Airpower Quotes

A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security. ~ Henry H. Arnold

Never abandon the possibility of attack. Attack even from a position of inferiority, to disrupt the enemy's plans. This often results in improving one's own position. ~ Adolf Galland

Are you aware it is private property? Why you'll be asking be to bomb Essen next. ~ Kingsley Wood

If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and we lose it quickly. ~ Bernard Law Montgomery

In order to assure an adequate national defense, it is necessary - and sufficient - to be in a position in case of war to conquer the command of the air. ~ Giulio Douhet

The conviction of the justification of using even the most brutal weapons is always dependent on the presence of a fanatical belief in the necessity of the victory of a revolutionary new order on this globe. ~ Adolf Hitler

If we had these rockets in 1939, we should never have had this war. ~ Adolf Hitler

War is a nasty, dirty, rotten business. It's all right for the Navy to blockade a city, to starve the inhabitants to death. But there is something wrong, not nice, about bombing that city. ~ Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet

From now on we shall bomb Germany on an ever-increasing scale, month by month, year by year, until the Nazi regime has either been exterminated by us or - better still - torn to pieces by the German people themselves. ~ Winston Churchill

Air power may either end war or end civilization. ~ Winston Churchill

We are going to scourge the Third Reich from end to end. We are bombing Germany city by city and ever more terribly in order to make it impossible for her to go in with the war. That is our object, and we shall pursue it relentlessly. ~ Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet

The sky over London was glorious, ochre and madder, as though a dozen tropic suns were simultaneously setting round the horizon ... Everywhere the shells sparkled like Christmas baubles. ~ Evelyn Waugh

Such an experiment without actual conditions of war to support it is a foolish waste of time ... I once saw a man kill a lion with a 30-30 caliber rifle under certain conditions, but that doesn't mean that a 30-30 rifle is a lion gun. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

That idea is so damned nonsensical and impossible that I'm willing to stand on the bridge of a battleship while that nitwit tries to hit if from the air. ~ Newton D. Baker

Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence. ~ Winston S. Churchill

There are a lot of people who say that bombing cannot win the war. My reply to that is that it has never been tried ... and we shall see. ~ Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet

Air warfare is a shot through the brain, not a hacking to pieces of the enemy's body. ~ J. F. C. Fuller

Air control can be established by superiority in numbers, by better employment, by better equipment, or by a combination of these factors. ~ Carl Andrew Spaatz

Whatever the lengths to which others may go, His Majesty's Government will never resort to the deliberate attack on women and children and other civilians for purposes of mere terrorism. ~ Neville Chamberlain

During the Battle of Britain the question "fighter or fighter-bomber?" had been decided once and for all: The fighter can only be used as a bomb carrier with lasting effect when sufficient air superiority has been won. ~ Adolf Galland

The bomber will always get through. The only defense is in offense, which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly that the enemy if you want to save yourselves. ~ Stanley Baldwin

I would attack any squadron blockading a port. Nothing could prevent me from dropping out of the clear blue sky on to a battleship with 400 kilos of explosives in the cockpit. Of course it is true that the pilot would be killed, but everything would blow up, and that's what counts. ~ Jules Vedrines

Aviation is going to control the world economically and militarily whether we like it or not. Airpower is not merely military aviation, it is also civilian aviation and airpower is peace power. ~ Roscoe Turner

Gulf Lesson One is the value of airpower. ~ George H. W. Bush

Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and-in the eventuality of war-as the devastating force to destroy an enemy's potential and fatally undermine his will to wage war. ~ Omar N. Bradley

The best way to defend the bombers is to catch the enemy before it his in position to attack. Catch them when they are taking off, or when they are climbing, or when they are forming up. Don't think you can defend the bomber by circling around him. It's good for the bombers morale, and bad for tactics. ~ Robin Olds

Above all, I shall see to it that the enemy will not be able to drop any bombs. ~ Hermann Goring

Then there was war in heaven. But it was not angels. It was that small golden zeppelin, like a long oval world, high up. It seemed as if the cosmic order were gone, as if there had come a new order, a new heavens above us: and as if the world in anger were trying to revoke it. ~ John Milton

My Luftwaffe is invincible ... And so now we turn to England. How long will this one last - two, three weeks? ~ Hermann Goring

Good God! This man should be writing dime novels. ~ Josephus Daniels

Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt