War Machines: Transforming Technologies in the U.S. Military, 1920-1940The American military establishment is intimately tied to its technology, although the nature of those ties has varied enormously from service to service. The air force evokes images of pilots operating hightech weapons systems, striking precisely from out of the blue to lay waste to enemy installations. The fundamental icon for the Marine Corps is a wave of riflemen hitting the beaches from rugged landing craft and slogging their way ashore under enemy fire. How did these very different relationships with technology develop? During the interwar years, from 1920 to 1940, leaders from the Army Air Corps and the Marine Corps recreated their agencies based on visions of new military technologies. In War Machines, Timothy Moy examines these recreations and explores how factors such as bureaucratic pressure, institutional culture, and America's technological enthusiasm shaped these leaders' choices. The very existence of the Army Air Corps was based on a new technology, the airplane. As the Air Corps was forced to compete for money and other resources during the years after World War I, Air Corps leaders carved out a military niche based on hightech precision bombing. The Marine Corps focused on amphibious, firstwave assault using sturdy, graceless, and easytoproduce landing craft. Moy's astute analysis makes it clear that studying the processes that shaped the Army Air Corps and Marine Corps is fundamental to our understanding of technology and the military at the beginning of the twentyfirst century. |
Contents
| 3 | |
The Bombers Vision | 17 |
The Bombers Technology | 33 |
Political Opportunities and Daylight Precision | 53 |
A HighTech Delivery System | 68 |
Political Pressure on a Warrior Elite | 101 |
Technology and Training | 116 |
Other editions - View all
War Machines: Transforming Technologies in the U.S. Military, 1920-1940 Timothy Moy Limited preview - 2016 |
War Machines: Transforming Technologies in the U.S. Military, 1920-1940 Timothy Moy No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Advanced Base Air Corps leaders Air Corps's Air Service aircraft airmen airplane altitude American amphibious assault amphibious operations amphibious warfare Army Air Forces aviation beach became Benjamin Foulois Board Boeing bombardment bomber advocates Brig BuCon Bureau bureaucratic Carl Spaatz Chief of Air commandant Corps and Marine Corps Tactical School defense Department doctrine enemy engines Eureka Fast Tanks fighters Fleet flight flying Foulois GHQ Air Force Hap Arnold Heavy Bombers Higgins Industries Higgins's Historical Amphibious File History Ibid industry institutional culture interwar landing boats landing craft Landing Exercises Lejeune Materiel Division military Mitchell Mitchell's NACA National naval Navy's Norden bombsight officers pilot plane precision bombing propeller Roosevelt Semper Fidelis sight Spaatz Sperry staff strategic bombing Tanks and Heavy target technical Tentative Manual tests tion U.S. Army U.S. Marine Corps vision War Plan Orange Washington Washington Navy Yard World World War II