Learning from Iraq?
Have a look at 'Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force, 1919-1939' by David Omissi, pub. 1990. IIRC the focus was on Iraq, where the RAF for reasons of economy became the 'policing' power, not the Army. It may give you a template to follow, see the contents summary:http://books.google.co.uk/books/abou...d=9QYNAQAAIAAJ
A critical review, more of what the book describes than the book itself and oh boy is it expensive:http://www.amazon.com/Air-Power-Colo...owViewpoints=1
davidbfpo
I think I started a whole thread on that subject sometime back. "Air Policing" is the concept that the British developed for use in WW1 and it has a lot of merit and some of the work has influenced the development of some modern Air Weapons (small diameter bombsfor example).
Slap's thread was merged into thread Aviation in COIN (merged thread)
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=7603I
Last edited by davidbfpo; 06-10-2016 at 11:08 AM. Reason: Link and updated
Thank you guys for the insights. I have Mars Landing, and I will be diving into it this week. I will definitely have to check out the Marine Corps Gazette.
David, I will pick up a copy of the book as soon as I can this week.
And I should have specified more so with the American experience of small wars. I need to go back over my materials and see if there was any air power used in the DR/Haiti. I didn't think so... but... Touching any other COIN effort will have to be later when my professors actually deem military history "history"....
Slapout, I read through the first page of the link you gave, and it was interesting. I did have a problem with the link in your first post. Is there any way you could furnish a good one or a way I could get a copy of the pdf?
Last edited by Rose; 12-17-2012 at 08:33 AM.
Rose, don't know what happened to the original link but try this one. Should work.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/saas/gagnon.pdf
If you read the reference sources at the end of each chapter you will find alot of good sources for further exploration. I have always said that The Air Force could fight and win a Small War with the edition of a small cadre of Green Berets but not to many here agree with that idea. Just my opinion but people in general have vastly underestimated the Air Force and what they could do to fight a Small War if they were allowed to.
Last edited by slapout9; 12-17-2012 at 07:30 PM. Reason: add stuff
Link to good article on the British experience with Air Power in Small Wars.
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a...-aug/dean.html
Air Power in COIN
Slap,
That is a good find, although I am confident the Inter-War British use of air power was based on economic factors. The concluding comments on the US lack of a doctrine plus for using air power in small wars is worth reading alone, written in 1983.
Dramatic draw down:In late 1920, a serious rebellion (in Iraq) against British rule was in progress; the 80 British and Indian battalions (120,000 troops) garrisoning the country were being hard pressed to maintain order. An additional 15,414 men sent from India were quickly absorbed in trying to control an insurrection of at least 131,000 armed men.Those cursed political officers appear too:The army began to withdraw from Iraq during the summer of 1922, leaving behind four battalions of British and Indian troops and three armored car companies.Excellent intelligence also enabled the Royal Air Force to avoid attacking people not directly involved—an important requirement in a constabulary-type operation. The Royal Air Force had its own well-trained intelligence officers and civilian political officers on hand to build the necessary intelligence networks.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 12-18-2012 at 04:16 PM. Reason: two corrections
davidbfpo
Slap,Originally Posted by slapout9
You may want to look at James Corum's chapter on airpower in small wars in "A History of Air Warfare". He has an interesting analysis of air policing and its actual effectiveness. In short, he says it had an impact early on, but the impact diminished as the locals became accustomed to air elements and their limitations. Colin Gray also lists small wars-type stuff as something airpower does poorly in his "Airpower for Strategic Effect."
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
Steve Blair,
Thanks for the references. I have read Gray's Airpower several times and as usual he is very insightful but I disagree on several points of his. I have not read the other reference so I will take a look.
Corum is something of an authority on Luftwaffe doctrine, and has also written a book specifically about airpower in small wars.
I actually found Gray's list of airpower strengths and weaknesses quite balanced and in line with history as opposed to theory (page 281 of that book).
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
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