{"id":130738,"date":"2026-05-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=130738"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:53:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:53:31","slug":"billy-mitchell-he-proved-bombers-could-sink-battleships-and-was-court-martialed-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/billy-mitchell-he-proved-bombers-could-sink-battleships-and-was-court-martialed-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Mitchell: He Proved Bombers Could Sink Battleships \u2014 and Was Court-Martialed for It"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The admirals were convinced it was impossible. You simply could not sink a battleship from the air. Battleships were armoured fortresses, built to absorb punishment from naval guns. Bombs dropped from altitude, they argued, would never hit anything. General Billy Mitchell decided to prove them wrong. On 21 July 1921, he sent his bombers against the German battleship Ostfriesland, captured after World War I and anchored in the Atlantic Ocean as a target. The ship sank in 21 minutes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Quick Facts<\/h4>
Nationality<\/td>American \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8<\/td><\/tr>
Achievement<\/td>Father of US Air Power; proved bombers could sink battleships (1921); commanded 1,500 warplanes in WWI<\/td><\/tr>
Historic<\/td>21 Jul 1921 \u2014 sunk battleship Ostfriesland from the air; predicted Pearl Harbor-style attack in 1924<\/td><\/tr>
Court-Martialed<\/td>1925 \u2014 convicted of insubordination; resigned from the army<\/td><\/tr>
Born \/ Died<\/td>29 Dec 1879 \u2013 19 Feb 1936 (age 56)<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"Billy
Funeral Procession, U.S. Military Aviator from the Second Provisional Wing of the Air Service (16729895669) \u2014 via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mitchell had commanded the largest air armada in history during World War I \u2014 1,481 aircraft attacking German positions during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September 1918. He returned from the war convinced of something that no one in the established military wanted to hear: the aircraft had made the battleship obsolete, and the next war would be decided in the air, not at sea. He said so loudly, repeatedly, and with little diplomatic finesse.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In 1924, he wrote a classified report predicting that Japan would one day attack the US Navy at Pearl Harbor \u2014 in a surprise Sunday morning strike using carrier-based aircraft. He was ignored. In 1925, after the crash of the Navy dirigible USS Shenandoah killed 14 crew members, Mitchell issued a public statement calling the Army and Navy leadership “incompetent, criminally negligent, and treasonable.” The Army convened a court-martial. He was found guilty and suspended from duty for five years without pay. He resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"SMS
The German battleship SMS Ostfriesland takes a direct bomb hit during General Billy Mitchell’s aerial bombing demonstration on 21 July 1921. The ship sank in 21 minutes. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n