AIR POWER AND ARMIES

now free to do what it liked carried out a new series of missions remember that meeting our expected offensive involved a tremendous amount of movement in every part of the theater the enemy's supplies food ammunition had to be moved up by the thousands of tons or 100 miles and more to the rear scenes like this were repeated price troops had to be moved up reserves placed in position Supply and ammunition dumps had to be created anti- tank guns imp placed tanks moved to the best location to make their counter thrust all this went on well behind the lines there was nothing our Ground Force could do about it but there was plenty our Air Force could do now that it no longer had to worry about the enemy Air Force all those concentrations made good targets when these Supply dumps were blown up there was a shortage of food and [Music] ammunition it would have been pretty difficult to build those Supply dumps up again with all the supply trains knocked out the ground Army was still intact but what would the troops eat when the ground attack did come what were they going to use for ammunition when they'd shot up what they had how was the ground Commander going to move with his rear area and everything in it getting more disorganized every day there was a real problem here because the force with air power now had time on its side it could deliberately choose the best time to strike when the enemy had been so relatively weakened in every way that he couldn't continue the battle when we had plenty of ammunition and the enemy had very little or none when our armor was in full strength and good order and the enemy's armor was short of fuel disorganized already damaged when our troops were fresh and the the enem is short of food and ammunition short of rest and sleep and with no hope of relief or [Music] reinforcement we have seen what happened from the point of view of those that happened too and it has happened more than once but leading to this result there is always a plan involving the employment of air power and air power's relation to the forces that fight on the ground let's examine that plan and the reasoning behind it between the first and second world wars the relationship between air power and land power was not clear World War II has cleared up most of that doubt as we have just seen air power can weaken the enemy's Frontline strength and his ability to fight by destroying his factories and ports and ripping apart the whole fabric of his industry air power can break up his movements and demoralize him generally so that but our ground forces can concentrate and move freely in certain cases air power can work jointly with land power in destroying objectives in the zone of combat itself but there are many things air power cannot do alone land power must still Engage The Enemy land forces in battle land power must still Advance occupy and hold positions while air power cooperates by striking at the sources of enemy landow [Music] of course we've been talking as if only one side had air power what happens when they both have it another stalemate not necessarily the answer is the fighter the fighter can drive off enemy Air Attack and thus protect our own troops and installations and strafe the enemy troops and installations the fighter can also protect our own bombers while they attack the enemy's troops and installations in short Fighters can make it possible for you to enter the enemy's air and make it prohibitively costly for him to enter your air but like everything else in war the situation isn't quite this simple enough Fighters concentrated will give us a temporary local Air superiority any time but this isn't enough because the enemy can do the same thing anytime he really wants to get through we want to utilize our temporary local superiority to gain something approaching permanent overall superiority if we can we can do that first by using very large concentrations of air power to destroy the enemy's ability to produce airplanes especially Fighters and second by using large concentrations to destroy his fighters on on the ground and the installations his Fighters must have to operate the important thing is that if we can get air superiority and keep it we're in the situation we started with where we had all the air power and the enemy didn't have any the mission of the Strategic Air Force is the paralysis of the enemy Nation that's quite a job the best way to accomplish that mission is to strike at the centers of industry in which his war production is located one by one these industries can be attacked and the enemy's means to fight weakened and crushed this is a big undertaking the bombs Must Fall precisely in the target areas or the missions might as well never have been flown the responsibility for this rests solely on the bomber Crews and if they fail during the the critical moments of the bomb run the whole mission fails well this is no job of haphazard destruction it requires a plan which is based on a thorough and systematic study of the enemy's entire industrial system a good deal of the basic information comes through the combing of everything in print books technical manuals magazines even newspapers about the enemy's economy and Industry some comes from highly qualified experts men who have made the study of certain phases of enemy IND their life work some comes from engineers and businessmen who've been there who know production volume