The tools of British Air Control

[fat tony]

http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj94/sum94/parsons.html

http://www.wwi-models.org/Photos/Various/Bombs-brit/

Origins of Air Control Doctrine

After World War I, Britain set about the task of disarmament. The "war to end all wars" had just been won and the demon of militarism had been exorcised for good. It was time for British lawmakers to confront domestic economic problems: the balance of payments, labor unrest, and unemployment.

The British Empire was seen as a large part of the solution to Britain's financial problems. Her colonies were as much a source of cheap raw materials as an outlet for much-needed foreign trade. During the war, Britain expanded the size of its empire to some 13 million square miles and 450 million "souls" on six continents.1 Yet, the British capacity to govern colonial holdings had been ravaged by four years of war.

To maintain control, Britain would rely on a concept of domination that employed "power" rather than brute force. According to British historian Anthony Clayton:

Power, then, with the minimum actual use of force, was to be the keynote [of colonial rule]. Such power would by charisma produce the correct response from colonial peoples, who would choose to obey the orders of the system rather than be forced into so doing. As such, power was economical, since the use of raw force quickly led to its attrition. Further, force used in one place could not simultaneously be used elsewhere, while the weight of power could be felt in many places at once.2

The foundation of this concept of power lay on historical precedent as well as on the continued perception that Britain could and would deliver punishment to those who opposed its will. Clayton asserts that this doctrine was practicable only because of the great advances in military technology that occurred during World War I:

It seems certain that large areas of the Empire would have had to be abandoned had it not been for the new concepts of control "without occupation," based chiefly on the use of aircraft, armoured-cars, wireless and motor vehicles.3

Thus, Britain began the interwar period with a strategy of colonial administration based on the deterrent effect of rapid worldwide force projection.

However, reliance on the threat of military might to administer the colonies was overshadowed by the desire to cut government outlays. Another significant instrument for the task of improving Britain's fiscal soundness was the reduction of defense expenditures. Not only did shrinking the armed forces reflect the current trend of rejecting militarism, it was also a means to "balance the books." A formal policy of reducing military costs, termed the Ten-Year Rule, was published in late 1919. It was based on the presumption that Britain would not be engaged in a major war for at least the next 10 years and therefore required no expeditionary forces.4

The army, navy, and air force each had very different ideas on what was the greatest threat to the empire in the new security environment. According to Clayton, "The differences arose from the very size of the Empire and its attendant commitments, and the absence of any clear foreign policy assessment of priorities in the decade."5 They also arose from interservice competition over shrinking resources in the environment of the Ten-Year Rule. Each service touted a single-service strategy, with its own assets meeting the majority of Britain's security needs. The Royal Navy viewed Japan's increasing naval capability as the most serious threat to British hegemony; the Royal Air Force (RAF) believed that a significant "continental" air force would negate Britain's traditional natural protection (the English Channel); and the army considered Britain vulnerable through its "natural frontier," the Rhine.

The RAF, the newest service, faced the toughest challenge to its organizational integrity. It did not help the RAF that its primary strategic function, protecting Britain from an assault across the English Channel, was the vertical extension of a mission previously performed by the navy. There were many proposals to consolidate the RAF into the navy as the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) once the war had ended.6 However, the RAF maintained its status as a separate service by shifting its mission statement to address the colonial arena.

British colonial administrators asserted that to maintain a given colony, certain "political requirements of `law and order'" were necessary:

First of all, it must be possible for a British Officer, civil or military, to travel unmolested anywhere he may wish to go. . . . Secondly, the sanctity of the trade-routes through the hinterland must be respected. . . . The third rule is that if two [groups of natives] have to fight one another then they must manage to do so without interfering with the rights of third parties.7

These were the primary objectives of the occupying military force in Britain's colonial holdings. The RAF argued that these goals could be obtained most efficiently through the concept of air control.

Under air control, law-breaking tribes (defined as any native element that disrupted the maintenance of these three primary rules of law and order) would first be given an ultimatum. The government would clearly spell out what the miscreants had done wrong, what was expected of them in the future, and what restitution they were expected to pay. If, after a specified period of time, the lawbreakers did not satisfy the government's demands, the RAF would invoke an "inverted blockade" upon the guilty party or parties.

