Air Power V

This is the last installment on Air Power

Air Power V

The Men, Machines, and Ideas Which Revolutionized War from Kitty hawk to Iraq.

By Stephen Budiansky

Air Power V: a book report

By Larry Eicher

Stalin was not in a good mood after WW II.  You could see his attitude in the news reels.  He somehow felt abandoned by the Allies.  He should have stopped to think that he had killed most of the leadership and experienced pilots in his air force.  The Allies didn’t make him do that.  The reason for the Berlin blockade may have been his attitude, my opinion not Budiansky's.  Air power was involved with the air lift initiated by Harry Truman where we flew in food and supplies when Stalin blocked all passage into and out of Berlin.  Berlin had been divided in to four sectors at the end of WW II and the USA, Brittan and France were responsible for their sectors.  We used C-47’s and later C-54’s for this purpose.  I think Stalin was trying to pick another fight.

I think his attitude lead to the Cold War.  Soviets had stolen the atomic bomb secrets from the USA and it was not long before Russia was testing their own atomic bomb.  The United States soon had SAC, Strategic Air Command, to protect us from nuclear attack by Russia.  During the initial months and years of the Cold War, the USAF, had bombers loaded with nuclear bombs and always in the air.  SAC was continually on alert with a war footing.

The evolution of the bombers in SAC during the period was B-29, B-36, B-50, B-47, B-52, B-58, FB-111A, B-1B and B-2.  All of us, the school age boys knew them.  The follow on to the B-52 was the XB-70 but before it could be developed and used the ICBM’s came along.  Bombers were no longer needed in SAC for that reason.  It is now Feb, 2020 and I can remember hearing about B-52’s in every war/conflict up until this time.

Earlier, I mentioned the question of hitting the target with the bomb.  Budiansky, and he has convinced me, seems to think the problem has been solved.  The evolution goes something like this.  Dumb bombs, Laser designated with attached guidance, TV guided bombs steered by the Bombardier, Radar guided, GPS Guided (aka satellite guided), Anti-ship Missiles, Cruise missiles and Short-range Attack Missiles.  I’m sure I have missed some but Budiansky mentions them all and in what conflict/war they were used.

I wanted to show you something I found very interesting while reading.  This sort of thing is found throughout the book.  He used it for every major aircraft mentioned.  I like to know what the aircraft looks like if I don’t know it when I read about it.  I read on an IPad and consequently have available the internet to look up a plane I don’t know.  These little info pages serve that need when available.  This was a little difficult to make on my scanner.  It would work better with a camera but I did not take time.

 

If you find Air Power and War interesting you will probably like this book.  I don’t find the personal conflicts between leaders very interesting but the diagrams kept me reading.  Even though I lived through the cold war and remember the news from that era I can’t say it was that interesting.  I retain the school boy interest in the planes, though.  I had an uncle who served on a B-29 during WW II.  He was stationed at Wright-Patterson. 

I did not find the political and military infighting and conflict interesting.  Budiansky discussed it all at length.  If you like it read slowly and if you don’t like it read fast.  I hope you enjoy this book, I did.