Bloody April 1917: The Birth of Modern Air Power

By James S. Corum

Osprey, 2022

Michael Hanlon, Reviewer

Discussions of the air war over the Western Front during the spring joint French-British Offensive of 1917, like this quote from the Commonwealth War Graves website, usually focus on the British experience. "On 9 April 1917 the British Army launched a major offensive at Arras. During the battle the Royal Flying Corps fought for control of the skies. The losses they suffered were so heavy that the period became known to British aircrews as 'Bloody April'."

Bloody April 1917, however, takes a much broader approach to his subject. Using French, German, and British sources, he looks beyond the fighter battles at the operational and command levels and their connection to the ongoing ground campaign, especially support of artillery. Most important, he shows how the Allies' dreadful losses compelled them to change their methods and gain ascendency in the air by 1918. The author makes his approach clear in his introduction presented here.

Dr James Corum is a retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel. He taught military history at Salford University, UK, from 2014 to 2019, and was dean of the Baltic Defence College from 2009 to 2014. From 1991 to 2004, he served as a professor at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Power Studies. From 2005 to 2008, he was an associate professor at the US Army Command and General Staff College. Dr Corum is the author of several books on military history, including The Roots of Blitzkrieg: Hans von Seeckt and German Military Reform (1992); The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940 (1997); Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, Master of the German Air War (2008); The Luftwaffe’s Way of War: German Air Doctrine, 1911–1945, with Richard Muller (1998).