BILLY MITCHELL’S AERIAL BLITZKRIEG
THE AIR CAMPAIGN AT ST. MIHIEL, FRANCE, IN SEPTEMBER 1918 WAS AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF U.S. MILITARY AVIATION.
“It was then-Col. William ‘Billy’ Mitchell’s show,” wrote historian John W. Huston. “He put together the largest air force ever committed to battle and drew up the plan for its employment.” Remarkably, considering the reputation he acquired after World War I for criticizing fellow military leaders, Mitchell successfully cobbled together the bulk of those air assets from three other Allied nations.
Only about 600 of the nearly 1,500 aircraft that participated in the Battle of St. Mihiel were flown by Americans in U.S. units. What’s more, fewer than 50 of those 600 airplanes were American-made, the others—mostly reconnaissance Salmsons, Breguet bombers and pursuit Spads—having been obtained from France. The remaining 900 machines were flown by French, British and Italian pilots. Interestingly, the Royal Air Force component—Airco and Handley Page single- and multi-engine bombers—was never actually under direct U.S. control, but because of the smooth cooperation between Mitchell’s staff and the British, that never became a problem. While American air strength would increase steadily between the St. Mihiel campaign and the Armistice two months later, never again during WWI would so much air power be amassed for any single battle.
FLYING AS AN OBSERVER WITH A FRENCH PILOT ON APRIL 24, 1917, MITCHELL BECAME THE FIRST U.S. ARMY OFFICER TO
