First use of Air Power in a counterinsurgency (Nicaragua, 1926-27)

[Rose]

Hey all. I've come a long way from my first post back in 2007ish. I've finished up the application process to the Air Force for a pilot slot on the upcoming rated boards. I just want to be selected for anything as an officer.

Anyways... I'm finishing up my history degree, and I finally am able to write about something other than the revolutionary war for my thesis paper. I've been wanting to do a lot more research on counterinsurgencies but haven't had an excuse too until now. I wanted to do something on the use of air power in counterinsurgencies due to (hopefully) being selected by the boards, and the first use that I came across was in Nicaragua against Sandino by the Marines. I have about 10 secondary sources on it, a few magazine articles and news paper accounts, but scant else.

Any suggestions on primary sources, or where to find any reports from those battles? First hand accounts? Possibly any review of the efficiency by the war department? Or any other suggestions?

I'm hoping to use this down the road when I go back for a masters as a launching pad for something better, maybe even a book that is really only read by people like those on this site/

[Steve Blair]

Try old issues of the Marine Corps Gazette. The book "Mars Learning" looks at the development of the Small Wars Manual and may give you some direct pointers to articles that covered air power. I don't think this was actually the first use, though...it might go back to the DR and/or Haiti. I don't have "Mars Learning" in front of me right now, so I can't check for sure.

[Bob's World]

In "7 Pillars" there is some treatment of the use of air power to support the Arab uprising. But that is perhaps one of the first uses of air power in UW.

[Steve Blair]

The French and I believe the Italians also used air assets in their colonial "adventures" both before and after World War I.

[davidbfpo]

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

[slapout9]

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

[Rose]

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?