"Air Power Review" Topic

Here is another document covering some interesting aviation subjects from the Center for Air Power Studies. The one article on Morale and Air Power in North Africa is very interesting. Robert

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This issue has a great article on the RAF campaign in the Balkans from November 1940 to April 1941. Robert

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A quote from the article on the morale,
"One of the key outcomes of the improved delivery of air power in the North African campaign of the Second World War was the effect that it had on the morale of ground forces. Morale can be understood as the willingness of an individual or group to prepare for and engage in institutionally encouraged actions. The disasters that beset Eighth Army in the summer of 1942 were significantly influenced by a crisis in morale that fed into ineffective combat performance. This crisis in morale was turned around in dramatic fashion at Alam Halfa and El Alamein leading to more effective performance and ultimately victory in North Africa. The improved provision of air support for Eighth Army played an important role in this recovery of morale and in the gradual erosion and destruction of German and Italian willingness to fight. Practitioners, theorists and historians must take account of the extent to which air power is a morale weapon if they are fully to understand the past and utilise air power to its maximum effect today and in the future."

Robert