School of Advanced Military Studies

The Battle of Britain School of Advanced Military Studies

The purpose of this book is to examine if, Army operational terms apply to an air battle? The Air Force mission is to gain air supremacy and, by doing this, it indirectly supports the Army. Once air superiority is established, the Air Force directly supports the Army by air resupply and ground attack. It is important that Air Force officers understand and be able to apply the terms and ideas the ground commanders will be using. Common terminology leads to common understanding and can prevent critical errors. The Battle of Britain was the first and arguably the only battle that was decided between opposing air elements without the direct involvement of ground or naval forces. This makes the Battle of Britain the "purest" use of air power on a grand scale. The operational terms come from the works of Clausewitz and Jomini and are an integral part of FM 100-5, Operations. A model of center of gravity is presented to help visualize the concept and explain its importance. Center of gravity will be used more and more in Army writings and plans as they become more familiar and at ease with it. Air Force officers should become familiar and be able to apply the terms of classical warfare theory. They should be familiar with the theories not only because the Army will use them when defining their operations but because they apply to Air Force operations as well.