- 5/25/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:30♪
00:36♪
00:44♪
00:50♪
00:57♪
01:04♪
01:11♪
01:18♪
01:25♪
01:32♪
01:39♪
01:46♪
01:53An air force is a symbol of standing in the modern world.
01:57And air power is an essential element
01:59in a state's ability to make war.
02:02These high-performance fighters are Qafirs,
02:04the home-produced aircraft of the Israeli Air Force.
02:08Over the last 30 years, that air force
02:09has won a formidable reputation in air-to-air combat.
02:13Its units are equally skilled
02:15in the direct support of Israeli soldiers on the ground,
02:17skills which were amply demonstrated
02:19against the Egyptians in 1967.
02:21♪
02:29This is Be'er Sheva,
02:30in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.
02:32And these are some of the fighters and bombers
02:35that took part in those three devastating hours
02:37that annihilated the Arab air forces
02:39and paved the way to an Israeli victory in 1967.
02:42Air power effectively won the Six-Day War.
02:45But in the long history of warfare,
02:47the pilot is a comparative newcomer.
02:49It's 75 years since soldiers took to the air,
02:52and less than 50 since they made their presence felt
02:54on the battlefield.
02:55Now, aircraft are a crucial element in any modern army.
02:59♪
03:05The pilot is the most highly trained
03:07of all modern fighting men,
03:09and his role is that of single combat,
03:11to pit his skills against another man at arms
03:14in the battlefield of the sky.
03:16♪
03:24Only thing that you hear is a lot of noise
03:26that comes from your earphones,
03:28the commanding of the whole controlling net
03:31that are in the air.
03:33You don't hear the shooting.
03:35Maybe you can hear your shooting,
03:37your strafing of your cannon,
03:39but you don't hear the hits.
03:42You don't hear the shouts.
03:43You don't see the face,
03:45and you don't see the blood of the enemy in front of you.
03:49And you are up above, very far away,
03:53and you can keep yourself very far away from the battle.
03:56♪
03:57But some airmen, like the crews
03:59of these German Stuka dive bombers
04:01of the Second World War,
04:02are deeply involved in the battle on the ground,
04:05and the effect they achieve can be devastating.
04:07♪
04:09We were lying out, waiting for this craft to come in,
04:12when a German Stuka came over
04:14and dive-bombing and machine-gunning the beaches,
04:16where we were all laid out on stretchers.
04:17That was absolutely terrifying.
04:19I was convinced I was going to get it,
04:22having got so far with the idea
04:24of being in nice, clean sheets back in Brighton.
04:26I thought, my God, they're going to get me after all.
04:28♪
04:34Napalm is the latest horror in the armory of ground attack.
04:38And in 1968, when the North Vietnamese Army
04:41and the Viet Cong surrounded the American base at Khe Sanh,
04:45aerial bombardment helped to end the siege.
04:47♪
04:50The siege didn't end with some sort of a dramatic battle,
04:55but rather with the NVA simply melting away.
04:58I'm convinced that he melted away
05:00because we used an awesome amount of firepower,
05:04particularly airpower.
05:06He was bombed into submission, in essence.
05:10There were more bombs dropped in the immediate area of Khe Sanh
05:14during the siege than there had been on Germany in 1943.
05:18♪
05:22Vietnam was an air war for the American Army in another way.
05:26It was the first war in which ground troops in large numbers
05:29were moved by aircraft directly into the heat of action.
05:33We had to go out and find out whether the Viet Cong and NVA were.
05:37And the only way to do that was to go out into areas
05:40which were heavily foliated and difficult to really see anything
05:44without getting right down on top of it.
05:46And the idea was, once you got right down on top of it,
05:48the VC or the VC NVA, they would see you,
05:51and they would open up on you.
05:53As soon as you knew where you were taking the fire,
05:55you would form the gunship, and then you broke in that direction,
05:58and then they rolled in and put down suppressive fire.
06:00Then we would send the infantry in to check out to see what we found.
06:05Aircraft have had another vitally important effect
06:09upon the nature of modern warfare.
06:11They've brought greater mobility to armies,
06:13and they've enabled commanders to send specially trained troops
06:17far behind enemy lines quickly and with complete surprise.
06:21Today, helicopters like this Puma are fairly commonplace in armies,
06:25but they're only the latest means of sending troops by air.
06:29The idea of the airborne soldier goes back to the early days
06:32The idea of the airborne soldier goes back a long way.
06:35They jumped into battle in their thousands by parachute,
06:38and that's perhaps why, because of their special skills,
06:41in most armies, the paras are regarded as a special and elite unit.
06:48Soldiers dropping from the skies
06:50were a feature of World War II and Korea.
06:53Their chief weapon was surprise.
06:55Their fighting tradition was formidable,
06:57as it had to be, given the odds they faced.
07:00And it was the Germans who were the first to commit paratroopers to action en masse.
07:04The parachute soldiers in any army in the world are always a certain elite.
07:10They stick together, they kept good discipline,
07:13and they had everywhere a wonderful spirit.
07:16Our soldiers, our non-commissioned officers,
07:19we commanders all together, we are one family.
07:22We meet, we were helping each other,
07:25are good comrades, are good soldiers,
07:28are trained to obey orders.
07:30Everybody wants to serve his country.
07:32There was a lot of patriotism.
07:36All parachutists begin their training on the ground.
07:39They are hardened in careful steps,
07:42the shock of the jump, the slipstream, and the landing.
07:48They must also prepare for their type of operations with great care.
07:55By 1941, the German parachutists
07:57had taken part in two great campaigns in the West and in the Balkans.
08:02And then in May of that year, they planned for their riskiest venture,
08:05the assault on Crete.
08:09Codenamed Mercury,
08:10the operation was to be the first attempt of the airborne age
08:13to seize a large objective with parachute troops.
08:17As we saw Crete from the air,
08:20I was from time to time with these pilots in the cockpit
08:26and had a good view.
08:28We had quite clear weather.
08:30Naturally, everybody wants to show up that he is a proud soldier,
08:35but in fact, I wouldn't be honest if I was not admitting
08:39that everybody in fact is a proud soldier.
08:42In fact, I wouldn't be honest if I was not admitting
08:46that everybody in fact was afraid.
08:49This was a situation where we started singing even.
08:52We admitted that all of us, we were afraid.
08:55And the singing in the plane was more or less show business.
09:00You give each other courage.
09:02We dropped down like, how shall I say, like a bag of potatoes.
09:07We always had to stand, hold on the door,
09:10and jump head first, spread your arms,
09:13keep yourself in the balance,
09:15and jump out towards the wing.
09:18You're frightened.
09:20Everybody is frightened.
09:22But you hope for that bang.
09:26But a safe landing is not enough to make a parachute jump a success.
09:30The individual paratrooper has to begin fighting hard
09:33as soon as he hits the ground.
09:36The individual is more important than the unit
09:39after landing in the first, say, 20 minutes.
09:42You must have good soldiers.
09:44We couldn't do it without good soldiers.
09:47We couldn't do it without good soldiers.
09:50We couldn't do it without good soldiers.
09:53You must have good soldiers.
09:55Weak boys and so, and they don't have an aim,
09:58and they are no patriots.
10:00You can forget them.
10:12And there was the most heavy fighting.
10:15The biggest fighting was around the airport in Malemes.
10:19The airport was the key.
10:21The Germans finally took it
10:23and opened the way for their transport aircraft
10:26to bring in reinforcements.
10:28Had the British held the airport,
10:30they could have isolated the German parachutists
10:33and destroyed them at leisure.
10:35As it was, supported by stronger forces,
10:38the Germans went on to the offensive and victory.
10:43We occupied at least this hill of Malemes,
10:46and then more or less the whole island was in our hand.
10:50But we had heavy, heavy losses,
10:52and I think the whole German general staff
10:55was astonished about these losses.
10:57I think the whole airborne philosophy
11:00was changed after this experience of freedom.
11:03So heavy were the German losses
11:05that Hitler never again risked
11:07using his elite airborne divisions in mass drops.
11:12The British, who had suffered a humiliation,
11:15were driven to the opposite decision,
11:17to create airborne forces of their own.
11:21The Americans made the same decision.
11:38Soon, both armies were training thousands of men
11:41to take to the air, leap into space,
11:44and wage war on the enemy's own ground.
11:53My first combat jump, of course, was Normandy.
11:56In getting ready, we did have a lot of equipment,
11:59and the equipment that we carried
12:02was divided up among the men,
12:04because we, say, the bazooka men,
12:06we could not expect the bazooka man
12:08to carry his bazooka
12:10and all the rockets that were necessary.
12:12Basically, each rifleman carried, like,
12:14two bandoliers of ammunition,
12:16a full cartridge belt full of ammunition,
12:18fragmentation grenades,
12:20at least a three-day supply of K-ration food,
12:23and about a two- or three-day supply of D-ration food.
