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