The Command of the Air
North Stratford, NH: Ayer Company, 1984. Reprint Edition. Hardcover. [4], viii, 394, [2] pages. Tables. Format is approximately 6 inches by 9 inches. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Fep corner clipped. This is one of the National and International Viewpoints series. Giulio Douhet (30 May 1869 – 15 February 1930) was an Italian general and air power theorist. He was a key proponent of strategic bombing. He was a contemporary of Billy Mitchell and Hugh Trenchard. Douhet argued that air power was revolutionary because it operated in the third dimension. Aircraft could fly over surface forces, relegating them to secondary importance. Command of the air meant victory. Douhet believed in the morale effects of bombing. Air power could break a people's will by destroying a country's "vital centers". Targeting was central to this strategy and he believed that commanders would prove themselves by their choice of targets. Douhet identified the five basic target types as: industry, transport infrastructure, communications, government and "the will of the people" More