12:26We were self-sufficient.
12:28We carried our own medical supplies.
12:30Plus, we had, like, Hawkins mines,
12:32detonating caffs, TNT.
12:34I carried also a machete
12:36and a trench knife.
12:38So, at the time,
12:40we were putting our chutes on,
12:42we had help from the Air Force.
12:44They sent men around.
12:46We had so much equipment on
12:48that we had to lie on the ground
12:50in order to fasten the belly band
12:52on our reserve chute
12:54and have one man stand on our back
12:56while another one would fasten the belly band.
12:58And then we couldn't get up.
13:00We had to have help to get up.
13:02I weighed 143 pounds,
13:04and I was carrying 150 pounds of equipment.
13:06Normandy was the first
13:08of four great Allied airborne ventures
13:10in the reconquest of Western Europe.
13:12The second took place
13:14in the south of France
13:16in August 1944.
13:18The third, a heroic failure,
13:20was codenamed Market Garden.
13:22Its objectives were the bridges
13:24over the Meuse and the Rhine
13:26at Nijmegen and Arnhem,
13:28the notorious Bridge Too Far.
13:33The last operation
13:35was the successful attempt
13:37on the Rhine in March 1945,
13:39Operation Varsity.
13:41It was a big operation.
13:43It involved the 6th Airborne Division
13:45and the British Division
13:47and the 17th United States Airborne Division.
13:49It was a part
13:51of a very, very big operation.
13:53This was the last sort of ditch
13:55across the Rhine,
13:57and so everybody knew
13:59that it was going to be a very big thing.
14:01It was an operation in which gliders
14:03were used in the largest numbers ever seen,
14:05but gliders were tricky.
14:13But they afforded airborne troops
14:15the means to bring equipment too heavy
14:17to parachute directly to the landing zone.
14:19The operation began
14:21with a heavy aerial bombardment
14:23the night before the crossing.
14:30A smoke screen was laid
14:32to cover the assault.
14:40The aircraft was loaded
14:42and ready for takeoff.
14:49Then the assault boats
14:51set off across the open waterway
14:53to make contact with the parachutists
14:55and glider infantry
14:57who were about to land
14:59behind the enemy lines.
15:01Well, I shall never forget
15:03the 24th of March, 1945.
15:05First, it was the most brilliant
15:07early spring day I could remember.
15:09Sun shining, blue sky, not a cloud.
15:11Second, I was terribly apprehensive
15:13because I'd knocked my knee
15:15playing rugger
15:18a week or so before the operation.
15:20And the doctor decided
15:22I wasn't fit to jump,
15:24therefore I had to go by a glider.
15:26First glider trip in my life.
15:28Took off from Woodbridge in Suffolk
15:30in the early morning
15:32in this huge hammer car glider
15:34towed by a Halifax bomber.
15:36We were carrying a Bren gun carrier
15:38in the front with two chaps aboard.
15:4012 or 14 wicker panniers
15:42full of ammunition of all sorts.
15:44Heavy natures.
15:46First in the front was my chief
15:48and then in the back of the glider
15:50was my chief.
15:52On the journey there,
15:54we saw all these other aircraft
15:56in the sky.
15:58There was a fighter protection
16:00and then we flew in these huge,
16:02big, big formations
16:04across into Germany.
16:06As we crossed over the Rhine,
16:08there was a tremendous amount
16:10of flak coming up.
16:12Airborne formations always try
16:14and losses from anti-aircraft fire
16:16were cripplingly heavy.
16:18I was jumping number three that time
16:20but when I looked over the shoulder
16:22of the number one, you could see the tracer
16:24fully sparsing up by the door.
16:30I certainly fell vulnerably in the aircraft
16:32and I was very anxious to get out of it.
16:34I was more afraid
16:36that I would be in the aircraft,
16:38trapped, would be hit and catch fire
16:40than I was to get out through the door
16:42and jump into the flak.
16:49The sky was full of aircraft,
16:51full of parachutists,
16:53tremendous amount of flak.
16:55I would have never witnessed
16:57such a sight before.
16:59I should think to the German on the ground,
17:01it was a pretty terrifying experience for him.
17:03Two parachute divisions
17:05dropped to seize landing zones
17:07for the gliders which would bring
17:09their reinforcements.
17:11Eventually,
17:13we saw the ribbon of the Rhine below us.
