Secdocument - 228download Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter

Aerial warfare : the battle for the skies.
Ledwidge
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/aerial-warfare-the-battle-for-the-skies-ledwidge/
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 26/12/2017, SPi
AERIAL WARFARE
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 1/12/2019 9:44 AM via FORDHAM UNIV
AN: 1729685 ; Ledwidge, Frank.; Aerial Warfare : The Battle for the Skies
Account: s8944763
P R A IS E F O R A E R I A L W A R F A R E
‘Arguments surrounding the role of air power alongside land and sea
power have raged for a century. The rise of digital networks and putative
cyber power adds a new and urgent dimension. Ledwidge writes with
compelling good judgment, a stylish energy, and panache.’
David Betz, Professor of War in the Modern
World, King’s College London
‘Frank Ledwidge’s short and concise Aerial Warfare ties strategy, tactics,
and technology neatly together. It is a first-rate survey of the evolution,
impact, and relevance of air power: past, present and future. Highly
recommended.’
Colonel John Andreas Olsen, PhD., Royal Norwegian Air Force
‘A concise and up-to-date account of the evolution of air power and its
various roles over time that is insightful and comprehensive. “Aerial Warfare”
will appeal to anybody interested in contemporary strategic studies.’
Bettina Renz, Associate Professor in
International Security, University of Nottingham
Account: s8944763
Account: s8944763
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Frank Ledwidge 
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 
Impression: 
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
 Madison Avenue, New York, NY , United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 
ISBN ––––
Printed in Great Britain by
Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
Account: s8944763
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
List of Illustrations ix
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms xi
 Foundations 
 Beginnings: The First World War – 
 Theory and Practice: The Interwar Years – 
 The Second World War: Air Operations in the West 
 The Second World War: The Air War in the Pacific 
 Cold War – 
 The Apotheosis of Air Power – 
 Aerostats to Algorithms – 
 Per Ardua ad Astra? 
References 
Further Reading 
Index 
Account: s8944763
Account: s8944763
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Over the course of researching and writing this book many

people with great knowledge of air power and its history have
given vital help. It is always difficult to do justice to everyone, but
here goes.
My colleagues at RAF Cranwell have been superb, sharing their
academic and operational knowledge. Dr Andrew Conway, Wing
Commander (retd) Mal Craghill, Group Captain (retd) Chris Finn,
Carl Hartford, Dr Ben Jones, Dr Peter Lee, Sqn Ldr Aggi Morrison,
Dr Steven Paget, Dr Matthew Powell, and Maj. Rob Spalton were
good enough to read all or part of the text and make corrections
or suggestions, as was Dr Eitan Shamir of the Begin-Sadat Center
in Israel. I’d also like to thank the superb library staff at Cranwell
for their kindness, refuge, and good advice. Dr Ed Burke and
Dr Bettina Renz at Nottingham and Dr Vladimir Rauta at Stafford-
shire were extremely helpful and kind. Colonel John Andreas
Olsen, the doyen of air-power scholarship was characteristically
extremely helpful and encouraging.
Shashank Joshak and Justin Bronk, two of the Royal United
Services Institute’s leading commentators and experts looked over
a section each, something beyond the call of duty and I am very
grateful.
I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for Oxford
University Press and also the book’s patient editor Jenny Nugee,
Account: s8944763
viii Acknowledgements
the production team led by Clement Raj, copy-editor Brian North,

and proofreader Rebecca Bryant. Everything they suggested was
constructive and helpful and has made this a far better book.
Where there are errors, they are mine.
I must also mention the RAF officers and officer cadets at
Cranwell, the home of the Royal Air Force. I have learned a very
great deal from them over the years and I have tried to incorpor-
ate some of that in this book. Their expertise has ranged from the
complexities of layered air defences during the Cold War to how
hand-held drones assist in contemporary combat.
The help and advice of all these remarkable people was invalu-
able; where mistakes have been made it is because I have ignored
that advice.
Finally, my family—Nevi and James—have endured many
evenings when I grumpily told them ‘don’t you know I’ve a
book to write?’ Enough of that for now!
Account: s8944763
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
 ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus  

Wikimedia Commons
 An Italian aircraft dives on Turkish troops 
© Alfredo Dagli Orti/REX/Shutterstock
 Reconnaissance photograph of the village of Allaines 
Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo
 Gotha VII Bomber 
Imperial War Museums (Q )
 Giulio Douhet 
© Tallandier/Bridgeman Images
 ‘Young people, take to the air!’ 
Courtesy of sovietart.me
 Supermarine Spitfire Mark II and Hawker Hurricane Mark I 
Ministry of Defence (Open Government Licence v.)
 ‘Guernica’ by Picasso 
© Succession Picasso/DACS, London . Photo © Fine Art
Images/age fotostock
 The Luftwaffe’s ‘Operational Air War’ in action 
Bundesarchiv, Bild I---. Photo: Richard Opitz
 Flight of P- Mustang fighters 
© PhotoQuest/Getty Images
 WW in the Pacific took place over vast distances 
Frank Ledwidge
Account: s8944763
x List of Illustrations
 The USS Essex 

National Archives photo no. -G-
 The world’s first nuclear attack 
National Archives photo no. 
 The Russian Tupolev Tu strategic bomber 
© Sebastian Sowa
 Algeria  
© Reporters Associés/Getty Images
 Soviet-supplied SA- anti-aircraft missile 
© Hulton Archive/Getty Images
 Royal Navy Sea Harrier 
© Trustees of the National Museum of the Royal Navy
 The OODA Loop 
 Warden’s Rings 
Adapted from J. Warden, , The Air Campaign: Planning
for Combat
 The F- Stealth fighter 
US Air Force
 A Norwegian C- 
© Antoine Gyori/Corbis/Getty Images
 Back to the future 
US Army Photo
 A Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter next to a BAE
Taranis drone 
Courtesy of BAE Systems
Account: s8944763
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
As with most military topics, air power is replete with acronyms

and abbreviations. The following are used in this book:
AAR air-to-air refuelling
ABM Aerospace Battle Management
ACTS Air Corps Tactical School
AEW airborne early warning
AWACS airborne [early] warning and control system
C command and control
C command, control, and communications
CAS close air support
ECM electronic countermeasures
FAA Fuerza Aerea Argentina, the Argentine Air Force
GBAD ground-based air defences
GPS global positioning system
IADS integrated air defence system
IAF Israeli Air Force
IDF Israeli Defence Forces
JSTARS joint surveillance target attack radar system
MEDEVAC medical evacuation
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NLF National Liberation Front
NVA North Vietnamese Army
OCA offensive counter-air
OODA Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act
PGMs precision-guided munitions
Account: s8944763
xii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
RAF Royal Air Force

RAP recognized air picture
RDF radio direction finding (after  better known as radio
direction and ranging: radar)
RFC Royal Flying Corps
RPAS remotely piloted aircraft system (also known as UAV
or drone)
SAM surface-to-air missile
SEAD suppression of enemy air defences
UAV unmanned aerial vehicle (also known as RPAS or drone)
USAAC United States Army Air Corps (which became the USAAF
in )
USAAF United States Army Air Force (which became the USAF
after )
USAF United States Air Force
USSBS US Strategic Bombing Survey
WW First World War
WW Second World War
Account: s8944763

Foundations
‘Air power is the use of air capabilities to influence the behaviour

of actors and the course of events’; this Royal Air Force definition
is as good as any. For decades air power has been the primary tool
used by major powers to coerce recalcitrant opponents. Those ‘air
capabilities’ are almost as likely to be wielded today by unmanned
aircraft or a guided missile as they are by an aeroplane with a crew
dropping bombs. The principles of the deployment, the grammar
as it were of air power, have changed little over the last one hundred
years or so. Only the technology, the vocabulary, has altered. In
, oil-streaked aircrew in open cockpits flew fabric-covered
biplanes over shell-pocked First World War battlefields. In 
their great-grandchildren, gazing at computer screens in cabins
humming with technology, pilot drones over dusty villages thou-
sands of miles away. The roles they carry out are broadly the same.
As a dominant, if not the dominant military technology over
the last century, air power has developed extraordinarily quickly.
In one sense, of course, aircraft are simply another military tech-
nology like firearms or submarines, both of which have greatly
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
influenced military conflict. However, air power has several unique

qualities. First, it has the potential of ubiquity. Giulio Douhet
(–), one of the early ‘prophets’ of air power, wrote in
 that ‘the airplane has complete freedom of action and direc-
tion; it can fly to and from any point of the compass in the shortest
time—in a straight line—by any route deemed expedient’.
Secondly, it may do so at great height permitting extensive
observation. Third, it has reach which applies over both land and
sea; geographical obstacles are not relevant. Finally, aircraft may
operate at great speed acting generally far more quickly than
ground- or sea-based vehicles. Aircraft also operate with limita-
tions, notably impermanence. Even today, with the advantages
of air-to-air refuelling and very long endurance, no aircraft can
remain indefinitely over its objective. An aircraft cannot hold
territory nor can it substitute for ‘boots on the ground’, although
that has not stopped military planners from trying to make them
do exactly that.
At the tactical level, which is to say in support of armies and
navies, there is no question that aircraft have fundamentally
changed the conduct of war on land and at sea. However, since
aircraft achieved the range to cross enemy lines and strike at an
enemy’s cities and bases, there has been a strong current of
thinking that air power can be more than just another military
capability, and that it can have strategic effect and achieve political
goals alone. It is this hope that drives contemporary politicians
in many countries to see air power as one possible solution to
extremely difficult political or security problems. The argument
as to whether aircraft can indeed achieve strategic results runs
throughout this book.
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Vast resources have been and are spent on the development

and production of military aircraft. This continues, now as much
as ever. The most expensive military procurement project in
history, indeed possibly the most expensive public procurement
project of any kind, is the current F- Lightning II, a multi-role
fighter-bomber aircraft designed for service into the s. This
will cost taxpayers in the countries it is designed to equip, particu-
larly the USA, well in excess of $ trillion. Questions concerning
the development, deployment, and potential of air power, whether
they like it or not, are everyone’s concern; aside from any other
consideration, everyone is paying for it.
Since the very beginning it was clear that the new technology
would have military applications. The Wright brothers, who
made the first powered flight in , were not the homespun
bicycle-makers of legend, or rather were not only that. They were
very familiar with complex aeronautical mathematics and engin-
eering theory, just as today’s aircraft engineers must be. It was
clear from the start that aircraft would have a military dimension,
and the Wright brothers were explicit that they were looking for
military contracts to continue their work, which they eventually
received. In , Lord Northcliffe, a British newspaper magnate
sent a telegram: ‘aeroplane primarily intended war machine stop’.
The First World War (WW), which we will examine in Chapter ,
demonstrated that aeroplanes would indeed be war machines,
and very formidable ones. Whilst it was never a decisive arm on
any WW front, all the elements of its future deployment were
present with the exception of its potential for mobility. By the
end of the war, the combatant nations had thousands of aircraft
in their inventories with their attendant administrative and
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
logistical structures. The world’s first independent air arm, the

