The Ups and Downs of Close Air Support

摘要

According to Air Force legend, the best way for airpower to support Army battlefield troops was proven in Operation Torch in North Africa in 1943. The trouble is that the ground forces were not that impressed with the proof, and they did not subscribe to the legend. Eighty years later, the issue remains unsettled. Operation Torch, commanded by US Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, began in November 1942 with a combined US and British invasion of Algeria. The goal was to link up with the British Eighth Army driving westward from Egypt and Libya and crush the German Afrika Korps in between them.