17:15We cast off from the tug,
17:17two and a half thousand feet
17:19and the glider went down
17:21and then suddenly, everything opened up.
17:25I was hit several times
17:27on the face and head
17:29but I was so keyed up
17:31that I didn't know I'd been hit
17:33until I felt something wet
17:35coming down my face
17:37and then this awful,
17:39ammunition back to the straw,
17:41suddenly saw smoke coming from it
17:43and it was on fire.
17:45And of course, we didn't carry
17:47parachutes and gliders.
17:49I went, kept going down
17:51and thinking, what shall I do?
17:53And I remember reciting
17:55the 23rd Psalm.
17:57And I had a tremendous experience then.
17:59As I got halfway through the psalm,
18:01I suddenly had this
18:03tremendous feeling of peace come over me.
18:05Peace.
18:07It didn't matter.
18:09Might have been going to Brighton for a day out.
18:11And all the fear
18:13which I'd experienced earlier on,
18:15left me.
18:17All I can remember
18:19was sitting in my jeep
18:21with my driver.
18:23Instead of flattening out, crashing.
18:25And the plane seemed to be
18:27on one, going one side
18:29which led me to believe
18:31that one wing had come off
18:33and we went straight through the glider in our jeep.
18:35The Germans fought hard
18:37to hold their last defensive obstacle
18:39in the West.
18:41But the British and Americans
18:43overcame the opposition
18:45to make a joyous reunion
18:47with their ground troops.
18:49They, however, had suffered
18:51disastrous losses.
18:53The British and Americans
18:55were forced to retreat
18:57and the British and Americans
18:59were forced to retreat
19:01and the British and Americans
19:03They, however, had suffered disastrous losses.
19:05From anti-aircraft fire
19:07and bad landings on smoke-obscured
19:09landing zones.
19:15These losses were so heavy
19:17that gliders henceforth
19:19were to lose all favour with armies.
19:21By 1945, even parachuting
19:23was falling under a shadow of doubt.
19:25Its risks were so high
19:27that operational success
19:29had too often turned on luck
19:31and judgment for a general's peace of mind.
19:39The appearance of the helicopter
19:41eliminated many of the risks
19:43that had bedevilled parachute operations.
19:45It did not need an airfield
19:47to pick up its load of troops
19:49and it delivered them precisely
19:51where the commander wanted.
20:01So was born
20:03during the Vietnam War
20:05the tactics of search and destroy.
20:07Ground and air patrols
20:09looked for the enemy.
20:11When he was found,
20:13the helicopter fleets
20:15brought up the infantry
20:17who would attack him
20:19in his hiding places.
20:31Heliborne troops,
20:33unlike parachutists,
20:35landed soft
20:37and landed light too,
20:39because the helicopter
20:41carried their kit
20:43and would be back.
20:50But once on the ground
20:52and advancing to contact,
20:54the heliborne soldier
20:56had to fight as skilfully
20:58and bravely as his parachuting predecessor.
21:00The strong enemy hid himself cunningly,
21:02was a master of ambush
21:04and defended his position with tenacity.
21:06His unseen presence
21:08lent an almost unbearable menace
21:10to the silence of the jungle.
21:27When contact was made
21:29and the helicopter broke out,
21:31the contrast was shattered.
21:39All right, who's wounded?
21:41All right, give me some cover!
21:59Fire! Fire!
22:08In Vietnam,
22:10heliborne soldiers were part of a unit
22:12called the Air Cavalry
22:14and their bond with their supporting aircraft
22:16was particularly close and constant.
22:18Radio signals and smoke canisters
22:20conjured up air power
22:22to deluge the identified enemy positions
22:24with rocket and gunfire.
22:29An indispensable part of the team
22:31was the spotter pilot.
22:33His light observation plane
22:35circled overhead to check
22:37and record the results of the action
22:39and call in help if needed.
22:41In fact, spotting was the first job
22:43military aircraft ever did.
22:45Air Cavalry was the first
22:47aircraft in the world
22:49to have a spotter pilot.
22:51The spotter pilot was the first
22:53aircraft in the world
22:55to have a spotter pilot.
22:57Aircraft first proved
22:59their value to soldiers
23:01as a means of observation.
23:03In September 1914,
23:05Lieutenant Watteau of the French Army
23:07was flying on a reconnaissance mission near Paris
23:09in a Bleriot monoplane
23:11exactly like this one.
