Billy Mitchell

William (Billy) Mitchell (born the December 28th 1879, dead the February 19th 1936) was an American, pilot general and pioneer of the military aviation. Its career in the army was strewn with controversies and problems with its hierarchy. He was condemned by a martial court for insubordination in 1925.

Youth

Mitchell was born with Nice in France in 1879. His/her father, John L. Mitchell was senator of the Wisconsin. During its childhood, he lived in the surroundings of Milwaukee to West Allis. His/her grandfather, Alexander Mitchell, was a famous poltician of Wisconsin and was at the origin of the railway line Milwaukee Road .

Billy Mitchell was pupil within the Columbian College become thereafter the Université George Washington. Within this establishment, it adhered to fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. It engaged then in the army at the 18 years age, whereas the United States was in conflict with Spain. It climbed quickly in the hierarchy, in particular thanks to the support of his father and joined U.S Army Signal Body (body of the transmissions). Visionary, it predicts as of 1906 that the future conflicts were going to be played in the airs and either only on the ground. Mitchell was instructor with Fort Leavenworth in the Kansas then served with the Filipino and in Alaska. It was assigned with the general staff at the age record for the 32 years time. One incorporated it within the aeronautical division of the Signal Body where it was in load of the American military aviation which was still at a not very advanced stage. It provided this function until the creation of the Army Air Service in 1918. In 1916, it took courses of piloting on a purely private basis. The army indeed had regarded it as too old and too graded for a drive.

First World War

The April 6th 1917, the United States entered in war against Germany. Mitchell, then lieutenant-colonel, were immediately sent in France. He collaborated actively with the commanders of the British and French air forces. He studied the techniques and the strategies deployed within the framework of the conflict and was also interested in the European planes. Mitchell had acquired a sufficient level of knowledge to begin the preparation of the American air operations. One quickly allotted the reputation of a leader to him untiring and blazing. He was high with the row of general sergeant and was with the head of the whole of the American units of aerial combat in France. In September 1918, it prepared and directed an air immense operation within the framework of the Bataille of Saint-Mihiel. Belonging to the first of the kind, this offensive marked a turning in the history of the military aviation since not less than 1500 British, Italian and French apparatuses were engaged against of the terrestrial objectives.

Regarded as one of the most brilliant American soldiers in the air force, as well as Eddie Rickenbacker, it was also popular in Europe. It accepted the Distinguished Service Cross-country race , the Distinguished Service Medal and several other decorations allotted by allied countries. In spite of its states of service, it attracted itself the lightnings of its superiors during the 18 months spent to France.

Career after the war

Mitchell went back to the United States to the beginning of 1919 and was named appointed director of the '' Air Service '' while preserving its rank of general sergeant. Within the Air Service , it appeared clear that Mitchell would receive the function of director but the army preferred the general major to him Charles T. Menoher of the Army which was also ordering division Rainbow in France (42e of infantry). This choice expressed the will to preserve the operational command of the air forces by the terrestrial forces.

Mitchell did not share the relatively widespread opinion which advanced that the First World War was the war which had put a term at all the other conflicts and which prevented other hostilities in the future. Its relation with its superiors continued to be degraded when it tackled the department of the War and the department of the Navy for their too narrow vision - in its eyes - future of the air forces and their potential. Mitchell recommended the development of apparatuses and specialized equipment: engines with compressors, planes equipped with shoes to atterir on snow, improvement of the systems of aiming for the bombardments, “aerial torpedos” (concretized later by the rockets and the missiles). It set up the use of the planes to fight forest fires and to carry out patrols along the borders. He encouraged the participation in the various records relating to aeronautics: crossed oceans, turn in the plane of the United States, etc He asked his pilots to try to compete in all the fields that it be speed, the endurance or altitude in order to propose aviation. Mitchell put at back the navy while affirming to be able to run buildings under “conditions of war”, and which it was able to prove it if one let it bombard the German battleships. In 1921, it succeeds in running several ships, of which the German battleship '' Ostfriesland '' and the American ship '' Alabama ''.

The tests were not done however under the same conditions as those which one can meet during the war: the battleship Ostfriesland was not ordered and did not retort with the attacks by a heavy fire. The quasi-immediate destruction of the German battleship did not make it possible to the naval engineers to carry out tests with various ammunition, whereas this protocol was to be followed. The pilots of Mitchell passed in addition to and bombarded the ship at the time of a coordinated attack. Mitchell however had obtained the proof that the fleet was vulnerable. In 1922, it met its Italian counterpart, Giulio Douhet, an expert in aeronautics which had written the work The Command off the Air , a document that Mitchell diffused shortly after within the Air Service .

In 1924, the superiors of Mitchell sent it to Hawaii then in Asia in order to draw aside it from the fronts of the military scene. Mitchell worked then on a ratio of 324 pages which predicted a war with Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor, a premonition which was going to become real later ten years. But its analysis was ignored at the time.

It encountered difficulties within the army with Charles Menoher and Mason Patrick. The Lampert Commitee of the Chambre of the representatives of the United States proposed to create an air force independent of the navy and Army, as well as a Department of Defense to supervise these three entities. Mitchell had taken part in the outline of this new vision of the military forces which did not like everyone. The department of the War had approved the proposal which aimed at establishing a general headquarter for the Air Force, in order to modernize and extend the Air Service , but it retracted within sight of the objections of the navy. This decision irritated Mitchell deeply.

In March 1925, it was retrogressed with the permanent rank of colonel and was transferred to San Antonio with the Texas as an officer from the air force in a body from the terrestrial forces. If retrogradation were not rare at the time (Mason Patrick had itself be general major then colonel), its application in the case of Mitchell seemed a punishment and a will to draw aside it. There had tried to remain assisting director of the Air Service at the end of its mandate but the secretary of the war, John Weeks decided to transfer it.

Martial court and retirement

The September 2nd 1925, the airship Shenandoah was crushed at the time of a storm, killing 14 team members. Mitchell made a statement where he openly showed for their “incompetence” highest graded Army and marine. He added that it was “almost about a treason in the administration of national defense”.

The president Calvin Coolidge asked so that a martial court intervene and Mitchell marked then was recognized guilty of insubordination. He was suspended active service for one five years duration, without pay during this period. Mitchell resigned the 1926 and spent the following decade to make the promotion of the air forces. Its departure of the army significantly reduced however its influence on the political decisions and the public opinion.

Mitchell lives in the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt (in the past in the navy), an advantage for the air forces. It estimated that this new president could even name it assisting of the secretary of the war for the air forces or even secretary of defense within the framework of a reorganization of the army. None of these wishes was concretized and he died in a hospital of New York the February 19th 1936 of the continuations of the influenza and of his precarious health. He was buried with the Forest Home Cemetery with Milwaukee.

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