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 Royal Flying Corps in France
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- 1914–1915 – Major-General Sir David Henderson
- 1915–1918 – Major-General Hugh Trenchard
- 1918 – Major-General John Salmond
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[1]
Greece
- Hellenic Naval Air Service: Lt Commander Aristeidis Moraitinis (1917–1918)
Imperial Russia
- Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich,[2] Field Inspector General of the Imperial Russian Air Service
Italy
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
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Harvey. Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793–1945. p. 419