23:13The fate of all Europe was hanging in the balance
23:15as German armies advanced across France
23:17and even Paris itself was threatened.
23:19Lieutenant Watteau saw long columns
23:21of men marching across the countryside
23:23and quickly returned to report
23:25what he'd seen.
23:27To the French High Command,
23:29his news was vital confirmation
23:31of the change in the German plan.
23:33It enabled General Joffe
23:35to reach an historic decision.
23:37Gentlemen, he told his staff,
23:39will fight them on the Marne.
23:41Well, the Battle of the Marne
23:43stopped the Germans and saved France.
23:45The first military aviators
23:47observed the enemy with the naked eye.
23:49But aircraft were soon equipped with cameras
23:51which brought back evidence
23:53of the enemy's leisure.
23:55Evidence in camera
23:57was particularly valuable
23:59once trench warfare set in.
24:01Aerial photographs revealed
24:03every twist and turn in the enemy's front,
24:05every gun position,
24:07every dugout entrance,
24:09every shell hole.
24:11Millions of photographs were taken
24:13and turned into maps
24:15which provided the soldiers on the ground
24:17with daily information.
24:19Commanders had finally achieved
24:22They told the whole story, really.
24:24A photograph
24:26of the German front lines
24:28and their artillery positions
24:30were vital
24:32to our army intelligence people
24:34before they made an attack
24:36because they wanted to know
24:38the whole trench system
24:40before they went over
24:42and they wanted to know where the
24:44machine gun posts were
24:46and they wanted to know where the artillery was
24:48and how close it was behind the front lines.
24:50In fact, they wanted the whole picture.
24:57It was a very dangerous game
24:59and everybody knew
25:01the photographic
25:03boys themselves
25:05and their escorts
25:07were people who got
25:09the biggest losses, I think, in those
25:11periods.
25:15Photographic reconnaissance
25:17continued into the Second World War
25:19better cameras brought back vital information
25:21about the latest enemy movements
25:23and defensive positions
25:25and now the aircraft, like these mosquitoes,
25:27flew higher and faster.
25:43The manned plane has given way in today's wars
25:45to pilotless reconnaissance drones
25:47of which the Israelis are pioneers.
25:51The operator sits safely at base
25:53observing the battlefield and its moving targets
25:55by remote control television.
26:05In this way, commanders can now get
26:07their information as it happens
26:09and not after the inevitable delays
26:11caused by bringing back and developing photographs.
26:13This intelligence is crucial
26:15in pinpointing targets for aircraft
26:17in their other supporting role, ground attack.
26:31Ground attack
26:33was the role that Hitler chose especially
26:35to assign to his Luftwaffe
26:37when, in defiance of the Versailles Treaty,
26:39he revived German air power in 1935.
26:45Instead of training
26:47for home defence
26:49or long-range bombing attacks
26:51like the British and the French,
26:53the Luftwaffe practised
26:55to support the army's infantry and tanks
26:57in great campaigns of territorial conquest.
27:15In May 1940,
27:17a new age dawned
27:19here in the valley of the Meuse
27:21outside Sedan.
27:23The Germans had invaded France
27:25two days earlier
27:27and rolled with little trouble
27:29to the far bank.
27:31But the French were confident
27:33the Meuse would stop them.
27:35No engineers, they believed,
27:37would ever throw a pontoon bridge
27:39over the river here,
27:41not in the teeth of the French defences.
27:43They had concrete redoubts,
27:45artillery, interlocking fields of fire.
27:47Well, they were wrong.
27:49When the German attack came,
27:51it was out of the sky.
27:55On the morning of May 12,
27:571,500 Luftwaffe strike aircraft,
27:59many of them the terrible Stuka dive bombers,
28:01hurled themselves
28:03at the defences strung along the ridge.
28:05They had done it in 1939
28:07to the Polish cavalry.
28:09No one had learned anything.
28:11Meanwhile, they were doing it
28:13to French concrete.
28:15By nightfall, the bridge was across the Meuse
28:17and the German tanks rolled onwards.
28:19The French 9th Army was crumbling.
28:21Hitler's Blitzkrieg would crush
28:23the mighty France in less than a month.
28:25Tactical air power was here to stay.
28:31Effective ground-air cooperation
28:33was at the heart of Germany's success
28:35in the 1940 Blitzkrieg.
28:37Dive bombers opened the way
28:39for the Luftwaffe and their supporting artillery.