Shortly after the expiration of the ultimatum, RAF pilots would begin bombing the presumably empty villages of those charged with misbehavior.8 The intended effect of the "blockade" was to bring economic pressure to bear on the targeted individuals by disrupting the daily routine necessary to survive. The bombings, interspersed with deliveries of propaganda literature, would slowly intensify until the recipients sued for peace on terms acceptable to the government. According to RAF policy, the stated political objective of air control was "to bring about a change in the temper or intention of the person or body of persons who are disturbing the peace. . . . In other words, we want a change of heart."9 RAF leadership asserted that air control was less expensive in terms of money, casualties, and residual resentment than the traditional use of ground forces for punitive raids upon recalcitrant natives.
Somaliland

It was in Somaliland in 1920 that the RAF first employed the concept of air control. Since 1899, the British colonial government had experienced difficulties there from the forces of Sayyid Muhammad Ibn Abdulla Hassan, disparagingly referred to as the "Mad Mullah." Sayyid Muhammad, a popular teacher and apostle of the "fiercely ascetic" Salihipa sect, was an outspoken critic of British imperialism. His frustration peaked, and he declared a jihad against British rule when the colonial administration permitted the establishment of a Roman Catholic school in the capital, Berbera.10

From 1903 to 1914, a series of half-hearted campaigns against the mullah was unsuccessful. He avoided pitched battles and drew imperial forces deep into the Somali desert.11 The outbreak of World War I distracted British attention and for four years allowed the mullah and his followers a degree of the autonomy they sought. At war's end, Sir Geoffrey Archer, the governor of Somaliland, claimed that the mullah's independence was a slap in the face to Britain and set a bad precedent for the rest of its empire.

In early 1919, Britain's War Office sent Maj Gen Sir Reginald Hoskins, commander in chief, East Africa, to Somalia to plan a campaign to resolve the situation once and for all. When the British government ruled that Hoskins's plan was too expensive, Royal Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard proposed a plan that relied on the RAF to attack the mullah's forces. Trenchard's plan combined aerial punishment with ground-based "mopping-up" attacks by camel-mounted levies.12

On 20 January 1920, the RAF delivered a payload of pamphlets, which outlined the British ultimatum, to the mullah's headquarters in Medishe.13 The next day the bombing began in dramatic fashion when the mullah dressed himself in new robes and seated himself under a white canopy in defiance of British demands. The initial bombing attack reportedly killed the mullah's uncle (who was standing next to him under the canopy) and singed the mullah's own clothing.14

Convinced of the seriousness of British intentions, the mullah fled, leading British air and ground forces on a wild-goose chase across the Somali outback.15 The campaign lasted three weeks and ultimately succeeded in dispersing the mullah's forces. Although immediate military objectives were not achieved--the mullah himself escaped to Ethiopia, where he died the following year--the RAF could claim that in a period of 21 days it had solved a problem that had eluded the army for 21 years.16 The concept of air control was born.
Mesopotamia

The next significant use of the RAF for colonial administration would come in Mesopotamia (Iraq). After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, Britain and France were awarded control of much of the territory of the collapsed empire. Included in Britain's mandate was Mesopotamia. Administered by the British India Office, Mesopotamia was garrisoned by an Anglo-Indian army of occupation that soon proved unsuitable for a task of such magnitude.

The Ottomans had relied on a system of arbitrating feuds between local tribes and granting significant autonomy to local notables in order to maintain order. Indirect rule had been the cornerstone of Ottoman policy. Among the nearly independent social groups were the "Marsh Arabs" who inhabited the southern banks of the Euphrates River. Likewise, the Kurds in northern Mesopotamia had long maintained virtual independence from central authority and did not take kindly to the British presence.17

The army of occupation was soon put to test extinguishing brush fires of resistance to British rule throughout the territory.18 By early 1920, Mesopotamia was increasingly seen as unmanageable. In a report to Winston Churchill, then secretary of state for the colonies, General Staff professed itself unable to garrison Mesopotamia.19 Encouraged by the recent success of air power in Somaliland, Churchill tasked Air Marshal Trenchard to provide a plan for the RAF's administration of Iraq.

Native resentment to British encroachment was on the rise during the spring of 1920. British policies causing alarm included the proposed equal education of women and a novel form of government intrusion--property taxes. Spurred on by a perceived British reluctance to fight for Mesopotamia, nationalists began an open, widespread insurrection in May. Initially caught off guard by the revolt, the colonial government was slow to respond. All over the country the British were on the defensive. Army reinforcements were airlifted from India, and besieged outposts were kept supplied via airdrop.20

The revolt and its pacification were over by February 1921 and, contrary to initial Iraqi assumptions about British staying power, the rebellion hardened the British position against withdrawal from its mandate. For those who believed that the RAF should be given responsibility for the colony, the rebellion demonstrated the army's inability to protect Britain's interests and was evidence of the need for air control. At the Cairo Conference of March 1921, Churchill asserted that, due to the cost of maintaining a garrison, Britain had a choice between abandoning Iraq or implementing the RAF's proposal to maintain control.21 The Military Committee of the Cairo Conference elected to pursue a policy of air control in Mesopotamia and, in an effort to placate Arab nationalism, named Emir Feisal ruler of Iraq (under British mandate).

