Air Warfare Air Base Air Defense 1914 1973

While the projection of air power in contemporary warfare is among the most complex endeavors facing a military commander, few of the activities required to support and sustain air forces in battle have been explored in depth in historical literature. Even less studied has been the defense of air bases. Since the introduction of airplanes to warfare, it was obvious that bases must be kept functioning at peak efficiency to seize and maintain air superiority over an enemy as well as to carry out close air support and interdiction operations. A number of factors have been critical in actions involving air bases: advancing technology in aircraft and in defensive weapons, command and control systems, detection capabilities, evolving air power doctrine that predisposes air forces to specific courses of action, human endurance and morale, camouflage or concealment, dispersion, the ability to foresee and counter the strategy of a potential enemy, and in many cases pure chance that favors one side over the other. In response to a request by the Air Force Director of Plans, the Office of Air Force History undertook to condense into one volume the experiences of various nations' air forces in defending air bases against attacks from the air. Maj. John Kreis, an experienced air security officer who spent much of his career providing protection for U.S. Air Force bases, accomplished this task by adopting a case study approach that highlights the interplay of the factors affecting air base defense over half a century. In these pages he has presented examples of the earliest attempts to defend airfields and troops in World War I from aerial assault. He chronicles the development of radar and command organizations that influenced so heavily the Royal Air Force's performance in the Battle of Britain, the ability to marshal defenses and repair crews on the island of Malta, and evolving command arrangements in North Africa that made for success against a capable enemy.

In this book, Kreis examines the topic of air base defense from the perspective of different countries involved in combat. He goes through many wars and sheds light on the lessons that have been learned about air defense. It is suggested that there is still more to be learned.

Historian Lee Kennett takes on the vital task of detailing the World War I aviator in this complete overview of the first air war, that Richard P. Hallion calls, "A welcome and long overdue addition to the literature of military aviation." "The whole subject of the first air war is like some imperfectly explored country: there are areas that have been crisscrossed by several generations of historians; there are regions where only writers of dissertations and abstruse monographs have ventured, and others yet that remain terra incognita," historian Lee Kennett tells his readers. There are very few books that explore military avition and its history to the fullest extent as Kennett has done in First Air War. The purpose of this book is to act as a complete overview on topics and histories that have previously gone unexplored. He tells of World War I fliers and their experiences "on all fronts and skillfully places them in proper context" (Edward M. Coffman, author of The Old Army). In considerate detail, Kennett tells the full story on how a few planes became the armies of the sky.

This one-volume anthology provides a comprehensive analysis of the role that air power has played in military conflicts over the past century. Comprising sixteen essays penned by a global cadre of leading military experts, A History of Air Warfare chronologically examines the utility of air power from the First World War to the second Lebanon war, campaign by campaign. Each essay lays out the objectives, events, and key players of the conflict in question, reviews the role of air power in the strategic and operational contexts, and explores the interplay between the political framework and mil.