Giulio Douhet Quotes

To conquer the command of the air means victory; to be beaten in the air means defeat and acceptance of whatever terms the enemy may be pleased to impose.

Тhe battlefield in the air will be the decisive one

From the day war conquered the skies, nothing could check its progress.

If you want to go anywhere in modern war, in the air, on the sea, on the land, you must have command of the air.

Military history shows air action only cannot achieve the goal of defeating an enemy.

Air power can either paralyze the enemy's military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack.

Victory, speedy and complete, awaits the side that employs air power as it should be employed.

The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. Therefore our supreme effort must be to gain overwhelming mastery in the Air. The Fighters are our salvation . . . but the Bombers alone provide the means of victory. . . . In no other way at present visible can we hope to overcome the immense military power of Germany.

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.

The development of air power in its broadest sense, and including the development of all means of combating missiles that travel through the air, whether fired or dropped, is the first essential to our survival in war.

The day may not be far off when aerial operations with their devastation of enemy lands and destruction of industrial and populous centers on a vast scale may become the principle operation of the war, to which the older forms of military and naval operations may become secondary and subordinate.

Allied air power was the greatest single reason for the German defeat.

The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. The fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.

The finishing off of the encircled enemy army is to be left to the Luftwaffe.

The British were keen for 30 caliber guns, did not believe in daylight bombing. American experts said 30 caliber was not enough; we had to have 50 caliber, also said daylight bombing was right provided the planes attacked in formation, with 50 caliber guns.

The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.

The one effective method of defending one's own territory from an offensive by air is to destroy the enemy's air power with the greatest possible speed.

The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world.

The first lesson is that you can't lose a war if you have command of the air, and you can't win a war if you haven't.

Air power is indivisible. If you split it up into compartments, you merely pull it to pieces and destroy its greatest asset, its flexibility.

Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind.

In the long run sea power will be no match for air power.

We cannot fight air strikes with explosives.

I think, sir, that these aeroplanes are going to spoil war. When they come over I can only tell my men to cover their heads with hay and make a noise like a mushroom!

Aviation constituted a new and possibly decisive element in preventing or fighting a war, and I was in a unique position to observe European aviation - especially in its military aspects.