Mitchell, Billy

Date of birth: December 29, 1879.

Place of birth: Nice, France.

Died: February 19, 1936.

Major contributions: Led U. S. air forces in World War I; promoted the use of military aircraft.

Awards: Distinguished Service Cross; Distinguished Service Medal;

Congressional Medal of Honor.

T

he son of a U. S. senator from Wisconsin, Billy Mitchell was 18 years old and still at college when the Spanish-American war began in 1898. He immediately volunteered for the army, entering as a private. His father used his influence to gain Mitchell a commission as an officer. Mitchell was assigned to the Signal Corps, the group that sent messages from one military unit to another. In combat, the young officer showed brav­ery and quick thinking.

World War I

Mitchell remained in the army after the Spanish-American war ended. As early as 1906-just three years after the Wright brothers took the first airplane into the sky-Mitchell predicted that future wars would be fought in the air. In 1912, by then a captain, Mitchell joined the Army General Staff as the youngest officer in that prestigious unit. While in Washington, D. C., Mitchell began his lifelong mission of urging the military to develop air power.

О This photograph of Billy Mitchell with his U. S. Army plane was taken in 1920.

In his spare time, Mitchell learned to fly and gained his pilot’s license. In 1915, he was assigned to the arm of the Signal Corps that was charged with developing a small air force. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Mitchell was sent to France. He began talking to leading military figures from other nations allied with the United States who were interested in military aircraft. One of them was British gener­al Hugh “Boom” Trenchard. The general argued strongly that air power should play an important role in allied opera­tions. He is credited with advancing the

THE U. S. AIR SERVICE IN WORLD WAR I

When the United States entered World War I, its military air service was very small. The group numbered only 131 officers and about 1,000 enlisted men. It had fewer than 250 aircraft. The only manufacturing company in the country that could produce large quantities of planes belonged to Glenn Curtiss. He pro­duced many of his famous "Jenny" training planes, and they helped the war effort. However, the United States did not produce a single com­bat airplane during the war.

_____________________________________________ J

role of military aircraft and in building Britain’s Royal Air Force.

Mitchell agreed with Trenchard’s ideas, and he went to work to create a U. S. air service. He began building air­fields near places where American troops were stationed. Other officers often found Mitchell’s personality to be brash and annoying, but he was deter­mined to carry out his plan.

Mitchell was put in charge of all Allied aircraft during the Battle of St. Mihiel in September 1918. Mitchell com­manded almost 1,500 planes-at the time, the largest air force ever assem­bled. In another battle later that fall, he sent massed forces of planes to carry out bombing missions.