Royal Air Force, had been formed. The years after WW, exam-
ined in Chapter , saw theorists looking at how this promising
new military dimension might be deployed most effectively.
These theorists argued that the nature of war itself had now
changed, that all elements of a nation might now be in the front
line. Air power could win wars alone, they said, either by terroriz-
ing citizens to the extent that they would force their governments
to capitulate or through demolishing a state’s industrial capability
to sustain a war. This was and is termed ‘strategic bombing’,
although there is rarely anything ‘strategic’ about it. Most import-
antly, air power offered the possibility that future conflict might be
cheaper than the ‘old’ wars, both in lives and money.
Not all air forces bought into these ideas; the pre-Second World
War (WW) German and Soviet Air Forces saw their roles pri-
marily as supporting the army by attacking the enemy’s deployed
forces. All of these ideas and many more were put to the test in
WW and will be dealt with in Chapters  and . Whole cities
were devastated by bombing: Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki, and Tokyo being only the most well-known amongst
dozens of others. Whilst arguments still rage as to the strategic
effectiveness and indeed the morality of these operations, there
is no dispute that aircraft were vital to battlefield success in both
the war in Europe and North Africa. In the Pacific, US industrial
power created a vast and highly efficient aircraft carrier fleet, with
the aircraft and trained crews to man them.
Chapters  and  deal with the Cold War period after WW by
examining the ‘small wars of peace’, many of which were any-
thing but small or peaceful. More bombs were dropped during the
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Vietnam War than all of WW, causing great damage but having
questionable effect, to say the least, on its political outcome.
Other conflicts from South Asia to the Middle East, from Africa
to the South Atlantic saw aircraft as decisive on the battlefield.
The end of the Cold War was marked by what appeared to be
something of a shift. Some new thinking brought air power once
again into play as a possible ‘war-winner’ in the First Gulf War of
 and the Balkan Wars. Even here the truth is more nuanced
than air power enthusiasts might wish to believe.
Chapters  and  bring us into today’s world of the wars on
‘terror’, drones, and cyber-war, and consider briefly what air
power may look like in the future.
Like any other field of military activity, air warfare has pro-
duced an alphabet soup of acronyms. There is, I am afraid, no real
way of avoiding them entirely. Terms are given in full at first
usage along with the acronym and subsequently acronym only;
there is a complete list of abbreviations at the start of the book.
Before embarking on the story of military air power, we will visit
an air base near a conflict zone today, where a mission is being
prepared to attack a target in enemy territory.
Anatomy of an Air Strike

Intelligence officers and imagery analysts have pored over images
taken from manned reconnaissance aircraft, drones (also known
as RPAS, ‘Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems’ or UAV, ‘Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle’), and satellites. They have selected the target; lawyers
have confirmed that hitting it conforms with international humani-
tarian law, the law of war, and senior officers or even politicians
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
have approved the mission. Engineers have ensured that the two
aircraft are airworthy, and armourers have placed the correct
bombs and missiles (known as ‘ordnance’) onto the bomb-racks
and loaded the guns. Flight operations personnel fuel the aircraft.
Fire-crews and medical personnel are on constant stand-by.
A ‘combat search and rescue’ team is briefed; the team will go in
by helicopter and ‘extract’ aircrews who are shot down and eject
over enemy territory. All are fed and sustained by a highly complex
and usually smoothly functioning administration and logistics
system, which itself benefits from the advantages offered by trans-
port aircraft (mobility) which can move supplies or personnel
anywhere in the world very quickly.
The crews flying the aircraft in the mission (which is sometimes
called a ‘strike package’) are briefed with the latest imagery and
information on the enemy’s defences. They enter their cockpits,
complete their own checks ensuring the aircraft software is cor-
rectly updated and communicating with other elements of the
mission. When the time comes for take-off, air traffic control
ensures airspace ahead of the strike package is clear. If neutral
territory is to be overflown, diplomats may have obtained clear-
ances. Once aloft Aerospace Battle Management (ABM) teams
take over and ensure the mission is coordinated with allied forces
in the area.
ABM is sometimes based in large aircraft packed with radars and
detectors which range the electronic spectrum; as well as surveying
the ‘battle space’ looking for enemy activity they also ‘deconflict’
with other nations’ aircraft which may also be operating in the area.
A ‘quick-reaction alert’ (QRA) fighter element is on standby to
protect us and deter curious or indeed hostile attention. There is
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
also likely to be an ‘electronic countermeasures’ (ECM) aircraft,

packed with powerful jamming equipment in support. The ECM
crew will be trying to jam the enemy’s radars and perhaps disrupt
his electronic networks. All the time the strike package is itself
using an extensive suite of electronics to detect possible threats
from the ground, or indeed in the air, in the form of missiles. All of
these activities are intended to ensure that there is adequate control of
the air to enable the mission to proceed. ABM will also co-ordinate
any air-to-air refuelling (AAR) that may be required on a long-
range mission.
Upon entering the enemy’s airspace the strike aircraft will need
to avoid enemy air defences, and both fighters and ground-based
air defences (GBAD). Friendly fighters will assist in eliminating an
air threat. As for anti-aircraft missiles (surface to air missiles
(SAMs)), another strike mission may have been ordered to deal
with those and their controlling radars—if ECM has not already
managed to neutralize them. This is called ‘suppression of enemy
air defences’ (SEAD). Low-level flying skills can also help with this.
Once the aircraft arrive at their objective, the target may be
‘marked’ with a laser. In some circumstances troops on the
ground, probably special forces, will mark the target, or global
positioning system (GPS) co-ordinates may be used to achieve
great precision for the strike. Either way, it is imperative that in
hitting the target the mission avoids, to the greatest extent pos-
sible, civilian casualties, as ‘collateral damage’ may impair the
overall war effort by reducing its legitimacy. The aircraft returns
to base, with all elements remaining vigilant.
This is not the end for this attack mission. Satellites or other
aircraft must now do a battle-damage assessment to see if the
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
bombs have done the intended damage. They will also conduct
the baleful task of assessing whether there has been collateral
damage in the form of civilian deaths. The system then begins
again and gears up for another attack.
That was a very simple example of a relatively straightforward
mission. The reader will appreciate that there are very many
‘moving parts’ in such a simple operation, as well as very many
acronyms! The reader might consider it worth recalling as we go
on to look at the history of air power that many missions were
orders of magnitude more complex than this one. Imagine the
preparation for a WW thousand-bomber raid over Germany in
the dark, opposed by a ferociously efficient enemy with fighter
aircraft and anti-aircraft guns directed by radar. The technology
has improved but the four fundamental roles of military aircraft—
control of the air, attack, reconnaissance and mobility remain the same.
The Four Roles of Air Power: Control of the Air

The four roles of air power (Box ) are interdependent and to an
extent they are labels of convenience. Some operations may
involve all four roles, and indeed may incorporate other compo-
nents of air power such as command and control.
Without a significant degree of control of the air, the other
three elements are impossible to achieve. It is the key enabler for
the other main roles of air power. If a commander cannot be
assured of air control, the shape of operations will change greatly.
Control of the air is not only gained by other aircraft (e.g. fighters)
as GBAD may also be highly effective. For example, in the Vietnam
War,  per cent of US air losses (helicopters and strike aircraft)
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
B  The Four Roles of Air Power

......................................................................................
() Control of the Air: ensuring that it is you, not your enemy that has
the freedom of the air. The ultimate aim is ‘air supremacy’ which
is unchallenged control. ‘Air superiority’ is next best, where
enemy challenge is reduced to a minimum. Control of the air
is usually gained with the use of fighters; it can also be chal-
lenged by effective ground-based anti-aircraft missiles or guns,
or indeed by taking or attacking airfields—an approach termed
‘offensive counter-air’.
() Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, also termed Intelligence
and Situational Awareness: finding the enemy and learning as
much as you can about him. Very commonly, reconnaissance
is carried out by dedicated and specially equipped aircraft and
satellites, as well as troops on the ground. The acronym ISTAR
is commonly used for this function (‘intelligence, surveillance,
target acquisition, and reconnaissance’).
() Attack: otherwise known as bombing. Attack is enabled by
control of the air and good intelligence. It is the primary
means by which air power is exercised on land or at sea.
There are three primary forms: tactical bombing is applied to
targets on the battlefield; interdiction attempts to ‘seal the
battlefield’ from supplies and reinforcements; strategic bombing
is directed against the industrial or civilian base of a country.
() Mobility: the ability to use aircraft to transport equipment or
people—sometimes termed logistics. This can act as a ‘force-
multiplier’ for ground forces whether carried out by helicopters
at the battlefield or tactical level, or huge transport aircraft
which provide ‘strategic lift’. Operations can also be sustained
by the use of AAR.
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
were sustained from ground fire. ‘Offensive counter-air’ (OCA)

involves attacking an enemy’s bases; clearly if an aircraft cannot
take off, it is of no use. This is an example of how one role, attack,
can act to achieve another, control of the air. Possibly the best
example of this took place on  June  when the Israeli Air
Force destroyed much of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground in
a surprise attack (see Chapter ); for the rest of the Six Day War,
Israeli aircraft ranged relatively freely over the battlefields.
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

