1. Why
did some world leaders and theologians feel that flying would be the end
of mankind?
“I wish for
many reasons that flying had never been invented,” were the words that Prime
Minister Stanley Baldwin once used to describe his hesitation about aviation.
There were many world leaders and theologians who felt the same way as Baldwin.
Many of them believed that aerial attacks on civilian targets would bring about
the end of the world as we knew it. They thought the only safe strategy in such
events would be to kill more innocent women than children than the opposition
if a victorious outcome was desired. Many of them viewed the idea of “wings” as
a whole a sign of disrespect towards God. Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz stated that
God prevented man from having wings so as to keep his life quiet and peaceful.
Author Samuel Johnson, whose time came much later than the previously described
theologians, wrote that, “If men were all virtuous…I should with alacrity teach
them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good, if the bad could
at pleasure invade them from the sky?” Clearly
the world leaders and theologians of the time believed that taking to the great
skies would allow evil-doers to maliciously attack unsuspecting targets from
the sky, where they would have an incredible advantage. Even the great Winston
Churchill suggested military aviation be banned following WWI only allowing a
League of Nations international air force for the purpose of peacekeeping. A
lot of this philosophy carries over into modern aviation where attacks like
Pearl Harbor and 9/11 have corroborated this concern. Although the two
previously described attacks on the United States have not let to the end of
the world, they still brought about sweeping changes in national security and
the way we view our safety when it comes to aviation. The world leaders and
theologians of the time had great concerns that were definitely warranted, but
perhaps they did not understand the lengths that nations would ultimately go to
in order to secure the safety of their people.
6. What
role did strategic bombing play during the war and was it successful?
On December 7th,
1941 a fleet of Japanese bombers attacked United States warships stationed in
the Naval Base of Pearl Harbor. It resulted in a loss of 188 aircraft, 18
sunken or badly damaged vessels, and 2,251 dead military personnel. It also
left 1,119 wounded and 22 missing in action. This surprise, strategic bombing
attack carried out by the Japanese began the military involvement of the United
States in World War II. For the Japanese, it was successful on the short-term,
but the United States would not forget the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United
States entered the war due to strategic bombing, and would also end the war
through the use of strategic bombing. Strategic bombing would play a central
role in the midst of the war itself as well. The Battle of Britain highlighted
its significance. The German Luftwaffe began a bombing campaign on Britain
attacking shipping in the Channel and on RAF Fighter Command bases. This
developed into a full-scale attack on London and other urban targets rich with
civilians. The Germans could not break the will of the British, however, and
were no more successful at reducing Moscow on the Eastern Front. What enabled
the Germans such rich bombing campaigns was having control of the sky.
Luftwaffe fighters had far more aerial victories than those of other nations
allowing Germany to bomb cities in uninhibited fashion for the most part. As the war progressed and Germany fell to
Allies, the war turned to the Pacific, where the Japanese still lingered after
the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor. After an intense strategic bombing campaign
on Japan and no sign of surrender to come, the United States turned to a weapon
it had been carefully developing: The Atomic Bomb. Two total bombs were dropped
on Japan. The first one was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 and
the second one was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th. The stunned
Emperor Hirohito and rational members of the government of Japan then, in turn,
requested peace and surrendered.
8. How
did WWII transform the prewar United States
As World War II
came to a close, it was observable that the once-diminutive aviation industry
in the United States had transformed into a massive industrial complex. The
sheer need for the production of military aircraft during the war promoted
massive job creation and the economic explosion of various aircraft producing
companies. The United States produced around 1,800 military aircraft total in
the year 1938. By 1944, just six years later, that number had jumped all the
way up to 96,300, almost 54 times the 1938 production numbers. Similar trends
were observed in all of the warring nations of World War II. Aviation was
placed at 41st in ranking American industries in 1939. Lockheed, in
particular, went from never having produced more than 148 aircraft of a single
type before 1938 to producing 2,941 twin-engine Hudson bombers that same year.
Employment in the aviation industry grew to 94,329 by 1943. With expanding
aviation, companies like Lockheed and Douglas had to expand their factory-floor
space to accommodate the increase in orders. The Douglas Company received the
honor of being the nation’s largest aircraft producer accounting for 15.3% of
total airframe tonnage. Since no business had the funding to purchase large
areas of land or spend millions on building and providing factories with the
required machinery, the US. Government created the Emergency Plant Facilities
program. This reimbursed companies for construction costs with the knowledge
that the government would repossess the newly created property once peace
returned and orders slowed. This created a boom in construction of plants
across the country. It helped to lay the foundation for the massive aviation
industrial complex that was soon to follow. Not only this, but it also helped
to contribute to the United States growth into having the most dominant air
force across the globe post-World War II.
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