Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 129

AIR-SEA BATTLE

(Getty Images photo)

Rows of rails for antitank protection were built along the Maginot Line to protect the French border from tank attacks (photo circa 1951).

Atlantic in World War II and the Doolittle Raid on
Japan. Moreover, they cite examples of U.S. successes
against A2/AD situations during the Berlin Airlift
( June 1948 to May 1949), and the U.S. support to
Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.5 They might
have included U.S. Navy and Air Force cooperation
during the War in the Pacific in World War II, in which
both arms isolated Japanese-held islands in preparation for Marine and Army invasions. They might also
have discussed how Allied use of tactical and strategic
air power under the Transportation Plan successfully
interdicted German reinforcements to the Normandy
beachhead.6 In both cases, however, land power forces
conducted the decisive operations, so their omission is
understandable.
At the risk of sounding patronizing, it must be said
that a little knowledge of history is almost as damaging
as no knowledge. At