Air commanders of World War I

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
Major-General Hugh Trenchard
  • 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

France

Director of Military Aeronautics

Head of the Service Aéronautique

  • to December 1916 Colonel Édouard Barès
  • December 1916 to August 1917 Commandant Paul du Peuty[1]
  • August 1917 to __ Colonel Charles Duval

Greece

Imperial Russia

Italy

Romania

General Inspector of Engineering and Aeronautics

  • 1913-1915 - General Mihail Boteanu[4]

Commander of the RAC

  • 1915-1916; 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu[4][5][6]
  • 1916 - Major Gheorghe Rujinschi[5]
  • 1916-1918 - Major De Malherbe[7][8]

Director of the Aeronautics

  • 1916-1918 - Lieutenant-colonel François de Vergnette de Lamotte [fr][7]
  • 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu[4][5]

United States

Chief of Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in France

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

  • Brigadier-General Billy Mitchell

Central Powers air commanders

Germany

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

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. ^ a b c Valeriu Avram (2013). "Din Istoria Aripilor Românești 1910-1916" (PDF). Buletinul Arhivelor Militare Române (in Romanian). No. 61/2013. pp. 2–17.
  5. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Mihail Orzeață; Valeriu Avram (2018). "Romanian Aviation in the First World War" (PDF). Romanian Military Thinking (3): 206–231.
  8. ^ "Istoric". RoAF (in Romanian).