methods bottlenecks location of vital departments and machines and we aren't the only ones who collect this information our allias have been working along the same lines for a long time sometimes that means getting it out through the enemy's back door by a hundred methods that can't be told for quite a while but most of the really upto-date information as much as 85 to 90% comes back on film every Strategic Air Force has its own photographic reconnaissance Aviation which performs long range high altitude photographic missions with photo reconnaissance bringing back pictures every day weather permitting an enormous amount of information accumulates on film properly interpreted this gives a daily or weekly record of what is going on in the enemy's industrial system besides all this our own returning bomber Crews notice things and what what they report goes to build up the overall picture the idea of course is to concentrate on the enemy's weapons tanks artillery Vehicles shells airplanes but where do we start if we're going to be economical and not waste bombs and bombers what industry or what thing in what industry is most important to the enemy well what about steel it's the basic War Industry stop steel production you stop war production all of it every weapon of war is made of steel or must have steel unfortunately in the case of Germany there were simply too many steel plants like most European countries she had ample idle steel making capacity held in reserve in Germany only about 1/3 of steel production even in Wartime went into the actual production of weapons car wheels rails structural steel these and many similar products and not weapons made up the bulk of the nation's wartime steel production before you can affect the enemy's fighting strength You Must Destroy his excess capacity and that would have been a long long job you might have had to destroy half of of the entire industry before you affected the strength of the enemy Army besides there's a time lag as much as a year may elapse between the manufacturer of a piece of steel plate and its appearance in a tank on the Battlefront but in Germany there are other vital targets besides steel Transportation fuel aluminum magnesium rubber oil submarine building yards B ball bearing production in Germany there are only a few ball bearing plants of any size destruction of one of the big ones will eventually cut down the production of airplanes tanks and trucks by 30 to 50% but it will take a little time because there's a stock pile meanwhile there's another type of Target that pays off big dividends and quickly that is the engine assembly plant a shortage of engines will take effect in a month or so and will continue for quite a while the fighter aircraft assembly plant is an equally High prior Target assembled Fighters go directly into action within a few weeks at most if there's no backlog destroying and assembly plant will cause an immediate corresponding shortage of Fighters on the front lines the damage can be repaired in a few months but by then engine and ball bearing shortages will be taking effect obviously the elimination of this fighter opposition before it takes to the air opens the enemy's whole territory to aerial attack by our heavy bombers once one by one more key Industries are wiped off the map Weapon by weapon the enemy is disarmed costly yes sometimes very costly in both machines and men but the objective is worth it for the objective is nothing less than Victory itself as we have seen the Strategic Air Force disarms the Enemy by destroying his capacity to produce vital materials the Tactical Air Force Works in direct cooperation with the ground forces in the theater as one half of an air ground team the offensive action of the Tactical Air Force consists of three priority missions first to establish and maintain local Air superiority second to prevent the movement of enemy troops and supplies into a theater of operations or within the theater [Music] itself third to participate in joint effort with the ground forces in the immediate battle [Music] area to do these jobs let's see what the Tactical Air Force needs in equipment and organization here is a theater of operation suppose we have three armies in this theater the chain of command starting from divisions develops along the familiar line through core Army theater Ground Force Headquarters normally known as Army group headquarters to the theater command which is in charge of all operations in the theater these are the channels of command for the ground now let's look at the air naturally the Air Force bases itself on air Fields some of these fields accommodate fighter groups some take care of bombardment groups and there are reconnaissance quadrant varying in number according to the needs of the theater now as to command it should be such as to take advantage of Air's flexibility and the advantages of mass employment and yet function most effectively in the theater here's how it works out the first point at which the ground and Air Force commands parallel is at the Army level in general for each Army there is a Tactical Air Command the headquarters of the Tactical Air Command and the headquarters of the army occupy adjoining spaces so that the two commanders can keep in close touch with each other each Tactical Air Command is charged with air recover reconnaissance in its area with air defense against enemy Air Attack and with offensive