The oldest function of air power reflects the old military adage
that a commander needs to ‘see the other side of the hill’. The
earliest demonstrations of the potential of aircraft were simple
attempts to use balloons to acquire sufficient height to see behind
enemy lines. In , just eleven years after the Montgolfier broth-
ers had flown the first manned hot air balloon, the French Army
Aerostatic Corps was formed—twenty-five soldiers were selected
for their expertise in chemistry and other relevant fields; com-
manded by Captain Jean Marie Joseph Coutelle, they were the
world’s first air arm.
In June  at the Battle of Fleurus, pilots of the Corps flew the
‘Entreprenant’—a tethered hydrogen balloon (Figure ). They were
able to inform the French commanding General Jourdan of the
movements of Austrian troops by dropping messages and using
semaphore. The battle was a significant victory for the French and
established their superiority in the Revolutionary Wars of the
period, although the Aerostatic Corps was rarely used again—it
was disbanded in . The first years of the American Civil War
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Figure  ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus 
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
saw both sides deploy balloons to no decisive effect and they

were also seen in the Franco-Prussian War of –. Since ,
reconnaissance has usually involved the use of powered aircraft
utilizing control of the air to observe the enemy and find targets
for attack. Again, this can involve using aircraft on or near the
battlefield (tactical) and deep behind enemy lines (strategic).
Since the early s satellites have played an ever-increasing
role, particularly in providing strategic intelligence. Since the late
s many reconnaissance aircraft have been unmanned.
Attack
Attack is the application of explosives or other forms of ordnance
from the air against enemy forces or indeed civilians. It too has a
long pedigree. On  November , nd Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti
of the Italian Army air battalion, based in Libya, took off in his
flimsy single-seat aircraft and dropped four grenades on Turkish
troops just outside Tripoli. He was the world’s first bomber pilot
(Figure ). Exactly one hundred years later, North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) bombers soared over the same Tripoli
skies. The first raid on a civilian target by a heavier-than-air
aircraft was on  October  during the First Balkan War
when a Bulgarian aircraft flown by Captain Radul Milkov dropped
two small bombs on Adrianople (now Edirne). No casualties were
reported in either operation.
Attack is often used in the interdiction role, denying the enemy
resupply or reinforcement. For example, during the Ardennes
Campaign of , better known as the Battle of the Bulge, Allied
air forces had almost entirely stopped the flow of fuel to German
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Figure  An Italian aircraft dives on Turkish troops
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
army tank units. If a tank cannot move due to lack of fuel it

is essentially useless. In modern terminology this is called a
‘mobility kill’.
A  Royal Flying Corps paper authored by the man who was
to become the ‘father of the Royal Air Force’, Hugh Trenchard,
said that ‘ . . . the mere presence of a hostile machine above them
inspires those on the ground with exaggerated forebodings of
what it is capable of doing’. In an age of armed drones, whose
presence may merely be suspected, this is at least as true now as it
was then.
Reconnaissance and control of the air are often used to enable
attack by finding targets and clearing the way for strike aircraft
(bombers or their smaller relatives, fighter-bombers). When sol-
diers call upon aircraft to assist them in battle directly, by attack-
ing other soldiers, this is known as close air support (CAS).
Probably the most ferociously contested controversy in air
power theory concerns the war-winning potential of air power.
One school believes that air power can have a strategic (war-
winning) effect on its own. At the other extreme there are those
who believe that air power has only ever been truly effective in
achieving war aims when it is used as an adjunct to fighting forces
at the tactical (battlefield) level. Most commentators would agree
that the answer depends on which war, or indeed which phase of
a given war, one is discussing.
Mobility
The fourth fundamental role of air power, air mobility, is vital too,
perhaps now more than ever. In ‘expeditionary’ conflicts of the
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
kind we have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan, the air supremacy

enjoyed by the coalition forces was itself dependent on large
aircraft bringing in the supplies necessary to sustain the air
bases. Indeed, the helicopters which flew troops around their
operational zones—providing ‘intra-theatre mobility’ and often
defending these same soldiers from insurgents—are usually them-
selves flown into ‘theatre’ (the operational area) inside very large
aircraft.
Today, mobility is the most immediately visible function of air
power, from the transport of troops to and indeed around oper-
ational theatres as well as evacuation of casualties. One vital
aspect of current mobility operations is AAR. Air forces that
possess this capability enjoy the advantages of greater reach and
operational scope.
Dimensions
As with any other successful dynamic system, military air oper-
ations exist within a number of physical and conceptual dimen-
sions. First and foremost is logistics. US Marine General Robert
H. Barrow famously wrote in  that ‘amateurs talk about
tactics, but professionals study logistics’. All military endeavours
require extremely complicated and extensive supply and support
networks and the systems to organize them, and air forces are no
exception. For a start, all aircraft of all types need bases, requiring
large numbers of personnel to build, run and secure them. During
WW the largest single engineering effort in the UK was the
construction of the vast array of air bases from which the com-
bined US and British bomber offensive was launched against
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
Germany (see Chapter ). At sea, air power is delivered from

aircraft carriers, the most complex and expensive surface ships
in any naval fleet. The largest US warships are aircraft carriers;
these astonishing vessels are  metres long,  metres wide and
tower up to  metres above the waterline. Weighing over
, tons they carry up to one hundred jets and helicopters
and provide a home for , men and women. In addition to
prodigious amounts of fuel and weaponry they also contain a
fully functioning nuclear power station which provides the power
for the ship.
Air bases, both on land and at sea, require vast supplies of fuel
and, when at war, weaponry, both of which necessitate a long,
fragile and highly organized supply chain. This is in addition to
the ‘life-support’ which any military base requires in the form of
basic requirements such as food and clean water. Bases need to be
protected, either by a well-trained guard force or, in the case of
aircraft carriers, other warships equipped to ward off or defeat
attack from surface or submarine forces. Supply networks are
difficult to sustain when under active attack by determined enemies
from the air or aggressive cyber forces.
Aircraft need constant maintenance. For example, the Euro-
fighter Typhoon used by several European countries requires nine
hours of maintenance for each hour of flight. The even more
complex American F- requires forty-five hours. This in turn
implies the need for engineers and technicians usually at least as
highly qualified as the pilots who depend on the engineers for
their safety. This requires a large and extensive industrial and
engineering base. It was only in  that man first engaged in
powered flight. One of the reasons it took so long to develop is
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
that combining light internal combustion engines with a flyable

airframe in a reasonably safe and efficient fashion is a very difficult
task. By the beginning of the First World War, however, every
major country had aeronautical construction industries sup-
ported by military investment.
Aeronautical development and technology were vastly acceler-
ated by WW. From then until arguably the early s the global
aviation industry engaged in what historian David Edgerton has
called ‘military and civil leapfrogging’ with developments in one
being passed into and contributing to the advances of the other.
Most of the time, but not always, military developments led the
way. In the s and s there was much private investment in
racing aircraft, which eventually gave rise to the innovations allow-
ing high-powered all-metal monoplane fighter aircraft such as the
Supermarine Spitfire.
The drive for profitable airliners brought similar advances to
bombers. The Second World War, like WW, brought an expo-
nential increase in investment in technology; the jet engine,
invented before WW (German and British engineers both claimed
it as their invention) was first made operational and even mass-
produced (by Germany) during WW. The need for long-range
four-engined bombers during WW made long-distance jet air-
liners with pressurized cabins possible and now commonplace.
In the late twentieth century, with the advent of large computer
and IT industries with huge investment bases in the s, mili-
tary technologies once again began to follow civilian develop-
ments. The single exception to this trend today may be drones,
where military technology is usually ahead of contemporary
commercial applications.
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
Air forces require excellent personnel to operate and service

this expensive and complex equipment. They must recruit from
the best available young people to maintain the necessary edge
over adversaries. Training must be intensive and realistic. During
WW, research demonstrated that Allied bomber crews were
most likely to be shot down in their first ten or the last five
missions of (usually) thirty in a ‘combat tour’. During the first
ten missions, their combat skills were beginning to develop and
they were more vulnerable. During the final five, exhaustion
was assessed as a major factor. A similar pattern was observed
in other conflicts, especially Vietnam. Following Vietnam, the US
Air Force instituted the ‘Red Flag’ series of intensely realistic
exercises in . Red Flag offers authentic air combat scenarios
supported by dedicated ‘aggressor’ squadrons trained and pre-
pared to fly using the latest ‘enemy’ tactics. One of the purposes
of this is an attempt to overcome the inexperience in combat
situations that affects performance during those crucial first few
missions in actual conflicts. Red Flag continues to be a major
event in the training schedules of many air forces.
There must also be a strong basis of technical skills. Despite
having large numbers of modern aircraft, usually supplied by
the Soviet Union, Arab air forces lost all their battles with the
Israeli Air Force. One reason put forward by leading air power
scholar Robin Higham in an essay in his edited volume Why Air
Forces Fail is that although they had modern aircraft and equip-
ment, the Arab air forces were without an adequate basis of state
investment in technical education and training, particularly of
non-commissioned officers. This mistake was not made by the
Israeli Air Force, which has always taken the best and the
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
brightest of each conscription cadre and trained them to a very

