The Strategy and Tactics of Air Fighting [1925, Great Britain]

The Strategy and Tactics of Air Fighting [1925, Great Britain]

Author: Major Oliver Stewart

Year: 1925

Digitised by Google Books from the collection of the University of California https://books.google.com/books?id=PrtEAAAAIAAJ The Preface includes the following wording: A few remarks are required to vindicate my use of the words "strategy" and "tactics." In air fighting, as it will become clear later, there are two distinct operations. There is the preliminary manoeuvring before the opposing forces have joined issue and while they are, perhaps, only just visible to each other in the distance; and there is the manoeuvring after the forces have joined issue by one launching an attack upon the other. These two operations are distinct from one another and, before fighting in the air can be discussed analytically with any profit, it is necessary to draw the line separating them. Etymologically the word strategy refers to the leading of an army, and the word tactics to the arranging of an army. I therefore apply the word strategy to that branch of air fighting which consists in the preliminary leading of a patrol of aeroplanes in such a manner as to allow the enemy to be engaged under the most favourable conditions; and I apply tactics to the manoeuvring which takes place after the issue