operations against both the enemy's air and the enemy's ground forces the Tactical Air Command operates under the theater Tactical Air Force which also controls the Tactical bombardment aviation in the theater the headquarters of the Tactical Air Force Commander and that of the theater Ground Force Commander occupy adjoining spaces the Tactical Air Force in its turn comes under the theater Air Force Force which controls all air operations in the theater while all the forces in the theater both air and ground come under the theater command thus air is commanded by air officers ground by ground officers at various levels there is provision for joint planning and consultation with the operations of the entire Theater Under One Superior command here's the air part of it as an organization chart at the top is the theater Commander then the theater Air Force Commander under him we find the Strategic Air Force and strategic reconnaissance Aviation the air service command supplies and maintains the equipment the Air Defense command is responsible for defense of the rear areas Troop Carrier Aviation when it is needed in the theater is normally employed directly under the theater Air Force commander and finally the Tactical Air Force of course this outline is subject to changes in detail for instance there might be a coastal Air Force if there were a need for it as there was in North Africa but at the moment we're interested in the Tactical Air Force so let's see what it consists of a Tactical Air Force is made up of a number of Tactical Air Commands each capable of operating with an army or equivalent task force force a Tactical Air Force also includes a tactical bomber command made up of light and medium bombardment Aviation there are times when the Tactical Air Force Commander may want to concentrate all the bombardment aviation and use it under his Direct Control or he may assign parts of it to a Tactical Air Command in addition to this a Tactical Air Force normally includes an Air Force service command and an anti-aircraft artillery command which participates in the active air defense of the combat zone the Tactical Air Command includes fighter Aviation and tactical reconnaissance Aviation they are controlled in the air by a tactical control center which is the controlling brain or switchboard of the units of the Tactical Air Command it includes Communications flight control and aircraft warning units the Tactical Control Center and fighter Aviation make up the team that intercepts enemy air attacks in addition the Tactical Control Center furnishes information to reconnaissance and bombardment while they are in the air both to direct them and keep them out of trouble now let's look at the job to be done a job which must be approached jointly by theater Air Force and ground force commanders for there are two battles which must be fought out in this theater the air battle during which superiority of the air must be one so that the air ground team can move freely and the air Land Battle in which ground forces and Air Forces join to achieve the final objective so the Tactical Air Force must begin executing its first priority Mission gaining the necessary degree of air superiority the best way to do this and make it stay done is to destroy the enemy air power before it leaves the ground here is the striking arm of a Tactical Air Force medium bombers capable of carrying a good bomb load at good speed for good distances they also carry guns that are capable of doing a lot of damage to ground objectives this one for instance mounts a 75 mm Cannon besides the medium bombers the Tactical Air Force uses light bombers airplanes that can do medium and lowlevel bombing are strafing and can get in and out fast enough to take care of themselves in most situations of course fighter protection goes along to take care of the enemy Fighters some Fighters are equipped to carry bombs too and are extensively used for various ground Targets this striking Force may have come from a dozen or more airfields but now is concentrated so that it is simply too strong a force for the enemy to turn back the whole idea is to knock out one Airfield after another so thoroughly that from then on the enemy simply can't get up [Music] or if he can it will be in such small numbers that a small part of our air force can take care of him the attack was successful here's the result this Airfield won't be used for quite a while multiply the this by the number of air fields and you have air superiority but just to make sure you also go after fuel lubricants and essential supplies gaining air superiority by these methods may take a week or so or it may take a month but once you have it you can maintain it with a relatively small number of airplanes that frees the Tactical Air Force for its second priority Mission isolating the battlefield let's see what that means as we've already seen over and over an Army's ability to fight depends on its ability to move and to supply itself fresh troops must move in spent troops must move out reinforcements must be moved from one spot to another ammunition and food is used up in tremendous quantities so are weapons paralyze this movement or even snar it up so units are lost track of and things don't go where they should and the battle is half one sustainment of massed air effort during this period greatly weakens the enemy's ability to fight back that's why this job is second in importance