28:41And when the enemy broke and fled,
28:43the Luftwaffe strafed their columns
28:45to destruction.
29:03When the tide turned,
29:05the Allied pilots proved as pitiless
29:07in harrying the enemy from the air.
29:14They had far more aircraft at their disposal
29:16and better aircraft,
29:18particularly the heavy, long-range
29:20P-47 Thunderbolt.
29:22It was particularly suited to interdiction,
29:24that is, cutting the enemy's lines
29:26of communication.
29:30This is the American 65th Fighter Squadron
29:32flying from Corsica,
29:34taking part in the operation codenamed Strangle.
29:36The 65th is on its way
29:38to attack the supply columns keeping alive
29:40the German army on the Italian mainland.
29:42Frank Mander was a pilot
29:44flying one of these Thunderbolts.
29:46The opinion at the time was
29:48that we're not going to be able to dive-bomb and strafe
29:50in that thing, because it was just too unwieldy.
29:52Actually, it turned out to be
29:54a very beautiful machine. It could take a lot
29:56of punishment, had a lot of firepower,
29:58and did an excellent job.
30:00The target is a bridge,
30:02and our mission is to interdict
30:05the bridge by dive-bombing.
30:07So we would take, then,
30:09a squadron of perhaps
30:1112 to 16, maybe
30:1320 aircraft,
30:15and divide the squadron
30:17into flights of four,
30:19with the leader being on the bottom
30:21and the flight stacked up
30:23on top.
30:25As you approach the target, of course,
30:27everybody gets lined up, depending on whether
30:29you're going to attack it from the left or the right.
30:31When the leader gets over his target,
30:33then, he rolls over,
30:35calls a tally-ho,
30:37and dives down.
30:39Then, of course, his wingmen all follow,
30:41and the flights follow in sequence.
30:51As you roll over, then you maneuver around
30:53to where you're almost going straight down on your target.
30:55As you're almost
30:57in the vertical position,
30:59then you release your bombs, and pull out
31:01and dive.
31:09You're primarily concerned, as you're going down,
31:11with following your path down to the target.
31:13Otherwise, you're going to
31:15be off.
31:17After the dive-bombing run,
31:19then the flights pull back up again
31:21to altitude and reform.
31:23From there, then, you will either
31:25return home
31:27or strike out then on targets of opportunity.
31:29Your main mission is
31:31to really just hit anything that moves.
31:33We would simply
31:35shoot them off the road.
31:47Explosions
32:07Safe return from combat
32:09brought exhilarating release
32:11from stress.
32:13And pilots often celebrated
32:15their return to Mother Earth
32:17with exultation.
32:21To the muddy soldier in the trench,
32:23they seemed like another race.
32:25Aloof, privileged, almost
32:27immortal. Yet death came often
32:29for aircrew, and came in its most
32:31painful and loathsome forms
32:33by falling from great heights, or
32:35worst of all, by fire.
32:45Explosions
33:03Despite the threat of a terrible
33:05death, the young and the brave
33:07were never deterred from volunteering
33:09to fly.
33:11These typhoon
33:13and tempest pilots of the RAF
33:15saw themselves as setting off on a great
33:17adventure. The assault on Hitler's
33:19Europe, which they were to help
33:21make a victory.
33:27Music
33:43Music
33:49Music
33:55Music
33:59Music
34:05Music
34:09Music
34:13Music
34:19Music
34:25Music
34:29Music
34:33Music
34:37Music
34:39Music
34:51Years later, the Israeli Air Force
34:53learned the lessons of the reconquest
34:55of Western Europe. That the tactical
34:57use of air power is a key ingredient
34:59of a successful ground campaign.
35:01On the first day of the Six Day War
35:03in 1967, its pilots set out
35:05to destroy the Arab Air Forces
35:07on the ground.
35:09By noon, they had achieved their
35:11total devastation.
35:13Explosions
35:35The Israeli pilots were then free
35:37to support the advance of the army
35:39on the ground.
35:43Explosions
35:47In Sinai, they caught the
35:49retreating Egyptians at the Mitla and Gidi
35:51passes, and piled their vehicles
35:53into burning heaps.
35:57Looking down from the air,
35:59the Mitla looked somewhat
36:01like an old cowboy movie
36:03where you would see the
36:05caravan, this enormous
36:07long train-like
36:09looking thing, winding itself
36:11through the desert. I flew
36:13over it. It was very sad.