high standard.
In extended conflicts, such as WW, attrition of pilots and
other aircrew was a major problem. The inability of German
and Japanese aircrew training systems to replace their losses at
anything like the rate of their adversaries contributed greatly to
their defeat. Both countries had planned for a short war and had
made little provision for extended conflict. By contrast, the United
Kingdom’s political leadership made a conscious decision that the
highest-qualified and best recruits drafted into the armed services
should be directed to the Royal Air Force. Huge efforts and
resources were put into training and preparing them for combat
and setting up the highly complex systems necessary to accom-
plish this. In a memorandum to the cabinet on the first anniver-
sary of the declaration of war on  September , Churchill
wrote: ‘The Navy can lose us this war, but only the RAF can win
it . . . the bombers alone provide the means of victory’. Clearly this
was a view on priorities taken at a level where strategy and
political leadership intersected.
Such strategic thinking must be informed by an intelligent,
experienced and preferably well educated leadership which in
turn will be drawn from the high quality young officers the
prudent air force or air arm will have recruited. Ideally, but by
no means always, the best of these will rise to positions of high
command. They will then be operating at the strategic level along-
side the political leadership of a state.
When the bullets begin to fly, the effective deployment of air
power relies upon good generalship advising and working closely
with political leaders. The interplay between politics and air
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
power has been particularly intimate since WW and continues

today. Political decisions must be carried out down to the level of
the battlefield; this requires effective command and control (C)
arrangements. Bringing together all the elements of air warfare
and applying them to a particular task can be a very complex
business indeed, since it involves many thousands of moving
pieces. Successful air campaigns inevitably have strong and robust
C systems. For example, the Battle of Britain in  was won by
the Royal Air Force at least as much by its C network (bringing
together the various elements of detection, intelligence, command,
and operations) as by its fighter pilots. In today’s air forces the term
‘C’ is also used, meaning ‘command, control, and communica-
tions’, with ‘C’ adding ‘computers’ to the acronym more recently.
Clearly a commander cannot be expected to know every detail
everywhere. One way of getting around this problem is to use
‘mission command’. This is a technique where a senior com-
mander makes his intent clear and allows subordinates to achieve
that objective in their own way, without close supervision. Obvi-
ously this requires a high degree of trust. There are limitations to
this. With the high cost of modern equipment, resources (espe-
cially aircraft) are often scarce and therefore control may need to
be exerted more closely in certain circumstances. Likewise, the
role of air power as a (supposedly) strategic tool may necessitate
more directive control. Today, decisions about dropping muni-
tions on a specific target are sometimes made at high level due to
the risk of collateral damage. Similarly, orders for a fighter jet to
shoot down an unresponsive airliner suspected of being hijacked
by terrorists planning to use it as a missile, as occurred in the /
attacks, would be given by a senior politician.
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Over the last two decades, with the populations of Western

countries highly sensitive to the prospect both of casualties to
their own forces and those collateral civilian deaths, the question
whether or not to use air power has become a matter of national
debate. Both politics and law have to a great degree entered the
cockpit. There are still some people, even today, who agree with
theorist Giulio Douhet’s views that laws restraining and govern-
ing the use of air power are ‘nothing but international demagogic
hypocrisies’. Most practitioners of air power recognize that some
law or regulation, however apparently ineffective, is better than
none. The need for legal regulation of air power was realized early
on, as the potential for balloons to cause damage on the ground
became clear. The Hague Conventions of  and  had
already banned bombing from the air. Although WW demon-
strated the ineffectiveness of such strictures, serious efforts were
made to tighten up and indeed to enforce legal norms. The Hague
Rules for Air Warfare () were the first concerted attempt
to limit attack from the air. Notably, they restricted bombing
to ‘military objectives’ the destruction of which would ‘constitute
a distinct advantage to the belligerent’. As has been regularly
pointed out since , the term ‘military objective’ is decidedly
imprecise; in wartime almost anything can be made to fall into
that category.
The  Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of
 brought the law on targeting up to date. These are based
around the four central concepts of international humanitarian
law: ‘proportionality’, ‘necessity’, ‘humanity’, and ‘distinction’
between civilians and combatants. The principle of proportionality
dictates that any civilian losses must be proportionate to the
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
military advantage gained. Necessity is closely linked, requiring

the commander to ensure that only the force necessary to achieve
the objective is used; for example, destroying an entire town to
get at a single person may be considered neither necessary nor
proportionate. The inclusion of the principle of humanity is an
attempt to reduce the suffering in war which is why, for example,
incendiary weapons such as napalm are now forbidden. Finally,
and most importantly, distinction (sometimes called ‘discrimination’)
means ensuring that as far as possible harm to non-combatants is
avoided—a vital factor in retaining public support in democratic
countries for possibly controversial operations. It is by reference
to these principles that our strike package at the start of the
chapter will have been cleared, or not, by air force lawyers.
No one would dispute that aircraft and the dimensions that
impact upon their use are central to modern warfare. It is easy to
forget that—notwithstanding the French Aerostatic Corps of the
s and some desultory military ballooning in the nineteenth
century—aircraft are relatively new to the world of conflict. As we
will see in Chapter , once powered aircraft had taken to the air in
the early twentieth century, it did not take long for their potential
as a military instrument to be realized.
Account: s8944763

Beginnings
The First World War –
In , General Ferdinand Foch, who was to go on to command

all Allied forces in WW, stated that ‘aviation may be fine as a
sport . . . but as an instrument of war, it is nothing [c’est zero]’.
It did not take long for that sceptical view, by no means shared
by all senior officers, to be compromised by reality. With
its kill-or-be-killed imperative, WW vastly accelerated the
development of aircraft technology, tactics, and operational
thinking.
Aircraft were a relatively rare sight over the battlefields of
. By , aircraft were organized by major powers into vast
air forces. They were regarded by many as an essential, if not as
yet decisive factor on the battlefields themselves; further, they
had demonstrated their potential to cause damage far behind the
front lines.
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
Reconnaissance
It was in reconnaissance, particularly in providing eyes for the
artillery that dominated all major battlefronts, that the nascent air
forces of WW found their most vital role. In August , the first
month of the war, both France and Britain were staring at the very
real prospect of defeat by the German army. French and British
forces were outflanked. Paris itself prepared for a siege. The Allied
forces, in headlong retreat, did not know the location of General
Alexander von Kluck’s First Army. On  September, Corporal Louis
Breguet, formerly an aircraft builder, took off with his observer
Lieutenant Andre Watteau and found the German force. Their
information enabled French and British forces to turn and stop
the German advance, striking it in the flank, at what became known
as the ‘Miracle of the Marne’. Breguet surely has at least a claim to
have been the ‘saviour of France’, a title later co-opted by the former
air-sceptic Marshal Foch.
As the Western Front, the main theatre of conflict, settled into
trench warfare, the primary means of killing the enemy became
artillery. No less than  per cent of casualties, and probably more,
were directly caused by gun barrages. In order for the artillery
guns to be directed they needed precise information on the
location of enemy positions, their numbers, and strength—if
concentrations of men or supplies could be found within range
of the heavy guns, so much the better.
However, placing reasonably well-trained eyes in the sky above
those enemy positions, and especially behind their lines to a depth
where the artillery could reach; that would be useful. Aircraft
could see troops massing at key points and these in turn could
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
be shelled by long-range artillery. This was the first use of air

interdiction—stopping or hindering the enemy getting to the
battlefield. If the aircrew could locate the enemy’s own artillery
positions, so much the better, as they could themselves be tar-
geted with counter-battery gunfire to hit their guns and kill their
crews. The lethal imperative to gain that artillery-spotting edge on
the enemy drove all aspects of the conflict in the air.
Driven by the imperative of providing good timely intelligence
to the guns, reconnaissance technology developed rapidly. Ini-
tially it amounted to little more than observing the target, flying as
quickly as possible back to base and telephoning the information
to army headquarters. By the end of the war many of the basic
techniques in use for the rest of the century were well-established
and functional wireless equipment enabled air-to-ground real-
time reporting of artillery accuracy, so that artillery commanders
could adjust their aim. Aircrew were able to use radio and Morse
code to call artillery strikes upon the locations of enemy units
they spotted using ‘zone calls’. Precision photography, as well as
the capabilities to interpret and analyse images and glean useful
intelligence from them, created a lethal combination of air recon-
naissance and accurate artillery.
Most studies of air power in WW focus on the Western Front,
where millions of British, Indian, Canadian, Australian, German,
French, and (after ) American troops were locked in combat.
Nevertheless, it was also vital on the Eastern Front. In addition
to artillery spotting, aircraft were used by Russian, German, and
to a lesser extent Austro-Hungarian forces, to spot the move-
ments of armies over the vast battlefields of what is now Poland
and Ukraine.
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
In August , Russian generals advancing towards German

forces ignored warnings of German movements from their Air
Corps. General von Hindenburg’s staff did not make the same
mistake when German pilots provided accurate information on
their enemy. The result was a crushing German victory—the
Battle of Tannenberg. Hindenburg was clear on the importance
of aircraft: ‘without airmen, there would have been no Tannenberg’.
In stark contrast to their early lack of appreciation of the value
of reconnaissance, in June  Russian aircraft provided an excel-
lent overview of Austro-Hungarian defences prior to the Brusilov
Offensive, enabling Russian generals to plan a highly effective
attack.
Hundreds of thousands of photographs were taken of enemy
positions by German, British, and French air forces. For example, in
one month alone—September —on the Ypres front, the Royal
Flying Corps (RFC) took over , photographs of enemy posi-
tions and distributed , prints. Reconnaissance photographs
now provide one of the most valuable resources for historians of
the war (Figure ). For the aircrews involved, this was an uncom-
fortable high-risk task involving precision flying and almost con-
stant bone-freezing cold combined with fear. High altitude was
essential to provide any chance of avoiding the enemy’s fighters or
ever-improving ground-based anti-aircraft defences.
The risks for all aircrew in WW were very great and life
expectancies were low. By way of one example amongst many
thousands, Lieutenant J. S. Walthew was on a mission to locate
enemy positions during the particularly appalling Third Battle of
Ypres in . In a letter home he wrote about how his aircraft was
hit by ground fire, piercing his fuel tank and spraying him with
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
Figure  Reconnaissance photograph of the village of Allaines
petrol. ‘It was a great misfortune having a bad day . . . ’ he opined.