only to gaining air superiority and it is a job that only the Tactical Air Force can do the ground force part consists in maintaining pressure so that the enemy is steadily using up what personnel and supplies he already has or what can be sneaked up to him during the night or in bad weather here are typical second priority Mission targets the shipping and harbor facilities which carry supplies of all kinds into the theater The marshalling Yards railroads trains and Bridges by which they are moved within the theater the truck convoys by which they are transported along the roads convoys which carry men as well as material the supply dumps where they are accumulated and stored some of these may take weeks to replace yet they can be lost in minutes this was a supply dump a truck Convoy a bridge a train a railroad yard these docks and ships once supplied and reinforced a good many divisions at the same time our ground forces have been growing stronger and have been Concentra and building up their supplies with comparatively little interference the time for the opening of the offensive is [Music] [Music] coming however the exact day the ground offensive opens depends on more than when the ground forces are ready it is also determined by how long it takes the Air Force to do its job and by the weather outlook and when that day comes there is still something more that the Tactical Air Force can do to further the combined air ground effort remember the key to the employment of air power is that there is an Air Force Commander as well as a ground Force Commander where there is an army Commander there is a Tactical Air Commander the two live live and work close together under the direction of a Joint Force Commander any situation air or ground can be dealt with immediately by personal conference types and quantity of friendly Aviation considered together with the enemy's capabilities determine when priority missions occur consecutively and when concurrently in any case first and second priority missions create the situation in which the battle can be won but third priority missions frequently play an important part in gaining objectives on the immediate front of the ground forces however they need careful planning and mutual understanding because in the zone of contact air missions against hostile units and installations are difficult to control are expensive and are sometimes not very effective Targets in the zone of contact are usually small dug in well dispersed and difficult to locate and to hit that's why mass air action concentrated for an extended period on carefully selected Targets in an area is the best type of third priority to pave the way for an advance but while it takes plenty of coordination and planning when the time comes for the final push this type of mission can really pay off [Music] [Music] [Music] the Hostile Force has been short on food ammunition and reinforcements for some time now we prepare for our Army's attack by removing any remaining danger of enemy Air Attack as far as possible a concentrated sustained Air Attack on the enemy's ground positions helps pave the way for our own Army's [Music] Advance as aggressive attack on the ground makes a real penetration the enemy's only choice is to withdraw enemy Airfield field s now become important objectives for our ground forces the captured Fields can be used by our Air Forces as jump off points to attack profitable targets far in the rear the enemy's withdrawal is now turning into a retreat at this stage as the enemy columns begin jamming the roads the combination of ground exploitation and mass air action can turn the retreat into a route utilizing captured airfields our air force can block fleeing enemy units a long way back of the lines to be gather gaed up in the general advance of our Ground Forces once begun the process accelerates how far the pursuit keeps up depends upon whether our forces outrun their own supplies or whether the enemy can make a stand with new forces this coordination of air and ground supplies the pattern of Victory the priority missions May overlap details of employment may vary in different theaters of operation but the broad pattern has proved itself wherever it's been used we have seen it here broken down bit by bit with examples from all over now let's see how it actually worked out in one theater L alamain the summer of 1940 marked the lowest point in Allied fortunes during the war that was the summer of the fall of France with France gone and Italy newly in the war Morocco Tunisia and and Libya were in German and Italian hands French colonies came under German domination British shipping in the Mediterranean was threatened the French Mediterranean fleet was neutralized from now on the British had to maintain control of the sea alone the Italians could concentrate their attack on Egypt since they no longer had to guard against the French attack from Tunisia axis air power based on Sicily Tunisia and Libya made communication so difficult to maintain that the British were forced to employ the route from England to Egypt by way of the Cape of Good Hope This added 13 weeks to the length of the voyage and required seven times as many ships as the Mediterranean route obviously the first job in clearing the shorter route was to clear out the Italians in Libya starting December 9th 1940 the British drove the Italians back to elala on the Western border of Libya capturing 