The Airplane, re Type and Length of War

[Bill Greenwood]

The invention of the airplane and development of military aviation is one of two major changes in war. The other is length of wars now. Think of this, the 3 biggest and most major wars before military aviation were among the shortest. The civil war, a ground war with little naval and no aviation and limited weapons had 500,000 fatalities and was over in 4 years. WWI over in 4 years, not much aviation in the sense of bombing, still mostly a land war. Even WWII with both naval and air forces playing a major part and with 50 million fatalities worldwide, was over in 4 years. The Korean War, mostly land forces with some avaition was only about 3 years. All these, even with naval and air action were still mostly land battles, soldiers were main force.
Contrast this with 2 of our more recent wars, Vietnam went on for 15 years if you take first hostile action to last. The were large land forces but also a lot of aviation and tremendous amount of bombing, more even than in WWII. Huge casualties, 58,000 on our side plus 4 times that wounded and millions on the other side. Grenada was quick, but so small as not to be in the same category and Iraq was quick too, again pretty one sided. Aviation was a big part of these, but still a land war with soldiers and tanks. And the latest, in Afghanistan has lasted 15 years, not big as to number of casualties but still with 11,000 U S troops there now.
So what stands out in a quick look back or summary of 156 years of wars? TWO things at least. One aviation has grown so much that it not just a major factor in wars today, but maybe THE MAJOR FACTOR. And dont know if it is a cause and effect, but the more aviation in a war, and they less it is a contest of major ground forces, the longer the war seems to last. It just seems hard to win a war with aviation alone, unless major ground action accompanies the air war. And some current wars like Afghan are, on our part mostly an air war.
Just saw DUNKIRK, a small example but again a situation where air power alone was not enough to stop the evacuation, of course no where near the air power available today.