It could have been far worse. A stray bullet or even a misfiring
engine would have condemned him to the kind of horrendous
death suffered by thousands of airmen on all sides—being burned
to death in his cockpit. Walthew was lucky on that occasion.
It was the fate of the great majority of aircrew in WW to be shot
down and killed. One month later, Lieutenant Walthew was shot
down; his body was never found.
Once an aircraft was disabled or burning there was no chance of
escape, as parachutes were neither issued nor permitted to air-
crews. Everard Calthrop, the designer of the first effective British
parachutes, ‘Guardian Angels’, took the view that ‘No-one in high
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
quarters had any time to devote to investigating the merits of an

appliance whose purpose was so ridiculously irrelevant to war
as the saving of life in the air.’ It was not until  that air forces
on all sides began to permit them, and they have been seen as an
essential piece of equipment ever since, not least for morale
reasons since they offer some hope of survival in the event of
critical aircraft damage.
The only airmen for whom parachutes were permitted in WW
were the crews of tethered hydrogen observation balloons, which
floated over the front lines of all sides, spotting the fall of artillery
shells. These were always very heavily defended by belts of guns.
Nonetheless, they were constantly targeted, not only by enemy
artillery but of course by fighters. Spotting from highly inflam-
mable balloons was another occupation with a very limited life-
expectancy.
Control of the Air

In the early days of the war, control of the air was not practically
an issue, since there were no aircraft dedicated to destroying other
aircraft, and anti-aircraft defences were primitive. However, the
lethal advantages offered by reconnaissance aircraft with their
ability to direct artillery to targets far behind enemy lines were
quickly appreciated. Consequently the need to shoot down those
‘eyes in the sky’ drove the development of the so-called ‘fighter’
aircraft. At an early stage in the war it became clear that such
specialized aircraft were needed if control of the air was to be
gained, which in turn might provide at least some freedom for the
artillery spotters to do their work. Fighters now began to conduct
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
operations to shoot down other fighters with the objective of

gaining and retaining that essential air supremacy. In any event,
by  the best reconnaissance aircrew had become a specialist
cadre flying far higher than other aircraft, beyond the reach of
potential fighter opponents.
In the early months of the war, attacking the enemy’s recon-
naissance aircraft was the task of other similarly designed planes.
The first fighters were mostly crewed by a pilot and an observer
with a machine gun on a swivel mount. One of these observers
was French Corporal Louis Quenault who claims the distinction
of being the first man to shoot down an aircraft in air-to-air
combat on  October . Pilots and aircrew found trying to
aim a gun on a moving mounting in turn fixed to a speeding,
jinking, swaying, twisting, and turning airframe difficult to say the
least, especially when aiming at another machine doing exactly
the same. Why not point the aircraft instead? This would allow
for a steadier aim and a reduced crew as it would be the pilot
doing the aiming and firing with the aircraft itself acting as a
reasonably stable gun-platform. Wings in those days were not
strong enough to support a gun-mount plus ammunition, so
machine guns needed to be attached to the fuselage of the aircraft.
If the guns were to be fired forward, this raised the problem of
firing through the propeller. Various solutions were attempted.
These ranged from mounting the gun over the propeller, to
coating the propellers with wedge-shaped steel plates and firing
through them hoping for the best. This was first tried (initially
with some success) by the French fighter pilot Roland Garros,
after whom the famous tennis stadium is named. A true system of
synchronization of the gun with the propeller was first mastered
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
by the Dutch engineer Antony Fokker, whose eindecker (mono-

plane) aircraft ruled the skies of late . They were equipped
with an interrupter mechanism allowing the machine-gun bul-
lets to pass between the spinning propeller blades. The ‘Fokker
Scourge’ gave rise to the first great slaughter of British reconnais-
sance pilots and the fighters trying to protect them.
Soon British and French designers incorporated their own
interrupter mechanisms. However, the British RFC remained
particularly disadvantaged by a haphazard and incoherent train-
ing regime for their aircrew. Their adversaries in the Luftstreitk-
räfte (the German Air Arm) were usually far better prepared for
combat. The German Air Force approach to control of the air
gave rise to some highly original tactical thinking, informed by
hard-earned experience. In  the leading German fighter
leader and tactician Oswald Boelcke drafted a set of precepts
for air-to-air combat; these were fully explained in the form of a
booklet given to each German fighter pilot on completion of
training. The ‘Dicta Boelcke’ (Box ) are still studied by fighter
pilots today.
On both sides a large proportion of air-to-air kills were made
by aces—men who had shot down five or more opponents. The
most famous of them all was Oswald Boelcke’s protégé Manfred
von Richthofen—the so-called ‘Red Baron’—with eighty kills. By
the same token, most victims of the ‘aces’ were relative novices;
this was a pattern that was to continue in WW.
The British sustained another defeat in the air in the summer of
 at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme when their losses
were three times that of the Germans and their superior fighter
aircraft. Despite this, with new and better aircraft they recovered
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
B  The ‘Dicta Boelcke’: Sayings of Oswald Boelcke on Air

Fighting
......................................................................................
() Be sure you have the advantage before you attack (speed, height,
numbers, position); attack out of the sun when you can.
() Once you have begun an attack, prosecute it to the end.
() Open fire only at close range, and then only when your oppon-
ent is square in your sights.
() Don’t let your opponent out of your sight.
() In any type of attack, it is imperative that you approach from
behind.
() If your opponent dives on you, do not try to evade his attack—
turn towards your attacker.
() When over enemy lines, always keep in mind your own line of
retreat.
() When fighting in groups, it is best to attack in groups of four or
six; when the melee begins, ensure that not too many of your
own aircraft go after the same adversary.
to regain control of the air. In the spring of , whilst British

aircraft had developed quickly and were often as advanced as
German planes, the continuing disparity in training resulted in a
further British defeat; this was ‘Bloody April’. The chances of
poorly trained British pilots were not improved by the relentlessly
aggressive tactics of the RFC commander Brigadier (by early 
Major-General) Hugh Trenchard. These tactics were designed to
retain the initiative in the air, whatever the cost. The view of a
retrogressive British leadership outmatched by efficient German
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
operational techniques is not entirely accurate and must be

understood in the context of the necessity for British aircraft
to keep the Luftstreitkräfte reconnaissance missions as far from
British lines as possible.
In the last year of the war good British fighter airframes were
married to excellent French Hispano-Suiza engines. This, com-
bined with major improvements in training, resulted for the first
time in more German aircraft being shot down than British. Both
sides learnt from each other throughout the war in tactical and
technological terms; however, it is fair to say that for most of the
war aircraft technology was led by German designers, culminat-
ing in  with the excellent Fokker D.VII; it was just about
matched by the French Nieuport, British Sopwith, and Royal
Aircraft Factory SEa.
French and British air arms were by this time now being
reinforced by aircraft and crews from the US Army Air Service,
initially led by the legendary Lieutenant-Colonel (as he then was)
William ‘Billy’ Mitchell. By the end of the war throughout the
Western Front the combination of overwhelming Allied produc-
tion rates and an increase in relative quality of training and
equipment began to tell—attrition took its toll on the Luftstreitk-
räfte. Having said that, albeit outnumbered by up to three to one
by Allied adversaries, German pilots remained an effective force
until the last day of the war.
Attack
Once you have control of the air and understand what it is that
needs to be destroyed on the ground through reconnaissance, there
Account: s8944763
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Journal of a cruise of
the United States schooner Dolphin, among the islands
of the Pacific Ocean; and a visit to the Mulgrave
Islands, in pursuit of the mutineers of the whaleship
Globe
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Journal of a cruise of the United States schooner Dolphin,

among the islands of the Pacific Ocean; and a visit to the
Mulgrave Islands, in pursuit of the mutineers of the
whaleship Globe
Author: Hiram Paulding
Release date: September 24, 2023 [eBook #71717]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1831
Credits: Al Haines
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNAL OF

A CRUISE OF THE UNITED STATES SCHOONER DOLPHIN,
AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN; AND A VISIT TO
THE MULGRAVE ISLANDS, IN PURSUIT OF THE MUTINEERS OF
THE WHALESHIP GLOBE ***
[Transcriber's note: Some punctuation and spelling may
appear unusual to modern readers.]
Map of Mulgrave Islands

JOURNAL
OF A
CRUISE
OF THE
UNITED STATES SCHOONER DOLPHIN,

AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN;
AND A VISIT TO THE MULGRAVE ISLANDS,
IN PURSUIT OF THE MUTINEERS OF THE
WHALE SHIP GLOBE.
WITH A MAP.
By Lieut. HIRAM PAULDING, of the U. S. Navy.
NEW-YORK:
G. & C. & H. CARVILL.
M,DCCC,XXXI.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and thirty-one, by G. & C. & H. CARGILL, in the Clerk's
Office of the Southern District of New-York.
NEW-YORK:
LUDWIG & TOLEFREE, PRINTERS,
No. 73, Vesey-street.
PREFACE.
The principal inducement of the author, in preparing the following

Journal for publication, originated in an idea that a plain narrative of a a
cruise through an unfrequented part of the ocean, comprising a particular
description of a groupe of Islands, never before explored, and forming,
perhaps, the latest inhabited portion of the globe, might not be without
interest. It is believed, that, in habits, opinions, and modes of living, the
people of the Mulgrave Islands, approach more nearly to a state of nature
than those of any other known region. The object of the CRUISE, of which a
concise account is now offered to the Public, necessarily led to a more full
examination of these Islands than has yet been made, or than it will ever
probably be thought worth while to make again, except for a similar purpose.
The delay in publishing this little work originated partly in the hesitation
of the author in offering, and partly in that of the booksellers, in accepting it;
and the public must decide whether they were not both right in the first
instance. It only remains for him to state, that all he aimed at or desired, was
to give a plain, unpretending narrative, of what he saw, which, without
presuming to merit applause, might at least escape censure.
New-York, May, 1831.