420 tanks 13300 guns and more than 133,000 prisoners in the process using other forces in large part they next cleared the Italians out of Ethiopia British and Italian Somali land and arria this allowed neutral Nations to assist in carrying supplies to Egypt by way of the Red Sea but during these months the axis had not been idle in the early part of 1941 the Germans moved into Yugoslavia and Greece and at least to try to delay them a large part of General W's Army was sent to Greece this left only a small British Army holding North Africa against this Army the axis under air protection secretly concentrated a new Army which included part of the famous Africa Corp on March 24th 1941 they struck and drove through to Hal although to bruk had besieged for still remained in British hands Beyond how fire they could not go because the German preparations for the coming attack on the Soviet Union denied them the reinforcements and supplies needed to break through in North Africa meanwhile the axis forces completed the conquest of Greece and took cre by Airborne Invasion the combination of the German attack on Russia the axis in the Balkans and the Africa Corp at Hal made up a major threat to the British position in the Mediterranean especially the Middle East the axis forces in Africa had to be destroyed the British concentrated men and material in [Music] Egypt their offensive opened November 17th and 18th 1941 the battle went back and forth ending with the British at El gazala at the end of January 1942 the Africa Corp now received reinforcements covered by heavy lift vaffa attacks on Mal so did the British but the axis had the shorter supply lines and was ready first the night of May 26th the axes struck they succeeded in flanking the British and free French and within a few weeks so great was their superiority in both tanks and anti-tank guns that they virtually destroyed the British armored Force as a result of this defeat the British lost 880,000 men and much equipment there was nothing to do but Retreat a retreat in which the Royal Air Force managed to help save the eighth Army by bombing the axis Pursuit units and keeping almost continuous fighter sweeps over the withdrawing Ground Forces one position after another was lost to Brook cidi barani matu there was only one place where the enemy could be stopped L alamine here a natural for M wide bottleneck had been created by the impossible catara depression to the South and the Mediterranean Sea to the north here the British dug in to await the [Music] attack on June 30th it came the enemy Tri is a Italian tanks first they were driven back the next day July 1 he probed with his infantry in the north then in the center of the line then in the [Music] South by evening he had driven a large gap in the center of the British line but here the enemy's plans broke down his supply lines had been heavily taxed in the rapid 3-we drive his troops were low on water he had suffered heavy casualties the Gap could not be exploited and a few days later the British closed it from now on the lamain position stabilized itself a series of counterattacks proved that the axis was too strong to be moved by anything but a fullscale offensive on the other hand the British were too strong for the axis this was the situation a stalemate reminiscent of the western front in World War I but then new commanders came to the theater and with them came an integrated approach to the whole problem of employment of land and air power it was apparent that both the enemy and the British were completely dependent on Supply everything used in the desert had to be brought in fuel ammunition equipment food reinforcements this problem was the same for both sides the theater supplied nothing it was a quartermaster's [Music] nightmare the enemy's supplies came from Germany by way of the great rail networks in Northern Italy to the Italian ports and then down to North African ports of which Benghazi and tobruk were the most important for his immediate purposes the route from Italy was protected against sea attack by axis air power based on Sicily and and the mainland the carer from Greece to Benghazi and to Brook was protected from CRE the Allied supplies had to come the back way longer most costly in ships all other things being equal it was obvious that the axis could reinforce much faster than the Allies the problem was to make things unequal from about the 1st of July heavy bombers began to arrive from the United States to take care of this job some of them had been intended for other theaters and had to be diverted for this particular assignment for the next few months their mission was to keep supplies from the axis not alone from Egypt but from every point from which air power could be based the enemy in North Africa was going to be deprived of the things he needed to make a war from England bombers of the RAF attacked the rail Nets in Northern Italy from Malta and from Egypt other longrange bombers including American liberators went after the loading points on the other side of the Mediterranean axis Harbors were attacked on the north side of the Mediterranean as well Port facilities were hit hard other long range and medium- range American and British bombers scoured the sea Lanes looking for shipping prior to July normal shipping losses of the axis were 10 to 12% within a short time as a result of combined air and Naval action it is estimated losses jumped to 