Being there . . . . from the first hours of the dastardly surprise attack on 7 December 1941 when
Japan’s elite aviators and advanced aircraft failed to achieve the smashing victory blow of the
Pacific Fleet it so urgently needed, leading the great American strategists to believe that defeat
for Tojo and his military machines was inevitable. From high above, observe the spectacular
naval battles, and crushing land defeats of the Japanese as America strikes back to not only
avenge the dead of Pearl Harbor, but also to turn the invasion tides. Then, realize what all the
top Allied military thinkers knew from the beginning: the United States was all by itself handling
the Pacific War, relying heavily on its two new major weapons, the updated submarine and
modern aircraft carrier fighter fleet. . . . . And, lest we forget, acknowledge again Brigadier
General William Mitchell, United States Army, who spearheaded an active movement against
our Navy in Congress and the press during the 1920’s and after. General Mitchell had organized
and commanded a large Army Air Force in France during World War I and returned home with
the fanatical belief that American air power was destined to have supreme control of warfare
over land and sea. His major premise: “To ensure air supremacy, to enable the United States
Navy to meet on at least equal terms ANY threatening enemy, and to place the United States in
its proper lead position as a world power, its fleet aviation responsibility must be expanded to
the fullest possible extent. Aircraft design must continue to evolve and develop to the fullest
possible extent. Aircraft must become the most essential arm of the fleet. A critical naval air
service must be established, capable of accompanying and operating with our fleet in all waters
of the globe.”
TWO OF THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED NAVAL AVIATION HISTORIES YET PUBLISHED —
one from Naval Institute Press, the other, by Schiffer MILITRY, who else? And, just in time to be
to be ordered as superlative Christmas gifts
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“U.S. NAVY ATTACK AIRCRAFT, 1920 – 2020”, by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press,
Annapolis: 2022, 8 ¼” x 11”, 472 pages, hardcover, $125.00, Holiday Price, $62.50. Visit,
www.usni.org.
“US ATTACK AVIATION – Air Force/Navy Light Attack, 1916 To the Present”, RG Head, PHD, Brig.
Gen., USAF (RET.), Foreword by Adm. Scott H. Swift, USN (RET.). Schiffer MILITARY: 2022, 7 ½” x
10 ¼”, 264 pages, hardcover, $35.00. Visit, www.schifferbooks.com.
In 1917, when Billy Mitchell was told Captain Manfred Baron von Richthofen’s opinion of air
combat, ‘’. . . find the enemy and shoot him down, anything else is nonsense.”, he frowned,
then grinned. It was the same counsel he advised his pilots – ”Search, find, and kill quickly,
before you’re found, shot down, and killed. You want to go home, don’t you?”
Military colleagues and rivals, as well as some of the top Axis leaders, saw clearly that
General Douglas MacArthur was the greatest strategist of World War II, and that his campaign
in the South-West Pacific was a masterpiece. With Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief
of the US Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC), at his side, MacArthur embarked that summer on offensives
whose conception demonstrated a strategic grasp of the highest order. His plan was to strike,
first, at one point, then at another, thus depriving the enemy of his advantage behind his
interior lines. Everything hinged on America’s rapidly growing fleet of aircraft carriers and the
opportunities they offered for concentrating overwhelming air-strength at any given point. In
short, it consisted of a carefully planned game of leapfrog from island to island, aimed at
bypassing and isolating an ever-growing number of Japanese garrisons and carrying the
attackers to within air-striking distance, first of the Philippines, the key to the China Seas, then
to Japan itself. Intrinsic to such planning, of course, was the need to also develop amphibious
warfare techniques, advanced strategies for our submarines to destroy theirs, and create better
and better cargo supplying plans.
Carrier attack aircraft have been the main striking arm of the U.S. Navy for decades. This
fabulous book by Norman Friedman tells the history of these aircraft. Based largely on
previously classified Navy documents, it focuses on what the Navy sought in its attack bombers
rather than what various companies simply offered to the sea service. Typically, the Navy held
design competitions, and in this book, Norman presents many of the often-unknown designs
different companies created to meet the Navy’ needs. He also describes the development of
weapons and tactics that shaped aircraft designs and the nature of air operations.
Author Friedman begins with the rise of the torpedo and dive-bomber in the 1920s,
measuring the impact of each on WWII. He points out the declassification of key documents, it
now being possible to see how and why the Navy’s innovative air operations during the
Vietnam War ultimately triumphed over the integrated air defense system built by the North
Vietnamese. Such successes had important impacts during future operations, such as the attack
on Libya in 1986.
Not all the bombers the Navy bought succeeded, however. Navy official records, most hardly
used by historians, provide insight into how and why some airplanes succeeded while
others failed. Told through the 1970s, as limited by security, the story is based almost entirely
on the Navy’s own internal documents, including those setting carrier and aircraft policy and
those describing design competitions. Later, developments are described based on public
information.
Meanwhile, “ATTACK AVIATION” is intense and dangerous. It necessitates the direct
engagement of ground targets at low altitude. Attack aircraft are usually fighters or fighter-
sized aircraft, with one or two engines, and one or two crew. RG’s book provides an overview
history of American “Attack aviation”, from its inception to the present, including both our
Navy and Air Force. The pillars of the narrative are several case studies that characterize the
evolution of technology and tactics over time from the files of the SBD Dauntless, AD Skyraider,
A-4 Skyhawk, A-7 Corrsair II, A-10 Thunderbolt II, and F/A—18 Hornet. Each of the cases
contains first-person accounts that include a description of the aircraft’s origin, competitive
procurement, major attack features, and combat employment.
RG has extensive in-combat experiences, i.e., 325 missions, DFC, Silver Star, and an in-depth
understanding of doctrine, having taught future pilots at the Air Force Academy, and gained
first-person exposure to the policy and engineering aspects of the aircraft procurement process
while serving at the Pentagon and later as a private consultant working in collaboration with
the US Navy. This is a story about flying as told by naval aviators, Air Force fighter pilots, and
the men who built the airplanes the pilots flew.
