ABSTRACT
In 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Service (USAAS) practised a variety of air-support operations on the Western Front, but during the inter-war years most senior British and American air commanders purposely overlooked the value of this use of air power. 1 Moreover, attempts by both the British and US Armies to control aviation for their own purposes during the inter-war years precluded any official discussion of air support between army and air force officers. As a result, in the early campaigns of the Second World War neither the RAF nor the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was able to provide effective air support. Their understanding of how to conduct such operations had largely vanished. Some American and British airmen understood some of the elements of how to conduct air support, but the operational experience had disappeared and neither force had a fully developed doctrine.