50% possibly as high as 80% Naval action played an important part in achieving these results and in these losses there was one which hurt the axis deeply fuel their entire effort depended on fuel essentially the Strategic and Tactical Air Forces were carrying out the second priority mission of a Tactical Air Force the isolation of the battlefield it may not have been thought of in quite that way but what was realized was that the enemy's growth had to be slowed down so that the Allied armies could be built up and equipped faster to do this required air superiority which was maintained by keeping aircraft concentrated and never using them in small numbers bombers were usually sent out in force with plenty of fighter protection where the mission occurred within fighter range where it did not the aircraft warning system warned the bombers to turn back or take another route if enemy aircraft were detected on missions Beyond protective fighter range the heavily defended longrange bombers were used wherever possible the enemy's fuel losses were already beginning to limit his ability to operate in the air his tanker losses Rose so high that he had to fly in fuel from CIT many of his airplanes had to remain on the ground to increase the effect German airfields were bombed steadily both day and night with the idea of destroying the maximum number of planes before they could get in into the air none of this was accidental all of it was the result of joint planning for on both strategic and tactical levels air and ground commanders literally lived together meanwhile the enemy Commander not realizing how completely the Allied air and sea effort had nullified the effect of his shorter lines may have thought he was winning the Battle of supply and reinforcement if so he was wrong toward the end of August he attacked the British let him come they were waiting for him behind carefully planned minefields covered by anti-tank guns with artillery well in placed the enemy had underestimated the British strength contrary to all his former tactics he found himself attacking British prepared positions over very rough terrain for 3 Days the eth Army defended itself on the ground while the Allied Air Force bombed the axis rear on the 3rd of September the enemy gave up and withdrew all he had gained was a dent in the southern end of the British position the enemy probably anticipated a Counterattack but instead the British armor sat tight for now time was on the side of the Allied [Music] command by the middle of October the enemy was already partially isolated in the sense that his supply lines were growing progressively weaker for weeks virtually no shipping had reached Benghazi into Brook and that which did stood little chance of unloading for instance between June 30th and October 23rd Benghazi was raided 15 times by Allied bombers to Brook suffered more than 100 raids in more than a thousand sorties Over the Sea at least 65 vessels were HIIT along with numerous aircraft the axis couldn't bring in troops to match the numbers of the Allies it could reinforce its air strength from other fronts quickly but it could not move supplies and fuel on a big enough scale for sustained heavy activ the last jobs were to turn air superiority into Air Supremacy in the battle area and to complete the isolation of the battlefield itself to do the job the Allied Forces had almost 1300 planes of all types the axis by now was down to about 700 and as events were to show there was not enough fuel to keep all of them in the air as a preliminary on October 9th light bombers fighter bombers and Fighters concentrated against axis Advanced Landing grounds at El Dava in one of the biggest air attacks ever made in the western desert the enemy lost heavily his problem of replacement and maintenance became acute and from then on his air forces were held to a rather weak defensive role the attacks were continued day and night until the axis Air Force was practically neutralized not only air Fields but Supply dumps [Music] Vehicles troop [Music] concentrations in their wake they left wrecked tanks and trucks blazing Supply dumps and park marked Landing Fields air opposition became all but non-existent the axis had been weakened and hurt severely our Fighters directed by the aircraft warning and flight control system were able to break up enemy di Bomer [Music] attacks but the enemy weakened on the ground and blocked out of the air the time had come for the follow through attack by our Ground Forces in general the northern part of the axis line was held by German infantry the southern part and the center were held by Italians the center was kept weak on purpose the armored forces were heaviest to the north to the South were a German and an Italian Armored Division the Germans probably expected the Alli to drive through the center where the defenses were weakest if the Allied Commander had taken the bait the German armor would have sprung the Trap instead while giving the impression he might attack through the center he disposed the bulk of his forces in the north one Armored Division was held to the South for a diversionary attack two more more were held 50 Mi back ready for use when the time came the plan was to make a hold with artillery clear a path through the Mine Fields with Engineers enlarge it with infantry and drive through to the rear with tanks the whole effort would be very much easier if these armored divisions