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General Giulio Douhet (30 May 1869 - 15 February 1930) was an Italian air power theorist. He was a key proponent of strategic bombing in aerial warfare. May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ...
1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...
February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The city heart of Rotterdam after being terror bombed by Nazi Germany in 1940, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of Rotterdams medieval architecture. ...
Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift. ...
History
Douhet was a contemporary of the 1920s air warfare advocates Billy Mitchell and Sir Hugh Trenchard. Born in Caserta near Naples, Giulio attended the Genoa Military Academy and was commissioned into the artillery. Later he attended the Polytechnic Institute in Turin where he studied science and engineering. For other people with the same name, see Billy Mitchell (disambiguation). ...
Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard (February 3, 1873 - February 10, 1956) was the British Chief of the Air Staff during World War I, and was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
Caserta, near Naples was certainly the largest palace and probably the largest building erected in Europe in the 18th century. ...
In military organizations, a commissioned officer is a member of the service who derives authority directly from a sovereign power, and as such holds a commission from that power. ...
Artillery with Gabion fortification Cannons on display at Fort Point Continental Artillery crew from the American Revolution Firing of an 18-pound gun, Louis-Philippe Crepin, (1772 – 1851) A forge-welded Iron Cannon in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. ...
Assigned to the General Staff in the early 1900s Douhet published lectures on military mechanization. With the arrival of dirigibles and then fixed-wing aircraft in Italy he quickly recognized the military potential of the new technology. Douhet saw the pitfalls of allowing air power to be fettered by ground commanders and began to advocate the creation of a separate air arm, commanded by airmen. He teamed up with the young aircraft engineer Gianni Caproni to extol the virtues of air power in the years ahead.
In 1911 Italy went to war against Turkey for control of Libya -- a war that saw aircraft used for the first time in reconnaissance, transport, artillery spotting and bombing roles. Douhet was tasked with writing a report on the aviation lessons learned in which he suggested high altitude bombing should be the primary role of aircraft. In 1912 Douhet assumed command of the Italian aviation battalion at Turin, where he wrote a set of Rules for the Use of Airplanes in War -- one of the first doctrine manuals of its kind. However, Douhet's preaching on air power marked him as a 'radical'. After an incident in which he ordered construction of Caproni bombers without authorization, he was exiled to the infantry. 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ...
1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
When World War I began, Douhet began to call for Italy to launch a massive military buildup -- particularly in aircraft. "To gain command of the air," he said, was to render an enemy "harmless". He proposed a force of 500 bombers that could drop 125 tons of bombs daily, but was ignored. When Italy entered the war in 1915 Douhet was shocked by the army's incompetence and unpreparedness. He corresponded with his superiors and government officials, criticising the conduct of the war and advocating an air power solution. One particularly scathing letter resulted in Douhet's arrest and court-martial for spreading false news and agitation. He was sentenced to a year in a military jail. “The Great War †redirects here. ...
1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Douhet continued to write about air power from his cell, finishing a novel on air power and proposing a massive Allied fleet of aircraft in communications to ministers. He was released and returned to duty shortly after the disastrous Battle of Caporetto in 1917. He soon became the central director of aviation at the General Air Commisariat where he worked to improve Italy's air arm. Combatants Austria-Hungary German Empire Italy Commanders Otto von Below Luigi Cadorna Strength 35 divisions 41 divisions Casualties 20,000 dead or wounded 40,000 dead 20,000 wounded 275,000 captured Difficult Progress In Alps The Battle of Caporetto (or Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the...
1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ...
In June 1918 Douhet left the Army, disgusted with his superiors. After the armistice he was able to have his court-martial overturned and was promoted to General. But rather than return to active duty Douhet continued writing. In 1921 he completed a hugely influential treatise on strategic bombing titled The Command of the Air. 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...
Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ...
The city heart of Rotterdam after being terror bombed by Nazi Germany in 1940, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of Rotterdams medieval architecture. ...
Aerial Strategy In his book Douhet argued that air power was revolutionary because it operated in the third dimension. Aircraft could fly over surface forces, relegating them to secondary importance. The vastness of the sky made defense almost impossible, so the essence of air power was the offensive. The only defense was a good offense. The air force that could achieve command of the air by bombing the enemy air arm into extinction would doom its enemy to perpetual bombardment. Command of the air meant victory.
