Talk:World War II, air war

Stimson

I restored the section on Stimson, and added full citations. Please don't erase chunks of text without discussions here.Richard Jensen 05:01, 17 June 2008 (CDT)

Close air support

I was able to find full downloads of some of the references pointing to Google Books, and inserted a number of wikilinks as well as some general copy editing. Rather than indent with a colon, I put direct quotations into what I believe is CZ style, <blockquote>text [reference if any]</blockquote>

I must disagree, however, with a point about Marine aviation and CAS, which I moved here:

Marine pilots, like all aviators, fiercely believed in the prime importance of air superiority; they did not wish to be tied down to supporting ground troops. On the other hand, the ground Marines needed close air support because they lacked heavy firepower of their own.

Given the assumption, going back to the first recruits at Tun Tavern, that every Marine is, first and foremost, an infantryman, I find it hard to believe that Marine Aviation ignored CAS and concentrated on defensive counter-air for the fleet. It is plausible that they gave a higher priority to gaining air supremacy over the battlefield, so they could provide CAS undisturbed.

The Marines, indeed, had been experimenting more than the other services with forward control of both air and artillery. ANGLICO was the longest-lived organization, but JASCO units were a Corps initiative in WWII.Howard C. Berkowitz 21:46, 15 July 2008 (CDT)