36:15Looking down and
36:17seeing remains of burnt
36:19out vehicles. Thousands,
36:21literally thousands of vehicles that were not
36:23going to go anywhere anymore.
36:25It looked like an enormous scrapyard.
36:33The Israeli army also learned
36:35to use tactical aircraft as
36:37flying artillery, to be called upon
36:40whenever the infantry were held up
36:42by some point of resistance they could not overcome
36:44with their own weapons.
36:46The Israeli Air Force became, in the words of one officer,
36:48a subcontractor
36:50for any platoon commander in difficulty.
36:52In Vietnam, the American army used air power in the same way, talking aircraft directly onto the target.
37:14We had to be very careful
37:16about the speed of the aircraft.
37:18We had to be very careful about the speed of the aircraft.
37:20We had this
37:22incredible amount of armament. I could pick
37:24up a radio and literally have four jets
37:26with 500-pound bombs
37:28with napalm, with 20-millimeter cannon
37:30at our beck and call. So that was a good
37:32feeling, that if we got into a lot of trouble,
37:34if there was a big firefight,
37:36and we could just pull back and call in air support,
37:38call in an airstrike,
37:40call in artillery, but the planes
37:42would come in and bomb, they would drop napalm,
37:44and you didn't have to. I mean, the theory
37:46behind it, in my opinion, was
37:48that you never send a man where you can send a bomb or a bullet.
37:55When you roll in and drop your bombs,
37:57about all you're thinking about is the fact
37:59you're destroying a thing, a military
38:01target, something that
38:03needs to be destroyed in order
38:05to help the fight, say, in the South, in South
38:07Vietnam. When we return
38:09from a mission, you never think about
38:11actually the fact you might have killed
38:13someone down there. Psychologists
38:15have coined a term for this phenomenon,
38:17the plurality of altitude.
38:19Ethics apart, the effects were
38:21disorientating. We had
38:23surrendered to us an NVA
38:25soldier. We hadn't
38:27been standing there watching him
38:29in the trench more than a couple of minutes
38:31before one of our own jet aircraft
38:33flew over at some distance from the hill,
38:35whereupon this man
38:37literally dissolved
38:39into shaking
38:41and uncontrolled
38:43reaction to just the sound
38:45of that jet going overhead.
38:47We found that, for instance, if we simply
38:49clapped our hands,
38:51the man would defecate standing there.
38:55He was psychologically destroyed
38:57by the constant
38:59heavy bombing.
39:15Individuals can be broken
39:17by the terror of a bombing attack.
39:21But it is more difficult
39:23to unhinge the spirit of a nation.
39:25The Germans failed
39:27in 1940 to blitz the British
39:29into submission. The Allies failed
39:31in their turn to beat the Germans
39:33in surrender by strategic bombing.
39:35In Vietnam, the U.S. Air Force
39:37confining its attack to economic
39:39and military domination,
39:41the U.S. Air Force
39:43confining its attack to economic targets,
39:45found that it could crater
39:47rice paddy and lay waste forest
39:49by the acre, but not subdue
39:51the will of the population to carry on the fight.
39:53The whole of North Vietnam
39:55became an anti-aircraft position
39:57from which many American aircraft
39:59failed to return.
40:09And when their bombs did strike
40:11home on targets of importance,
40:13the ant-like energy of the Vietnamese
40:15peasants was engaged to repair the damage.
40:17High explosives scattered
40:19earth and stone to the winds.
40:21Human muscle returned
40:23it to its place. In the contest
40:25between high technology and
40:27stubborn resistance, stubbornness
40:29won the race.
40:41In a country where transport
40:43was relatively unsophisticated,
40:45good interdiction targets
40:47were hard to come by.
40:55Nowhere was the U.S. Air Force
40:57more frustrated than in its efforts
40:59to cut the Than Hoa Bridge
41:0170 miles south of Hanoi.
41:03It was an important transport link
41:05and between March 1964
41:07and October 1968,
41:09no less than 700 sorties
41:11were flown against it,
41:13but the bridge always remained open.
41:15Finally, four years later,
41:17and then only by the use of
41:19laser-guided 2,000-pound bombs
41:21was it damaged
41:23and subsequently closed.
41:33Along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,
41:35North Vietnam's main supply route
41:37to the south,
41:39the Americans bombed a wasteland
41:4120 miles wide and hundreds of miles long,
41:43but the supplies always found a way
41:45through the crater zone.
41:47It was a telling illustration
41:49of the indecisive effect of air power alone.