JOURNAL
OF A
CRUISE OF THE U. S. SCHOONER DOLPHIN.
—————
In the year 1824, the crew of a whale ship, called the Globe, belonging to
the island of Nantucket, mutinied while in the Pacific Ocean, murdered the
officers in latitude about eight degrees south, longitude one hundred and
sixty degrees west, and carried the ship to the Mulgrave Islands, where it
was proposed by the chief mutineers to burn her, and form a settlement. Here
they landed a great part of the stores, sails, rigging, &c.; but some of the
crew, who had no part in the mutiny, taking advantage of the others' being on
shore, cut the cables, just at the dusk of evening, and, making sail, stood out
to sea with a fine breeze.
The mutineers pursued the ship, as soon as they discovered she was
underway, but, finding that she outsailed them, they soon gave up the chase,
and returned to the shore. The nautical instruments of every description had
been taken on shore by order of the mutineers, so that the people on board of
the Globe were left to traverse a vast ocean, studded with islands, and rocks,
and reefs, where currents are frequent, strong, and variable, without any
other guide by which to direct their course than the stars and prevailing
winds. The Mulgrave Islands are situated in north latitude six degrees, east
longitude one hundred and seventy. three degrees; and although the passage
of the Globe was very long, she arrived safely at Valparaiso, where the crew
informed the American Consul of the events that had transpired. It was
unfortunately at a period when our commerce, on the coast of the Pacific,
required for its protection all the naval force we had at the time on that
station, and no measures were taken to bring the offenders to answer for
their crimes, until some months after the Globe had returned to the United
States. Information of the occurrence having been communicated to the
secretary of the navy, he, in 1825, directed Commodore Hull, then
commanding our squadron in the Pacific Ocean, to despatch the United
States schooner Dolphin, in search of such of the mutineers as had been left
at the Mulgraves. Besides the importance of bringing the guilty to
punishment, for the sake of example,—humanity for the suffering condition
of the innocent, that had been left by those who escaped, dictated that
something should be done for their relief. Accordingly on the 18th of
August, 1825, the Dolphin sailed from Chorillos, on the coast of Peru, under
the command of Lieutenant Percival, who was directed, preparatory to his
departure from the coast, to stop at some convenient place for such
refreshments as might be necessary for the cruise. On the day following, we
stood into the harbour of Casma, and anchored, when we fired several guns,
as signals, to acquaint the people in the interior of the arrival of a stranger
that wanted their aid. It was not long before we had the satisfaction of seeing
a number of people, who had made their appearance in obedience to the
signal. A few moments' conversation with them, satisfied us that our wants
could not be supplied here. Wood might have been obtained, but the water
was neither good, nor convenient to be got at, and all other things that we
were in want of, could only be procured at the most extravagant prices.
After laying at anchor a few hours, we got underway, and stood along the
coast for a small place called Santa, which was situated a few leagues to the
north of us, Casma is but a poor harbour, as it lies so much exposed to the
prevailing southerly winds, that frequently a high and dangerous surf breaks
upon that part of the shore where alone (at any time) it is practicable to land.
A valley, covered with thickets of reeds and bushes, extends back from the
sea for several miles. In it there is neither habitations nor inhabitants, and a
sandy waste of hill and dale separates it from the little Indian village of
Casma, which is several miles in the interior. It is situated in a valley, about a
league in circumference, which is watered by a small stream. The soil is rich,
but poorly cultivated. The inhabitants (of whom there is about a thousand)
are all Indians. They live in wretched habitations, and their intercourse with
the Spaniards for centuries, it seems, has not much improved their condition
in any respect. Their principal dependance is upon the sale of their poultry to
such ships as visit their harbour for the trade of the interior country, and to
people thus engaged, their proximity may sometimes be a very great
convenience.
The harbour of Santa is formed by several small islands, lying a little to
the south of it, and about a mile from the main. We passed between the
islands and the main, although it was night, and very dark. On the following
morning, we made the customary signal, by firing a gun, which, in a very
short time, brought the captain of the port down to the beach. He had not
much the appearance of official dignity, having a long black beard, and was
in no respect prepossessing. Rude, however, as was his exterior, he was
profuse in offers of hospitality. He assured us that we should be abundantly
supplied with every thing we wanted, and requested that an officer might be
sent with him to Santa, to negociate for our supplies. The purser and myself
were ordered upon this service, and not having time to send to Santa for
horses, it being six miles from our anchorage, we were reduced to the
necessity of a most painful ride, behind the captain of the port and a
companion whom he had brought with him. The road was over an
uninterrupted plain, which was almost everywhere covered with
impenetrable thickets of reeds, and the Algaroba[1], and in some places a
foot or two deep with water that had escaped from the streams of the
cultivated valley. When we arrived at the door of the commandant's house,
he shewed us in with an air of some formality, and welcomed us with every
Spanish expression of hospitality. The appearance of the house corresponded
well with that of its occupant. It was disgusting in the extreme. There were
but two rooms in it, one of which was occupied as a granary and bed-room,
and the other as a pulparia,[2] and the ordinary conveniences of the family.
In the middle of the latter, hung a hog, weighing three or four hundred
pounds, which had been butchered that morning. The captain pretended he
could himself supply whatever we asked for, assuring us that he would sell
more cheaply than any one else, and evinced an extreme jealousy at our
conversing with any other than himself upon the subject of our visit to Santa.
As a matter of courtesy, we soon made our way to the house of the governor,
and paid our respects to him. He seemed to feel highly complimented with
our attention, and, like the captain of the port, proffered his assistance to
obtain for us whatever we stood in need of. He bore the name of the cruel
conqueror of Peru, it being nothing less than the great Pizarro; but it was
evident, from his complexion and curling locks, that his ancestors came from
Africa. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, however, he could not be
compared to the captain of the port without disparagement, and, considering
the wretched society in which he lived, I thought he discharged his official
duties rather creditably. Both the governor and captain of the port invited us
to dine with them; and each, fearing we would make our purchase of the
other, solicited our company very earnestly. We finally accepted the
invitation of the latter, and he escorted us back to his house, where the table
was already smoking with savoury dishes, served up in a variety of ways
from the huge animal we had seen there in the morning, under circumstances
by no means calculated to improve our appetites. A rabble, formed of half
naked Indians, and long bearded white men, assembled in the room, while
we were at dinner, some of whom sat down at table unceremoniously, and
partook with us. Our host indulged himself freely with the use of aquadiente,
[3] and, ere we finished our repast, his house exhibited a constant scene of
riot, from which we were exceedingly glad to escape. After making a few
purchases we returned on board. The next day, a party, consisting of about
thirty or forty, came down to make us a visit. All degrees of the society of
Santa, without any distinction,—whites, mulattoes, and Indians, having, it
would seem, mingled together for the occasion. They remained with us all
day, eating and drinking, and appeared to be very happy; but begged for
every thing that came in their way. At sunset, to our great satisfaction, they
left us, and on the following morning, we got underway, and continued along
the coast to the north.
The small town of Santa contains about two thousand inhabitants, nearly
all of whom are Indians. It is situated in latitude nine degrees south, in the
valley of Santa, which is twenty or thirty miles in circumference, beautiful
and rich in soil, and watered by a deep and rapid stream, which takes its rise
in the Andes, at the distance of a hundred miles from the sea coast. Previous
to the revolution, it was a flourishing valley, with a numerous population,
producing rice, wheat, and other grain, in considerable quantities, for
exportation; and frequently large herds of cattle were driven from it to Lima.
It abounds also in fruits, such as oranges, lemons, grapes, and a variety of
other delicious kinds. Large farming establishments are every where to be
seen, each comprehending thousands of acres, and previous to the revolution
possessed by gentlemen of ample fortune. All of these are, now in ruins, and
most of them unoccupied. The climate of Santa is mild, and almost
unvarying. Here, as in nearly all the rest of Peru, bordering on the Pacific
Ocean, it never rains, and wherever the land is cultivated it is watered from
the rivers.
Around the cultivated valley of Santa, are spread extensive plains of
barren sand; and at a short distance back from the sea rises the first range of
gloomy and sterile mountains which, increasing in altitude as you advance
into the interior, terminates in the eternal snow-covered Andes, at the
distance of from fifty to a hundred miles. At Santa we obtained wood with
ease, and from two or three old wells, near the shore, filled our casks with
brackish water. Where the river empties into the harbour it is so much
exposed to the sea as to render watering difficult, and almost always
dangerous. Santa was a place of some trade before the revolution, it being
connected by direct communication with some mines of the precious metals
in the interior.
On the 24th of August, we anchored in the roads of Huanchaco, and

