Misplaced Pages

The air commanders of World War I were army or navy officers who came to command air services during the first major conflict in which air power played a significant role.

Entente Powers air commanders

British Empire

Australian Flying Corps

• 1914–1919 – Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Reynolds, General Staff Officer for Aviation, Australian Imperial Force
• 1918 - Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams, Officer Commanding (Acting) RAF Palestine Brigade

Royal Flying Corps

Director-General of Military Aeronautics

• 1914–1917 – Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson
• 1917–1918 – Major-General John Salmond
• 1918 – Brigadier-General Edward Ellington

General Officer Commanding the RFC in France

• 1914–1915 – Major-General Sir David Henderson
• 1915–1918 – Major-General Hugh Trenchard
• 1918 – Major-General John Salmond

Royal Naval Air Service

Heads of the RNAS

• 1914–1915 – Captain Murray Sueter, Director of the Admiralty Air Department
• 1915–1917 – Rear Admiral Charles Vaughan-Lee, Director of the Admiralty Air Department
• 1917–1918 – Commodore Godfrey Paine, Fifth Sea Lord and Director of Naval Aviation

Royal Air Force

Chief of the Air Staff

• 1918 – Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard
• 1918 – Major-General Frederick Sykes

France

Director of Military Aeronautics

• 1914–1915 Brigadier General Auguste Edouard Hirschauer
• position vacant
• 1916 Henry Jacques Regnier

Head of the Service Aéronautique

• to December 1916 Colonel Édouard Barès
• December 1916 to August 1917 Commandant Paul du Peuty
• August 1917 to __ Colonel Charles Duval

Greece

• Hellenic Naval Air Service: Lt Commander Aristeidis Moraitinis (1917–1918)

Imperial Russia

• Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Field Inspector General of the Imperial Russian Air Service
• General Alexander von Kaulbars (Head of Russian Aviation in the Field, 1914-1915)
• Colonel Sergey Oulianine (Head of the Directorate of the Air Force, 1917-1918)

Italy

• Maurizio Moris, General Director for Aeronautics (1915)
• Giovanni Battista Marieni [it] (1915–1917)
• Luigi Bongiovanni (1918–1919)

Romania

General Inspector of Engineering and Aeronautics

• 1913-1915 - General Mihail Boteanu

Commander of the RAC

• 1915-1916; 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu
• 1916 - Major Gheorghe Rujinschi
• 1916-1918 - Major De Malherbe

Director of the Aeronautics

• 1916-1918 - Lieutenant-colonel François de Vergnette de Lamotte [fr]
• 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu

United States

Chief of Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in France

• 30 June 1917 - Lieutenant-Colonel William L. Mitchell
• 3 September 1917 - Brigadier-General William L. Kenly
• 27 November 1917 - Brigadier-General Benjamin Foulois
• 29 May 1918 - Major-General Mason Patrick

Air Commander, Zone of Advance on the American Expeditionary Force in France

• Brigadier-General Billy Mitchell

Central Powers air commanders

Germany

• Führer der Luftschiffe (Admiral 2nd Class) Peter Strasser, Commander of naval Airships (1915–1918)
• Major, later Lieutenant-Colonel and then Colonel, Hermann von der Lieth-Thomsen, Chief of Field Air Services (1915–1916), Air Service Chief of Staff (1916–1919)
• Lieutenant-General Ernst von Hoeppner, Commanding General of the Air Service (1916–1919)

Inspector of Flying Troops

• Colonel Walter von Eberhardt, Inspector of Flying Troops (1913–1914)
• Major Richard Roethe, Inspector of Flying Troops (1914–1916)
• Major, later Lieutenant-Colonel Wilhelm Siegert, 2nd Staff Officer of Field Air Services (1915–1916), Inspector of Flying Troops (1916–1918)
• Captain Wilhelm Haehnelt, Air Commander 5th Army (1915–1916), Air Commander 1st Army (1916–1918), Inspector of Flying Troops (1918–1919)

Austro-Hungarian Empire

• Colonel, later Major General Emil Uzelac, Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops (1912–1918)
• Colonel General Archduke Josef Ferdinand, Inspector General of the Imperial Air Force (1917–1918)

Ottoman Empire

Bulgaria

References

1. "AIR POWER REVIEW Volume 12 Number 1" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
2. Harvey. Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793–1945. p. 419
3. "Giovanni B. Marieni". Marieni-saredo.it. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
4. ^ Valeriu Avram (2013). "Din Istoria Aripilor Românești 1910-1916" (PDF). Buletinul Arhivelor Militare Române (in Romanian). No. 61/2013. pp. 2–17.
5. ^ Războiul de întregire (1916-1919) Comandanți militari români (PDF) (in Romanian). Editura Centrului Tehnic-Editorial al Armatei. 2016. ISBN 978-606-524-176-3.
6. "Galeria comandantilor". RoAF (in Romanian).
7. ^ Mihail Orzeață; Valeriu Avram (2018). "Romanian Aviation in the First World War" (PDF). Romanian Military Thinking (3): 206–231.
8. "Istoric". RoAF (in Romanian).

• Military aviation leaders of World War I