42:07The Vietnam War
42:09had seemed nevertheless
42:11to indicate that at least
42:13one type of aircraft,
42:15the helicopter,
42:17would have a central role
42:19in future warfare.
42:31The United States Army
42:33has built a whole new formation
42:36based on the concept of air mobility.
42:38This is the 101st Airborne,
42:40which is part of the Air Assault Division.
42:42It began as a parachute unit
42:44in World War II
42:46and fought from helicopters in Vietnam.
42:50Today, the new division
42:52is bigger, stronger,
42:54and even more flexible in use.
42:56Unlike parachutists,
42:58they're not tied to runways and ripcords.
43:00They can start almost anywhere
43:02and go almost anywhere.
43:06Their mobility derives
43:08from the advanced design
43:10of the modern military helicopter
43:12in all its many forms.
43:14Observation, transport,
43:16heavy lift,
43:18and even air-to-air combat.
43:20The Air Assault Division
43:22is the most advanced
43:24air-to-air combat division
43:26in the United States.
43:28The Air Assault Division
43:30is the most advanced
43:32air-to-air combat division
43:34in all its forms.
43:36Observation, transport,
43:38heavy lift, gunship.
43:48But it is the skill of the pilot
43:50that maximizes the helicopter's qualities.
43:52Skill in contour flying,
43:54formation keeping,
43:56accurate touchdown,
43:58and rapid departure.
44:04The Air Assault Division
44:06can also bring its own artillery
44:08with it to support the infantry
44:10in contact with the enemy.
44:28Its guns are not the pip-squeak
44:30of a helicopter,
44:32its guns are not the pip-squeak 75s
44:34of Arnhem days,
44:36but full-scale howitzers and cannon
44:38with a range and weight of shell
44:40equivalent to those in an armored division
44:42and an unequaled ability
44:44to change position at speed.
44:58Guns and infantry
45:00fly together.
45:02And most important of all,
45:04the infantry land concentrated.
45:06Gone is the fatal dispersion
45:08of parachuting days.
45:10Air assault units hit the ground
45:12in compact formed bodies
45:14ready to take the fight to the enemy
45:16from the moment of touchdown.
45:18The artillery arrives
45:20on their heels,
45:22ready to lend support.
45:24And overhead hover
45:26the observation helicopters,
45:28alert to spot enemy reaction.
45:30Against tanks,
45:32they can call in A-10s,
45:34the Air Force's ferocious tankbusters.
45:36And we tell you,
45:38the A-10s are the best
45:40tankbusters in the world.
45:42They call in A-10s,
45:44the Air Force's ferocious tankbusters.
45:46Enemy tank!
45:481,500 meters to your front!
45:50Fire!
45:54The air assault troopers
45:56have anti-tank weapons of their own.
45:58Fire when ready.
46:02Weapons good enough to make a kill.
46:04And so the final assault goes in,
46:06supported by firepower
46:08undreamt of by the airborne soldiers
46:10of World War II.
46:34Go!
46:46Hit it!
46:52Get up! Get up now!
47:04Fire!
47:16When and if the position has been taken,
47:18the attendant troop carriers return
47:20to re-embark their soldiers.
47:26Air assault is the latest,
47:28though not perhaps the ultimate,
47:30application of air power to land warfare.
47:32Strategic visionaries already foresee
47:34what they call the air-land battle,
47:36in which command will be exercised
47:38and the decisive strokes inflicted
47:40from airborne platforms
47:42or ballistic vehicles.
47:47The trend of technology
47:49brings such a vision close to realization.
47:51In the comparatively few years
47:53since the aircraft made its first
47:55faltering contribution to the soldiers' business,
47:57perhaps it has wrought
47:59the greatest military revolution
48:01since the dawn of conflict.
48:31Air-to-air Missiles
48:33are the most powerful
48:35anti-aircraft missiles
48:37in the world.
48:39They are capable of
48:41hitting targets
48:43at a distance of up to
48:45100,000 miles.
48:47They are capable of
48:49hitting targets
48:51at a distance of up to
48:53100,000 miles.
48:55They are capable of
48:57hitting targets
48:59at a distance
49:01of up to
49:03100,000 miles.
49:05They are capable of
49:07hitting targets
49:09at a distance
49:11of up to
49:13100,000 miles.
49:15They are capable of
49:17hitting targets
49:19at a distance
49:21of up to
49:23100,000 miles.
Recommended
46:31
|
Up next
57:16
45:12