could be kept out of the battle air could help with that when the fight had opened at 9:30 the night of October 23rd the attack began by daylight on the 24th the combined artillery and infantry attack was crowbar a good hole in the axis positions the attack was making good progress the problem was to neutralize the axis armor being held in reserve during the night British Motor torpedo boats crept into Shore laid down a smoke screen then made noises to give the impression of a large scale landing on the [Music] beach the 90th light moved up to defend the beaches from the expected attack by the time the error was discovered it was too late for frequent air attacks kept the division pinned to the beach area other attacks disorganized the 15th Panza and Lorio divisions whenever they attempted to form in the same way the 21st paner and the arietti were pinned on by air power during the daylight hours partly as a result of the diversions and the constant bombing it was 3 days before the axis armor could concentrate behind the real point of attack and to do that it had to move at night the Infantry engineers and artillery worked for a week to enlarge the Gap the Air Force kept the enemy out of the air and attacked enemy installations andem concentrations and any enemy armored formations which showed signs of getting ready for a Counterattack then on the 1st of November came the Breakthrough through the Gap poured the entire British tank force at arar air on November 2nd met the remaining German armor which had not yet been able to bring its weight to [Music] Bear the result was a decisive Victory by November 3rd German resistance was [Music] crumbling The Retreat had begun as the full flood of Allied Force poured through the breach in the front the Italians to the South automatically had their Retreat cut off they could be gathered in at leisure an Ever growing volume of traffic jammed The Shore Road Westward through CDL ramen in the tiny towns of gazala alava and fuka on to this crowded Highway the Allied Tactical Air Force shifted the main weight of its attacks enemy air activity had practically vanished the bombing of the traffic along the roads was turning the retreat into a route with the ground forces cleaning up the isolated pockets of resistance and breaking down the axis rear guard and with the Air Forces destroying the fleeing axis vehicles on the road the enemy never had a chance to stop the air power that might have been able to hold off the Allies had been destroyed even before the battle began more than 500 axis aircraft were found after the battle either wrecked by bombing or grounded for lack of fuel and how heavy a toll the air had taken of its trucks and tanks and Armored Cars was seen by the eighth Army as they Advanced along the littered roads the combination of air power and ground power each correctly employed had misled an able enemy confused him broken him and driven him in Relentless Pursuit Pursuit that lasted for 13 weeks and 133 00 miles and ended with the clearing of the axis from North Africa suppose we look once more at the principles of the employment of air power as they were demonstrated in the L alamain campaign in that campaign all ground forces in the theater were commanded by a ground commander and all Air Forces by an air commander in the planning and conduct of operations strategic missions were undertaken to dry up the enemy's supply of weapons at the source the tactic iCal Air Force was used to carry out the first priority Mission the gaining of air superiority by attacks against aircraft in the air and on the ground and on those enemy installations which he required for the application of air power the second priority Mission the isolation of the battlefield was carried out by massed attacks sustained over an extended period upon the enemy's lines of communications supply dumps installations and concentrations in the rear when this had been done and only when it had been done was the third priority Mission undertaken the attack on selected objectives in the battle area in furtherance of the combined air ground effort and in order to make sure of the necessary teamwork the command posts of the Tactical Air Force and the ground force were adjacent in fact all but common L alamain was the laboratory and Proving Ground for the new doctrine of the command and employment of airow particularly ITS Tactical employment in Tunisia [Music] Sicily Italy and in France the results have been the same crushing defeat for the axis and conclusive victory for the allies and in the Pacific these basic principles have again been confirmed although the details of application have sometimes varied in conjunction with surface forces both land and sea air power has been employed in Mass against the enemy's lines of communication thus effectively isolating the battlefield while air superiority has been maintained by sustained Mass attacks on the enemy's air strength and so in every theater of World War II these fundamental concepts of integration of air power with surface forces have again and again been [Music] proven the Strategic Air Force prepares for the de feat of the Enemy by destroying his means to fight destroying his will to fight the Tactical Air Force assures the defeat of the Enemy by gaining air superiority isolating the battlefield participating in Combined air ground effort this is the doctrine of successful use of air power and armies [Music]