The Forgotten Air Force: French Air Doctrine in the 1930s (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series) - Hardcover

Cain, Anthony Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1588340104 ISBN 13: 9781588340108

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2002

Synopsis

Germany's 1940 defeat of the Armée de l'air, perhaps the world's preeminent air force at the close of World War I, is commonly attributed to incompetent French leadership. Drawing on primary French sources not previously available to historians, Cain argues that in the 1930s the French Air Force was intellectually and operationally constrained, owing to an insufficient interest in and understanding of aviation by the Army and Navy high commands and the French government. But there was certainly no shortage of qualified officers who understood the capabilities of a modern air force in warfare.

Through this groundbreaking and innovative analysis, Cain brings a measure of balance to European interwar history.

About this title

About the Author

Lt. Col. Anthony Christopher Cain, USAF, was recognized by the Air Education and Training Command as Educator of the Year in 1995. He is a veteran B-52 radar navigator with more than 3,000 flying hours, and he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross while flying twenty-six combat missions during Operation Desert Storm.

Edition details

• Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1588340104
• ISBN 13: 9781588340108
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 214