On 22 October 1922, the Air Ministry officially took control of the country. Eight squadrons of bombers were distributed among three airfields, each of which had its own cantonment and defense perimeter guarded by levies under British officers. RAF colonial administrators stated that their purpose was "to assist [Feisal's] government in the task of bringing order and stability to [Iraq]."22 RAF aircraft distributed propaganda leaflets among the tribes, transported political officers, and carried out blockades against the stubborn elements. Sir Percy Cox, the high commissioner in Baghdad, reported that by the end of 1922

on [at least] three occasions demonstrations by aircraft [have been sufficient to bring] tribal feuds to an end. On another occasion planes destroyed a dam illegally built by a sheik to deprive his neighbours of water, and dropped bombs on a sheik and his followers who refused to pay taxes, held up travellers and attacked a police station.23

The primary foci of punitive operations remained the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs. Unwilling to give up hope of establishing a separate state, the Kurds, led by Sheikh Mahmud, carried out a guerrilla campaign in the North that would last throughout Britain's occupation of Iraq (a campaign which has continued, off and on, to this day).

The RAF also protected Iraqi tribesmen from raids by the rival Wahhabis across the southern frontier from what is now Saudi Arabia. The RAF implemented a successful campaign, combining air power with self-defense forces from local tribes, that kept relative peace until King Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, crushed the Wahhabis in 1930.

By 1932, the last imperial police forces were removed from Iraq. During its tenure, the RAF had administered the Iraqi mandate at a fraction of the cost of maintaining control with ground forces. In 10 full years of air control operations, the RAF suffered only 14 killed in action and 84 wounded.24
Aden

The use of the RAF to administer the Aden Protectorate, on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, would prove to be Britain's longest and final application of air control. The protectorate consisted of the major port city of Aden and approximately 9,000 square miles of sparsely populated, unforgiving terrain. Originally established in 1839, the British had largely kept their operations confined to Aden. Until well into the twentieth century, the British did little more than sign treaties with the various tribes in the interior to keep out other colonial powers 25 and to prevent the tribes from encroaching on Aden itself.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire heightened the ambitions of Imam Muhammad ibn Yahya, the religious leader of Yemen, to seek sovereign control over the entirety of his claimed domain, which included the Aden Protectorate.26 Imam Yahya's interpretation of the "bounds" of his realm was incomprehensible to the British. The colonial government conceded the imam's right to "territories recently Turkish." However, it demanded that he abide by boundaries agreed to with the Ottomans in 1904 and that he respect treaties between the British and the tribes within the protectorate. In February 1926, a meeting took place in the Yemeni capital of Sana between the imam himself and British negotiator Sir Gilbert Clayton. Both sides agreed to a status quo in which each believed he had achieved the other's capitulation.27 The Imam Yahya continued working to establish imamate authority over "al-Yemen." The stage was set for the introduction of the RAF into Aden.

Again, Britain's primary consideration in resorting to air control of a colony would be monetary. The army estimated that it would cost £1 million annually and require a division of infantry to throw the imam's forces back to the line that the British considered the frontier between Yemen and Aden.28 In early 1928, the RAF stationed a squadron of bombers at Aden and took over administration of the protectorate from the army. An ultimatum was delivered to Imam Yahya. He was warned that any further intrusion into the protectorate would be cause for air raids against his cities.

On 5 April 1928, Yemeni raiders crossed the frontier and looted a village near Aden. Within two hours, RAF bombers were dispatched to bomb the southern Yemeni town of Taiz. Soon after, another bomber flew to the capital, Sana, for demonstrative purposes. The imam's morale was shaken enough for him to order all "occupied" territory evacuated.29 Although Yemen ended its overt penetrations into the protectorate, the imam (and his son Ahmed) would continue to denounce foreign domination for the rest of Britain's colonial tenure in Aden.

Having put a stop to the protectorate's external source of unrest, the RAF turned to establishing internal tranquility. In Aden, British political officers would make significant use of the airplane to move about the territory in order to negotiate cease-fires between feuding tribes and to deliver other political "goods."30 In the 1930s, William Harold Ingrams managed to negotiate a series of treaties known as "Ingrams' Peace" that involved the cooperation of over 1,300 tribal leaders.31 In January 1954, the work done by political officers resulted in the creation of a Federation of the Western Protectorate composed of the governor of Aden and tribal rulers.32 The RAF continued to use air control to maintain order within the protectorate as Britain progressively relinquished control of the colony and granted it independence in 1966.33

As Britain withdrew from its empire, the use of air control dwindled. However, due to its perceived success throughout the Middle East 70 years ago, air control remains a model for the application of air power in "little wars," not only for the British but for others as well.34 It is significant to note that the domestic and geostrategic environment facing the United States today parallels that which Great Britain faced in the post-World War I era when the concept of air control was born.

Cooper bomb

Hales bomb

Royal Laboratory 100 lb HE bomb

Royal Laboratory 112 lb bomb