communicated with several vessels that were lying there. Huanchaco is an
Indian village, and the seaport of the city of Bolivia, the ancient name of
which was Truxillo. It is exposed to the sea, and at times the surf breaks so
violently on the shore, as to prevent all intercourse with the vessels at
anchor. The Indians are provided with a float they call Balsa, and on which
they pass through this surf, in cases of great emergency, when no boat could
live in it. It is composed merely of two bundles of long reeds, bound
compactly together, tapering a little at one end, and the two bundles secured
to each other, the small ends coming to a point, somewhat resembling in
appearance the bow of a boat. In the middle it is hollowed sufficiently for a
man to seat himself securely. It is usually about fifteen feet long, and from
two to three feet wide. It is calculated for one man only, who directs it with
his paddle. I one day witnessed their wonderful skill in the management of
the balsa. The surf was breaking so furiously, that the men, accustomed to
work in it, advised me not to go on board of my ship. Whilst I was standing
on the shore, with several of them around me, a boat appeared just without
the heavy rollers that were setting in, filled with people, who it was evident
were strangers to the danger they were about to encounter, as they were
dashing on fearlessly into the surf. The Indians near me made motions, and
called to them not to advance further, but they neither saw nor heard the
warning. Observing this, six or eight of them launched their balsas, and in a
few minutes were in the midst of the breakers. They were just in time, for
the boat in a moment afterwards darted forward with great velocity, and
suddenly disappeared. The wave had broken, and was foaming over her, and
another must have terminated the existence of every person on board; but,
before the next swell, that came rolling on in quick succession had reached
them, each man was upon a balsa, and the skilful and intrepid Indians bore
them safely to the shore. We remained but a few hours at Huanchaco, when
we continued on to the north, and on the 25th of August, came up with the
Lobos Islands, in latitude six degrees south, and distant about a hundred
miles from the coast. They are barren rocks, rising in some places several
hundred feet, and no where have any appearance of vegetation. With the aid
of our glasses, we saw at a distance a number of people upon these
inhospitable rocks, and supposing they might be some unfortunate seamen,
whose vessel had been cast away, we hove to, with a view of affording them
relief. Upon examination, however, they proved to be Indians from the coast,
who had come here on a catamaran, upon a fishing enterprise, it being the
season when great quantities of fish, resembling mackerel, are taken on the
shores of these Islands.
Previous to ascertaining who these fishermen were, we landed on a small

island nearer to us, where, on the side of a hill, forty or fifty yards distant,
we saw several hundreds of seals basking in the sun. The rock rose perhaps a
hundred feet, and many of the seals were near the top of it. The noise of our
landing gave them the alarm, and, as we had cut them off from the water,
they made the best of their way for the other side of the hill, joining in a
terrific growl like so many furious mastiffs. They had reached the top of the
hill, and were descending on the opposite side, when we overtook them, and
very wantonly killed several. They were so large that many of them would
have weighed at least five or six hundred pounds, but their motions were
extremely clumsy. Whenever we came near them they would growl, and
snapped at us like a ferocious dog, and their long teeth warned us not to
approach them within striking distance. Considering their immense size, it is
astonishing bow slight a blow will kill them when given on the nose. If,
however, this fatal part is missed, and they receive a severe blow upon any
other part of the head, they suffer but little injury, and become extremely
tenacious of life, particularly if it has time to swell. The nose is then no
longer a mortal part, and it is almost impossible to subdue them. We
witnessed several instances of this kind, being but poorly provided with
weapons proper for the purpose, and withal unskilled in the use of them. In
descending from the top of the hill, there was but one narrow defile by
which they could escape, and there they floundered for nearly half an hour,
tumbling over each other three or four deep, until at last they got into their
native element.
The north side of the Lobos Islands affords a fine harbour, where we saw
a small vessel at anchor waiting for the proceeds of her cargo, which had
been landed on the coast at a place called Lambayaca.
On the 26th of August, we anchored at Peyta, in latitude five degrees

south. This was the last place at which it would be convenient for us to stop,
and here, to our gratification, we were enabled to obtain the necessary
refreshments for our cruise. We filled the deck with pigs, poultry, and
vegetables, and at considerable expense succeeded, after much trouble, in
obtaining a supply of good water. Peyta is situated in a deep bay, and is a
good harbour, formed by two projecting points of land, and is for many
leagues surrounded by barren sand. It is the seaport of an interior city, called
Pieura, and receives from distant valleys all that is necessary for the
consumption of the inhabitants or strangers, who visit it for the purposes of
trade. It is supplied with water from a river that empties itself into the sea,
near a small Indian town called Golan, whence we found it necessary to
resort for a supply. When we had proceeded there, and anchored our vessel
within a mile or two of the town, the only method by which we could obtain
water, was to have it brought in calabashes on mules. It was their saint's day,
and in the village all was frolic and mirth. Groups of men and women were
everywhere seen, dressed fantastically, singing and dancing along the streets.
I called upon the governor, who was a white man, very early in the morning,
to report the arrival of our vessel, and the object of our visit. He had just
risen from his hammock, and received me with many expressions of civility,
and proffers of assistance. His house was but little better than that of the
captain of the port of Santa, and his appearance not more prepossessing. The
room into which I was ushered had no other floor than the ground beaten
hard, on which were several large piles of pumpkins, bags of beans, and
Indian corn, which he proposed to sell me before our official interview had
ended. Immediately after breakfast he came on board to visit the captain,
bringing with him several emales. They remained on board nearly all day, to
the annoyance of every body, and in the evening were removed to the shore
with great difficulty, so freely had they partaken of our hospitality. Soon
after our arrival at Peyta, we were invited to dine with the governor, who
treated us with great kindness and hospitality. Some months previous to our
arrival, his son had shipped himself at Talcahuana, on board of the Dolphin,
as a common sailor, and was discharged on our arrival here, and permitted to
remain with his friends. He was spoken of amongst us as a person who had
been compelled to fly from his home for improper conduct of some kind,
and now the whole mystery was explained. His father was one of the most
respectable and patriotic men in the place where he resided; but this son was
a youth of a bad disposition, and had given him a great deal of trouble.
When the revolution first commenced in that section of the country, he
provided himself with the uniform of a patriot officer, and went about the
country, where he was a stranger, or but slightly known, and under the
authority of his pretended commission, took, by violence, the cattle and
horses of the farmers, or whatever else he could possess himself of, which he
converted into money for his own purposes. Sometimes he even pressed the
Indians as soldiers, and compelled them to assist him in carrying off his
plunder.
At length, his exactions became so heavy, and were levied so

tyrannically, that a gentleman resisted him, and questioned the legality of his
authority. Numbers were fired with indignation against him, and the
propriety of his conduct was no sooner questioned, than the investigation
was followed up with such activity, that, finding there was no safety but in
flight, he preferred a voluntary exile to meeting the just resentment of the
people he had injured. He had suffered many hardships during his absence,
and appeared on his return to be truly penitent. I was at his father's house
when he entered. His mother and sisters were deeply affected, and received
him with all the tenderness of female sympathy, their eyes overflowing with
tears. They each embraced him, as one most dear to them; but when he
approached his father (a man about sixty) who was standing on the opposite
side of the room, he caught the old man's eye bent indignantly upon him, and
turned away with a look humbled to the dust.
Whilst lying here we had an opportunity of witnessing a solitary instance

