Blockade by Air
Air Strategy. By Captain Norman Macmillan. (Hutchinson. es. 6d.) Tins small book gives a remarkable amount of information and makes the case for the correct use of air-power. It is vigorous and provocative but entirely convincing. It traces the history of the development of the Air Force and describes its not com- pletely successful struggle for independence. The importance of this last point is that Captain Macmillan maintains that it is only through an independent strategic bombing force that we can attain victory. It is the air-arm that is the decisive arm in war today. He insists that whereas overwhelming naval strength could not prevent the outbreak of war a sufficiently strong air force would certainly have done so, and he has the satisfaction of being able to reflect that what he says now is merely a repetition of what he said before the war began.
He shows that, though the fighters completely destroyed the German plan last summer, their very success drove the enemy to follow our lead. If we had also possessed an overwhelming bomber-force at that time the war might be nearly over. The one way to win is to hit out and continue hitting out. " To spend the greatest part of one's own energy in warding off the blows of the enemy is not war at all. It is simply self-defence." The implication in these sentences he meets fairly by the suggestion that real mobility would satisfy all the necessary functions of the Army Co-operation Command.
There is a considerable amount of repetition in Captain Mac- millan's book, but apart from this it is as agreeable to read as it is convincing. It develops as no other book known to me does the true meaning and implications of a correct air-strategy. It shows how the air-arm can be applied to bring the life of a country to a complete standstill by cutting the main or local com- munications and internal blockade. It can achieve this, and it is the only weapon that can, more cheaply than any other con- ceivable means. It is to be hoped that this little book will find
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