Key Points and Summary – Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, the “Father of the U.S. Air Force,” was a visionary who argued that air power would make battleships obsolete.
-He proved his theory in 1921 by sinking the captured German battleship Ostfriesland with bombers, an act that “scorned” Army and Navy leadership.
Iowa-Class 5-Inch Guns. Image by Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.
Those Iowa-Class Guns. Image Credit: Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.
-For his persistent, public criticism—accusing senior leaders of “almost treasonable administration”—Mitchell was court-martialed for insubordination in 1925 and forced to resign.
-He was “ultimately proven right” by the events of WWII, such as Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, which confirmed the aircraft carrier’s supremacy.
How the Age of the Battleship Ended
Although a visionary who was ultimately proven right by the aerial combat of the Second World War, Billy Mitchell was scorned by his peers and left the Army.
Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell was one of the most influential advocates for air power and an early champion of the role that aircraft could play at sea.
Part of the US Army Air Service during the First World War, Mitchell saw firsthand how the modest balsa wood and canvas biplanes of the era could seemingly drop ordnance with relative impunity, harried initially by other aircraft.
Following the end of the First World War, Mitchell became increasingly confident that air power could transform the modern battlefield, and at sea, wreak particularly acute destruction on the era’s capital warships.
Cognizant of how exposed ships at sea would be to bomb-laden aircraft, Mitchell postulated that a fleet of aircraft could, relatively easily, strike enemy ships well before they came in range of the ship’s guns. Mitchell argued that standing up a new service branch, the Air Force, would result in more mature American aircraft than a rapidly advancing but still fledgling field of military science.
The combat of the Second World War lent great credence to Mitchell’s argument, silencing his detractors who resisted the application of the airplane to warfare.
However, Mitchell would suffer significant criticism from the Navy and Army during his lifetime. In 1925, Mitchell was court-martialed by the Army and found guilty, ultimately resulting in his departure from the Army.
Iowa-Class 16-Inch Shell Menu. Image Credit: National Security Journal.
USS Iowa 16-Inch Guns National Security Journal Photo. Taken August 15, 2025 By Harry J. Kazianis.
Put to the Test
Michell’s chance to prove his airpower theory came in 1921, when senior Army and Navy leadership granted him the opportunity to conduct a demonstration, an evaluation of the destructive potential of airpower.
As one history account put it, “the Navy’s leadership ignored, ridiculed, or attacked Mitchell, depending on the issue, but he finally backed them into a corner with an open challenge while testifying before the House subcommittee on aviation. Mitchell announced that ‘1,000 bombardment airplanes can be built and operated for about the price of one battleship.”’
Arguing that a battleship could be sunk by an airplane more cheaply than by another battleship, Mitchell argued that an American Air Force should be both independent of the Army and Navy, and their equal.
The Navy towed old and obsolete ships, including battleships and other warships surrendered by Imperial Germany after the end of World War I, off the coast of Virginia. The evaluation was seemingly brutal.
A series of aircraft dropped a variety of munitions at the warships, eventually sinking the fleet, including the Ostfriesland, formerly of the German Navy.
We can even say that July 21, 1921, was the day the battleship era was over. And yet, more battleships would be built for decades to come.
Delayed Outcome
The experiment was mired in controversy.
Reporting from the time revealed that while the aircraft involved in the test did drop objects onto the ships, those “bombs” were in fact sandbags, and the explosions were actually prepositioned explosives rigged to the vessels.
The evaluation was rerun under conditions that were to replicate wartime conditions. Although interservice squabbles ensued and some senior leadership in the Navy and Army remained opposed to the results, the test proved that warships—even the mighty battleship—were indeed vulnerable to aerial attack and could be sunk.
Though Mitchell was correct in his assessment of the airplane’s potential, he was not a promoter and often found himself alienated from his fellow officers and superiors.
When it became clear that the Navy would continue to invest in capital ships in the interwar years, with a prioritization of warships like the battleship over intensive development and refinement of the early aircraft carrier, Mitchell publicly accused senior Navy and Army leadership of “almost treasonable administration” for what he saw as their failure to support the aircraft carrier adequately.
USS Iowa Logo National Security Journal Photo. Taken August 15, 2025.
One of the definitive affirmations of Mitchell’s theory was the Royal Navy’s 1940 aerial attack against the Italian fleet, moored at Taranto harbor. It was the first aerial naval attack in history, resulting in extensive damage to the Italian fleet.
Another affirmation of Mitchell’s theory of the role of air power came on December 7th, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Imperial Japan’s raid on the fleet at Pearl Harbor was, coincidentally, broadly similar to war games the United States had run in the late 1930s against the island.
Devastating though the Pearl Harbor attack was, it silenced remaining critics of Mitchell’s theory of air power.
Histories of the Second World War are peppered with the effects of air power across all theaters.
In the Pacific, arguably the most consequential example of airpower’s destructive effects was the Battle of Midway. Following three days of combat, the Imperial Japanese Navy lost a total of four fleet aircraft carriers, nearly 250 aircraft, and more than 3,000 pilots and other flight personnel.
The United States losses were comparatively light: a single aircraft carrier, one destroyer, about 150 airplanes, with 307 lives lost. Today, historians widely consider the battle one of the most decisive naval engagements in the history of warfare.
The Battleship Era Was Done
Ironically, it was the same navy that censured and criticized Billy Mitchell that ultimately adopted many of his recommendations.
However, the Royal Navy and Imperial Japan were among the first to implement the kind of combat he envisioned.
Despite the Navy’s opposition to Mitchell and his vision of the future of warfare, his dogged determination to transform warfare accelerated the development of the aircraft carrier.
Though largely scorned in his lifetime, Mitchell proved influential on military doctrine, particularly at sea.
Mitchell had the misfortune of not seeing his theories tested under actual, real-world combat conditions—Mitchell passed away in 1936—but is still considered one of the more influential figures in the history of air power.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
NOTE: We have corrected a date that was mistyped.
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