Air Warfare

1845: Austria Drops Balloon Bombs on Venice

Air Warfare Austria 5 Min Read

In July 1849, in the first aerial bombardment in history, the Austrians launched an aerial attack on the beseiged Venice, in the Republic of San Marco. They released balloons carrying, it was claimed, 30lb bombs. According to a report in the Scientific American of the previous March from Vienna, the intention of the Austrians had been to launch five balloons…

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Air Warfare Organisation 17 Min Read

Fourteenth Air Force

14th Air Force B-24, China, c. 1944. Newly arrived Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators on the line at Kunming Airport. B-25s in China. The Japanese were unable to defeat Nationalist China before they had commitments to their Pacific War, from December 1941. Now with Allied aid supporting China, even if…

Air Warfare Biography 15 Min Read

SOVIET FIGHTER ACES IN KOREA

Russian MiG-15 Aces in Korea, from left to right: Aleksandr P. Smorchkov (8 kills), Nikolai Ivanovich Ivanov (6), Semen Alexeievich Fedorets (8), Yevgeni G. Pepelyayev (19) and Sergei Makarovich Kramarenko (13). On Sunday, June 25, 1950, the North Korean Peoples Army suddenly launched its invasion of South Korea by crossing…

Air Warfare British Germany 6 Min Read

Operation Airthief – the plan to hijack an Fw 190A

Armin Faber’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3 of III/JG 2 at RAF Pembrey, June 1942. In June 1942, Oberstleutnant Armin Faber was Gruppen-Adjutant to the commander of the III fighter Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 2 (JG 2) based in Morlaix in Brittany. On 23 June, he was given special permission to fly a…

Air Warfare Germany 7 Min Read

Fw 190 – Entry into service In March 1941

Oberleutnant Otto Behrens assumed command of Erprobungsstaffel 190 based at Rechlin- Roggenthin. The unit received six pre-production Fw 190A-Os and its brief was to test the new tighter under service conditions. The pilots and ground crews assigned to the Erprobungstaffel were drawn from II. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 26, and the…

Air Warfare 11 Min Read

USAF Bomber Doctrine -Vietnam

USAF planners wished to declare the Korean War a success and move on. Most of all, they wished to put the experience-which they viewed as an aberration-behind them. FEAF’s 1954 final Report on the Korean War repeated a conclusion that Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer had already drawn in 1950:…

Air Warfare Japan Naval 17 Min Read

SAMURAI OF THE SKIES

The Imperial Japanese Navy began experimenting with aviation as early as the British and Americans. But because Japan did not see much combat in World War I, it had fallen behind the other powers by 1918. To catch up, it turned to its traditional mentors: for the army, the French;…

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Flak towers: then and now

The construction of Flaktürme (Flak towers) in major cities began in response to the first…

American Medium Bombers of WWII Part I

Douglas A-20 Havoc Douglas Aircraft developed the Model 7B twin-engine light attack bomber in the…

Spitfire XIVs versus Bf 109Ks

Final Encounter (Spitfire v Messerchmitt) by Michael Turner. Wing Commander J E Johnnie Johnson, Spitfire…

SOVIET FIGHTER ACES IN KOREA

Russian MiG-15 Aces in Korea, from left to right: Aleksandr P. Smorchkov (8 kills), Nikolai…