The evolution of army aviation

Extract

The important thing in the land battle is to overpower your opponent by out-manoeuvring him and then hitting him with all the weapons at your disposal. Clubs, swords, spears, brickbats and arrows, or rifles, machine guns and artillery or nuclear, chemical and guided weapons, the principles are the same:

• (a) Seek the enemy out.

• (b) Move into position.

• (c) Destroy him in battle.

The first task is therefore surveillance and target acquisition. This is a task which requires a soldier to get into a position to observe and discover where your enemy is and what he is doing. Most sensible enemies hide behind hills to keep out of harm's way, in order to conceal their future intentions. Therefore one of our basic problems is to find out what goes on behind the hill.