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

=

*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

=
*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
*August 1917 to __ Colonel Charles Duval

Greece

*Hellenic Naval Air Service: Lt Commander Aristeidis Moraitinis (1917–1918)

Imperial Russia

* Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Field Inspector General of the Imperial Russian Air Service
*General Alexander von Kaulbars (Head of Russian Aviation in the Field, 1914-1915)
*Colonel Sergey Oulianine (Head of the Directorate of the Air Force, 1917-1918)

Italy

*Maurizio Moris, General Director for Aeronautics (1915)
* (1915–1917)
*Luigi Bongiovanni (1918–1919)

Romania

General Inspector of Engineering and Aeronautics

*1913-1915 - General Mihail Boteanu

Commander of the RAC

*1915-1916; 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu
*1916 - Major Gheorghe Rujinschi
*1916-1918 - Major De Malherbe

Director of the Aeronautics

*1916-1918 - Lieutenant-colonel
*1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu

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

{{Wwi-air

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