Churchill, Air Power, and Arming for Armageddon

Winston Churchill was an air power enthusiast. He saw early on that aircraft were transforming the international balance of power and the strategic environment. Command of the air would become a requirement to provide for the security of Great Britain and its empire, just as naval mastery had been in earlier times. As First Lord of the Admiralty before and at the outbreak of the Great War, he championed the development of Britain’s air strength. During the war, Churchill led the Ministry of Munitions, presiding over the manufacture of aircraft and weapons for the Royal Air Force (RAF). After the war, he served as Air Minister. Churchill would write: “Thus it happens to have fallen to my lot to have witnessed, and to some extent shaped in its initial phases, the whole of this tremendous new arm, undoubtedly destined to revolutionize war by land and sea.”¹ In the intensely competitive international environment of the period between the wars and during the second great Armageddon, Churchill would bring this extensive experience of leadership to bear in building up Britain’s air strength. He wanted Britain to lead in the science, technology, and practice of aerial warfare, to stand as the world’s leading air power.

Churchill was so much the enthusiast for air power that he sought to learn how to fly. Although his wife Clementine disapproved of this endeavor, Churchill persisted in pursuit of his wings. Much to his disappointment, he did not possess the aptitude to be a pilot. Still, he seized upon opportunities to go up in the air. He came much too close to death in flying accidents on several occasions. On one occasion during the First World War, while flying over the English Channel, his aircraft lost power, and it seemed as if he would crash into the water. The aircraft engine restarted, and Churchill avoided death. Soon after this episode, he described this near-death experience to the British press magnate Sir George Riddell, who recorded their conversation in his diary:

We talked much of flying. He [that is, Churchill] flies often as an amusement now-a-days. On his last flight across the Channel the engine gave signs of failure. He described his feelings. “I saw that things looked serious. I knew that if the engine just ceased to cough we should fall into the sea. We were too low down