When Billy Mitchell returned from WWI, he brought with him the
deep-seated belief that air power had made navies obsolete.
However, in the years following WWI, the U.S. Congress was far more
interested in disarmament and isolationist policies than in funding
national defense. For the military services this meant lean budgets
and skeleton operating forces. Billy Mitchell’s War with the Navy
recounts the intense political struggle between the Army and Navy
air arms for the limited resources needed to define and establish
the role of aviation within their respective services in the period
between the two world wars. After Congress rejected the concept of
a unified air service in 1920, Mitchell and his supporters turned
on the Navy, seeking to substitute the Air Service as the nation's
first line of defense. While Mitchell proved that aircraft could
sink a battleship with the bombing of the Ostfriesland in 1921, he
was unable to convince the General Staff of the Army, the General
Board of the Navy, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy,
or Congress of the need for an independent air force. When Mitchell
turned to the pen to discredit the Navy, he was convicted by his
own words and actions in a court-martial that captivated the
nation, and was forced to resign in 1925. Rather than ending the
rivalry for air power, Mitchell’s resignation set the stage for
the ongoing dispute between the two services in the years
immediately before WWII. After Mitchell’s resignation, the
rivalry for air power between the two services resurfaced when the
Navy's plans to procure torpedo planes for the defense of Pearl
Harbor and Coco Solo were brought to the attention of the Army. The
book concludes with a description of the events surrounding the Air
Corps' abysmal performance at Pearl Harbor and Midway followed by a
critical assessment of how the development of aviation was pursued
by the Army and the Navy after WWII.
General
Imprint: |
Naval Institute Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
2023 |
Authors: |
Thomas Wildenberg
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
304 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-68247-884-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-68247-884-X |
Barcode: |
9781682478844 |
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