Douhet believed in the morale effects of bombing. Air power could break a people's will by destroying a country's "vital centers". Armies became superfluous because aircraft could overfly them and attack these centers of the government, military and industry with impunity. Targeting was central to this strategy and he believed that air commanders would prove themselves by their choice of targets. These would vary from situation to situation, but Douhet identified the five basic target types as: industry, transport infrastructure, communications, government and "the will of the people". This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
The last category was particularly important to Douhet, who believed in the principle of Total War. Total war is a military conflict in which nations mobilize all available resources in order to destroy another nations ability to engage in war. ...
The chief strategy laid out in his writings, the Douhet model, is pivotal in debates regarding the use of air power and bombing campaigns. The Douhet model rests on the belief that in a conflict, the infliction of high costs from aerial bombing can shatter civilian morale. This would unravel the social basis of resistance, and pressure citizens into asking their governments to surrender. The logic of this model is that exposing large portions of civilian populations to the terror of destruction or the shortage of consumer goods would damage civilian morale into submission. His theories of air bombing are still relevant today, despite the fact that he wrote in an era before nuclear weapons.
The entire population was in the front line of an air war and they could be terrorized with urban bombing. In his book The War of 19-- he described a fictional war between Germany and a Franco-Belgian alliance in which the Germans launched massive terror bombing raids on the populace, reducing their cities to ashes before their armies could mobilize. Because bombing would be so terrible, Douhet believed that wars would be short. As soon as one side lost command of the air it would capitulate rather than face the terrors of air attack. In other words, the enemy air force was the primary target. A decisive victory here would hasten the end of the war.
This emphasis on the strategic offensive would blind Douhet to the possibilities of air defense or tactical support of armies. In his second edition of The Command of the Air he maintained such aviation was "useless, superfluous and harmful". He proposed an independent air force composed primarily of long-range load-carrying bombers. He believed interception of these bombers was unlikely, but allowed for a force of escort aircraft to ward off interceptors. Attacks would not require great accuracy. A mix of explosive, incendiary and poison gas bombs would be enough to flatten cities when dropped from massed formations.
Critical Reception Though the initial response to The Command of the Air was muted, the second edition generated virulent attacks from his military peers -- particularly those in the navy and army. Douhet's was an apocalyptic vision that gripped the popular imagination. But his theories would be unproven -- and therefore unchallenged -- for another 20 years. In many cases he had exaggerated the effects of bombing. His calculations for the amount of bombs and poison gas required to destroy a city were ludicrously optimistic. World War II would prove many of his predictions to be wrong -- particularly on the vulnerability of public morale to bombing. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
Outside of Italy, Douhet's reception was mixed. In Britain he remained a curio -- The Command of the Air was not required reading at the RAF Staff College. However, France, Germany and America were far more receptive and his theories were discussed and disseminated there.
A supporter of Benito Mussolini, Douhet was appointed commissioner of aviation when the Fascists assumed power but he soon gave up this bureaucrat's job to continue writing, which he did up to his death from a heart attack in 1930. More than 70 years on, many of his predictions have failed to come true, but some of his concepts -- gaining command of the air, terror bombing and attacking vital centers -- continue to underpin air power theory to this day. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) was the prime minister and dictator of Italy from 1922 until 1943, when he was overthrown. ...
Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing civilian targets and strafing civilians in order to break the morale of the enemy and make its civilian population panic. ...
See also Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift. ...
The city heart of Rotterdam after being terror bombed by Nazi Germany in 1940, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of Rotterdams medieval architecture. ...
Further reading - Giulio Douhet, Command of the Air (USAF Warrior Studies), Office of Air Force History, United States Government Printing Office (1983), trade paperback, ISBN 0-912799-10-2; trade paperback, Airforce History Museums Pro (1998) , 406 pages, ISBN 0-16-049772-8; hardcover, Arno Press (1942), 396 pages, ISBN 0-405-04567-0; hardcover, Natraj Publishers, (2003), 325 pages, ISBN 81-8158-002-8); first published in 1921; Coward McCann & Geoghegan, (1942), hardcover, 394 pages; Faber and Faber (1943), hardcover 325 pages; Collector's Edition, Easton Press, Library of Military History (1994), ISBN 0-405-04567-0
- Joseph Henrotin. L'Airpower au 21ème siècle. Enjeux et perspectives de la stratégie aérienne. Bruxelles : Bruylant (RMES), 2005, softcover
- Louis A. Siguad, Air Power and Unification: Douhet's Principles of Warfare and Their Application to the United, The Military Service Publishing Co. 1949, hardcover
External links - Command of the Air (complete text, 1942 translation)
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