and iron works
 * Incendiary bombs on large cities
 * 6th of August 1945 – ‘Little Boy’ dropped on Hiroshima
 * 9th of August 1945 – ‘Fat Man’ dropped on Nagasaki

=Major Air Battles=

On 7th December 1941, Japanese planes and submarines launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour at approximately 7:53am in the morning. The attack came in 2 waves. The first hit at 7:53, the second at 8:55 and by 9:55 it was all over. What was left consisted of 2, 403 dead, 188 destroyed planes and a destroyed Pacific fleet consisting of 8 damaged or destroyed battle ships. Approximately 3 hours later, Japanese planes began a day-long attack on the American facilities in the Philippines. Farther to the west, the Japanese struck at Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand in a coordinated attempt to use surprise in order inflict as much damage as quickly as possible to strategic targets.
 * Attack on Pearl Harbour: 7th December 1941**

A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant after their claim to splendid isolation.


 * Battle of Britain: 12th August to 30th September 1940**

Goering Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain. The Germans bombed harbours, radar stations, aerodromes and munitions factories and in September they began to bomb London, in retaliation, they claimed, for a British raid on Berlin.

The RAF inflicted heavy losses on the Luftwaffe (1389 German planes were lost as against 792 British). When it became clear that British air power was far from being destroyed, Hitler called off the invasion. The Strategic Situation:

• After the fall of France on the 22nd June, German forces had swept across most of Eastern Europe so rapidly that resistance has ceased. Only Britain stood in the way of Germany’s complete domination of the continent.

• Adolf Hitler expected Britain to capitulate however; Winston Churchill had already resolved to fight on. He claimed “The battle of France is over. I suspect the battle of Britain is about to begin.”


 * Reasons for the British success were:**

• Their chain of new radar stations gave plenty of warning of approaching German attackers.

• The German bombers were poorly armed. Though the British fighters were not significantly better than the Germans, the Germans were hampered by limited range-they could only carry enough fuel to enable them to stay in the air for about 90 minutes.

• The switch to bombing London was a mistake because it relieved pressure on the airfields at the critical moment and allowed time for British fighters to recover their strengths rapidly. The Battle of Britain was probably the first major turning point of the war: for the first time the Germans was been beaten, demonstrating that they were not invincible. Britain was able to remain in the war, thus facing Hitler (who was about to attack Russia) with the fatal situation of war on two fronts. As Churchill remarked when he paid tribute to the British fighter pilots: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”