Operations of the Air Defense Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), 1944-45
Abstract
From the date of its 'publication in Field Manual 100-20, "Command and Employment of Air Power", the concept that antiaircraft defense is only one aspect of the all-inclusive problem of air defense, whose effectiveness is assured only by integrating all defense elements under an Air Force commander, has been widely opposed. This opposition, which was almost universal among Antiaircraft Artillery officers serving in the Mediterranean and' European Theaters of Operations, was based initially upon combat experience in North Africa under a defense system which can best be described as "coordinated antiaircraft-air defense, where the relationship between the Antiaircraft Artillery and the Air Forces was substantially the same as that which later developed in the joint air-ground operations conducted by Armies and Tactical Air Forces. Further experience in the European Theater of Operations not only convinced its proponents that coordinated. defense is fundamentally sound, but it demonstrated to them that an integrated defense system definitely impairs the flexibility of Antiaircraft Artillery. The validity of the arguments for coordinated defense was soon recognized by the senior Ground Force officers in the European Theater, and culminated in the conclusion of the Theater General Board that the placing of Antiaircraft Artillery under Air Force command was not justified by experience. This conclusion was supported by General of Flakartillery Walther von Axthelm, who commanded the German Antiaircraft Artillery in an integrated system under the Luftwaffe, when he stated during an interrogation after the German surrender that it is much better for the AA Artillery to be a separate branch, instead of under Air Force command.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1947
- Accession Number
- AD1118119
Entities
People
- Wallace H. Brucker
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College