of an enterprising disposition in a Peruvian Indian,—a characteristic, it is
believed, they but rarely possess, or, at most, but in a slight degree. We had
on board an Indian youth, who belonged to this part of Peru, and for several
days had held frequent conversations with his countrymen, who were
attracted on board by curiosity. One of these people had concerted with the
youth a plan for his deserting. In compliance with this arrangement, he put
off, during the mid-watch, with his canoe, and taking his station just ahead
of the Dolphin, gave a shrill whistle as the signal of his approach. The lad,
fearing that he might be detected, did not venture to answer the signal, which
was repeated several times, when the officer of the watch suspecting the
object, gave the long expected response, and the credulous Indian came
cautiously paddling close under the bow of the vessel, where, to his
amazement, he was made prisoner, and compelled to go on board. When the
captain came on deck the next morning, he punished the poor Indian, by
impressing upon him the belief that he intended to detain, and make a soldier
of him. Not having sagacity enough to know the difference between our
vessel and a patriot man-of-war, and conceiving that there was no chance for
his escape, he made the most pathetic appeals to the captain's humanity, and
appeared to suffer all the agony of despair. The captain ordered a cartridge-
box to be put over his shoulders, and a musket placed in his hands.
He seemed frantic with the reality of his servitude, using his utmost
violence to disengage himself from the cartridge-box and musket, declaring
again and again that he was no soldier, and in the most affecting manner
begging the captain for God's sake to permit him to go on shore. When his
tormentors discontinued their persecutions, he jumped over the stern into his
canoe, with great activity, and soon joined his anxious friends on the beach,
who had assembled there, apprehensive of his captivity, and awaiting the
result.
On the 2d of September, we sailed from Peyta, and shaped our course for
the Gallapagos Islands. The trade wind was moderate, accompanied with
fine weather. On the morning of the 6th, we made Hood's Island, and in a
few hours afterwards, anchored on the west side, in a small harbour, called
Gardner's Bay, the only one it affords. After dinner, the captain took with
him twenty or thirty of the crew, and went in pursuit of turtle. The island is
high and mountainous, covered everywhere with volcanic cinders, many of
which are in huge masses. The men were at first very eager in their search
for turtle, and the whole crew, if they had been permitted, would gladly have
engaged in it.
They expected to have found the turtle near the shore; instead of which
they had to scramble over rocks and climb mountains, half the time making
their way through brambles, at the expense of scratches and torn clothes.
Men were never more disappointed than our crew in the amusement of
catching turtle. Sometimes they would wander about for hours before they
found one, and then it would probably be a mile or two from the beach, and
as much as a man could well lift. By sundown we had collected about thirty,
of large size. Black grouper were very abundant close to our anchorage, but
the sharks were so numerous that for every fish taken we lost one or two
hooks. We got a plentiful supply for the crew, however, in the course of an
hour. On the following morning, we joined Captain Meek, of the brig
Tamahamah, which vessel had accompanied us hither, and making a large
party—went round the island about ten or twelve miles from our anchorage,
where we expected to find turtle more abundant. The captain was an old
cruiser here, and well calculated to make one of an agreeable party. He stood
cook for us, and as the day was very warm, our first essay on landing, was to
make a large bower, under which to prepare our dinner. The people then
dispersed, to look for turtle, the first of which were served up for our dinner,
in a style that might have been relished by less keen appetites than ours,
which were sharpened by laborious exercise. At night, we had collected
upwards of a hundred, besides ten large green turtle, we were so fortunate as
to find on the beach near the place of our landing. When we came to
assemble our men to return on board, two of them were missing, and upon
inquiry were ascertained to have been absent nearly all day. We dispersed
and looked for them in every direction until dark, when every body being
much fatigued, a party was left to search for them again in the morning, and
the rest repaired on board. In the morning, we renewed our labours without
success, and with great reason began to feel seriously alarmed for the safety
of our shipmates. There was no water on the island, and the preceding day
had been so extremely warm, that we feared the poor fellows would soon
perish, if they had not already. Our search, too, was attended with
considerable danger. Wandering about in distant parts of the island, we
sometimes, in clambering over rocks and mountains, changed our course
without being sensible of it, and would find ourselves pursuing our way in a
different direction from what we supposed. In the afternoon, when our
strength and patience were quite exhausted, and our parties returning for the
night, the lost men suddenly appeared on the beach, close to the vessel. They
were pale and emaciated, with scarcely strength to move one foot before the
other. Their clothes were in tatters, and their shoes worn off their feet, which
were very much crippled with their long journey over the sharp cinders. It
appeared from the story of these men, that they had several times been on
the side of the island where we were anchored, but upon an eminence that
overlooked the vessel, and thinking themselves on the other side, recrossed;
when, to their astonishment, seeing nothing of her, they would retrace their
steps; and in this manner, were wandering about for many hours, almost
despairing at last of finding relief. While they were in this wretched
situation, they several times quenched their thirst by killing turtle that came
in their way, and drinking from the reservoir with which nature has supplied
this singular animal. I have since been told by a seaman, that he deserted
from a whale ship at these islands, accompanied by a number of others, and
that for weeks, they had no other water than what they obtained by breaking
open the turtles and drinking of the water they found in them. It is contained
in a pouch that resembles a bladder, and is immediately connected with the
stomach. It is large in proportion to the size of the animal, and some of them
will hold two or three gallons. It surprised us to see the tameness of the
birds. They would scarcely fly from us when we approached them within a
few feet, and in many instances we could pick them up with our hands. The
gannet, generally of a clear white, and as large as a goose, we could catch
with great ease; and the albatrosses, some grey and some yellow, which were
much larger than any bird we have in the United States, would but rarely rise
upon the wing to escape us. They ran very fast, and would sometimes give
us a chase of one or two hundred yards. A bird, the plumage and form of
which differed in no respect from our mocking-bird, would feed within a
few feet of us, and the turtle-doves were killed in great numbers by our
people, with short poles. Hood's Island is evidently of volcanic origin. It is,
indeed, nothing but a mass of cinders. It is covered with a slight growth of
scrubby bushes of various kinds, and occasionally a tree of four or five
inches in diameter, is met with. Of all its vegetation, the cactus seems best
adapted to it. There is a variety of the species; one of which attains to a
larger size than any other production of the island, and spreads out into a tree
of considerable height. This kind of the cactus is chosen by the turtle for
food. When the whalers, or other visiters, go to the Gallapagos Islands for
these animals, they cut down a number of the trees in the evening, and on the
following morning they are sure to find turtle feeding there, although none
could be seen in its vicinity on the preceding day. The guanas are not the
least remarkable of the inhabitants of the Gallapagos. They are from two to
three feet long and shaped like a lizard. Their colour varies from grey to jet
black. They are easily caught and quite harmless; are often eaten and said to
be excellent. On the top of the head they have a beautiful shining crest of
black and yellow, which, in the sun, has a most brilliant appearance.
Except where we anchored, a heavy surf breaks all round Hood's Island.
In a high and central part of it, is a place which resembles the dry bed of a
small lake. It is surrounded by ridges and peaks of cinders rising in some
places from one to three hundred feet, and in all probability has been the
crater of a volcano. In places difficult of access we saw a few seals, but so
shy that with the exception of one or two instances, we could not approach
them. The few that we killed were hair seal, and consequently of but little
value. Between Hood's Island and the small one that forms the harbour, there
is a passage for ships, but it is very narrow, and with a strong current that
runs through it, which would always render it dangerous for a ship to attempt
to pass, particularly so if the wind were not perfectly fair.
At one, P.M., on the 10th of September, we got underway, and stood over
for Charles Island, where we anchored at six, in Essex Bay. Rock Dismal, so
called by Commodore Porter, is an excellent land mark, and seems to have
been appropriately named. It rises to the eastward of Essex Bay, in sharp
crags of fifty to a hundred feet high. A few solitary bushes constitute all its
vegetation. In approaching Essex Bay, and at its entrance, we were alarmed
several times by a strong ripple, but in casting the lead found no bottom with
ten fathoms of line. At Essex Bay, is the celebrated post-office of the
whalers, to which Commodore Porter resorted several times during his
cruise for information. We found a letter there left by a whaler who had
visited Charles Island for a supply of turtle. He was last from the river
Tumbez, where one of his crew had caught a fever, of which he died. Two
others lost their way in the mountains of Charles Island, where, after
wandering about for a considerable time, one of them complained to his
companion of a head-ache, and soon after sat down and died. The other
found his way to the ship after a great deal of suffering.
Charles Island is high and mountainous, and like Hood's, is covered with
a thin growth of bushes. At the distance of a mile from the beach there is a
small spring of water, to which there is a footpath over the crags and hills,
worn by visiters in search of turtle, a scanty supply of which can only be
obtained with great labour. The residence of Pat, the Irishman, in this lone
and dreary place, for a number of years, has made it an object of curiosity to
all who visit the island. Here he planted his potatoes and pumpkins, and
raised his chickens; administering the government of his island with despotic
sway, for Pat was a monarch although he pillowed his head upon a rock, and
reposed his rude limbs on a bed made of bushes. The story is known to all
who have read Commodore Porter's journal, in which he gives an account of
Pat's residence on this island, and of his possessing himself of the person and
services of a black man belonging to a whale ship, who had strayed too far
from his companions, and whom Pat held in durance for a long time.
At ten, A.M., we parted company with the Tamahamah, and sailed for
the Marqueses Islands. The turtle with which our deck was covered, were
very troublesome and offensive for about a week, when they became quite
domesticated and gave us not the slightest inconvenience. For two or three
weeks we served them to the crew constantly, in lieu of the usual allowance
of salt provisions. It was a most valuable substitute, and important to us, as
we were bound upon a long cruise, as well for the health of the crew as for
the preservation of our sea stock. When the number became comparatively
small, we discontinued the general use of them, and served them only once
or twice a week. We never fed them, and for aught I could see, they were
equally as fat and healthy a month after they were taken on board, as on the
first day. As a sea stock nothing can be more convenient or better calculated
for a long cruise. They may be put any where and kept in almost any way,
and if it should be thought advisable to feed them, there is scarcely any
vegetable substance that they will not eat after they are a little domesticated.
The liver of this turtle is particularly delicious. When fried, it is not unlike a
fine oyster, and although partaken very freely of, no ill effect is ever
experienced from it. Sixteen days after leaving Charles Island, we made the
island Rooahooga, one of the southernmost of the Marqueses group. The
wind was fresh and blew steadily from the southward and eastward,
accompanied by a heavy swell. As we approached the islands, we had some
rainy and cloudy weather, but with this exception, our whole passage was
attended with clear days and fine moonlight nights. In latitude three degrees
south, and longitude ninety-five degrees west, we observed a remarkable
appearance in the water, which, had we been navigating an unfrequented
ocean, would have very much alarmed us. At several different times during
the day, on September 12th, we passed through violent rips, and at times

Secdocument - 228download Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Secdocument - 228download Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aerial warfare : the battle for the skies.

Over the course of researching and writing this book many

the production team led by Clement Raj, copy-editor Brian North,

 ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus  

 The USS Essex 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

As with most military topics, air power is replete with acronyms

xii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

RAF Royal Air Force

‘Air power is the use of air capabilities to inﬂuence the behaviour

inﬂuenced military conﬂict. However, air power has several unique

Vast resources have been and are spent on the development

logistical structures. The world’s ﬁrst independent air arm, the

Anatomy of an Air Strike

also likely to be an ‘electronic countermeasures’ (ECM) aircraft,

The Four Roles of Air Power: Control of the Air

B  The Four Roles of Air Power

were sustained from ground ﬁre. ‘Offensive counter-air’ (OCA)

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

Figure  ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus 

saw both sides deploy balloons to no decisive effect and they

Figure  An Italian aircraft dives on Turkish troops

army tank units. If a tank cannot move due to lack of fuel it

kind we have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan, the air supremacy

Germany (see Chapter ). At sea, air power is delivered from

that combining light internal combustion engines with a ﬂyable

Air forces require excellent personnel to operate and service

brightest of each conscription cadre and trained them to a very

power has been particularly intimate since WW and continues

Over the last two decades, with the populations of Western

military advantage gained. Necessity is closely linked, requiring

In , General Ferdinand Foch, who was to go on to command

 Beginnings: The First World War –

Beginnings: The First World War – 

be shelled by long-range artillery. This was the ﬁrst use of air

 Beginnings: The First World War –

In August , Russian generals advancing towards German

Beginnings: The First World War – 

Figure  Reconnaissance photograph of the village of Allaines

petrol. ‘It was a great misfortune having a bad day . . . ’ he opined.

 Beginnings: The First World War –

quarters had any time to devote to investigating the merits of an

Control of the Air

Beginnings: The First World War – 

operations to shoot down other ﬁghters with the objective of

 Beginnings: The First World War –

by the Dutch engineer Antony Fokker, whose eindecker (mono-

Beginnings: The First World War – 

B  The ‘Dicta Boelcke’: Sayings of Oswald Boelcke on Air

to regain control of the air. In the spring of , whilst British

 Beginnings: The First World War –

operational techniques is not entirely accurate and must be

Title: Journal of a cruise of the United States schooner Dolphin,

Author: Hiram Paulding

Release date: September 24, 2023 [eBook #71717]

Original publication: New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1831

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNAL OF

Map of Mulgrave Islands

UNITED STATES SCHOONER DOLPHIN,

AND A VISIT TO THE MULGRAVE ISLANDS,

IN PURSUIT OF THE MUTINEERS OF THE

WHALE SHIP GLOBE.

By Lieut. HIRAM PAULDING, of the U. S. Navy.