Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

====Air power====
For an extended period of time, the chief British weapon against the forest fighters was air power. Between June 1953 and October 1955, the RAF provided a significant contribution to the conflict—and, indeed, had to, for the army was preoccupied with providing security in the reserves until January 1955, and it was the only service capable of both psychologically influencing and inflicting considerable casualties on the Mau Mau fighters operating in the dense forests. Lack of timely and accurate intelligence meant bombing was rather haphazard, but almost 900 insurgents had been killed or wounded by air attacks by June 1954, and it did cause forest gangs to disband, lower their morale, and induce their pronounced relocation from the forests to the reserves.<ref name="Chappell 2011">{{Harvnb|Chappell|2011}}.</ref>

At first armed [[North American Harvard|Harvard]] training aircraft were used, for direct ground support and also some camp interdiction. As the campaign developed, [[Avro Lincoln]] heavy bombers were deployed, flying missions in Kenya from 18 November 1953 to 28 July 1955, dropping nearly 6&nbsp;million bombs.<ref name="Chappell 2011 68">{{Harvnb|Chappell|2011|p=68}}.</ref><ref name="Edgerton 1989 86+quote">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|p=86}}: "Before the Emergency ended, the [[RAF]] dropped the amazing total of 50,000 tons of bombs on the forests and fired over 2&nbsp;million rounds from machine guns during strafing runs. It is not known how many humans or animals were killed."</ref> They and other aircraft, such as blimps, were also deployed for reconnaissance, as well as in the [[propaganda|propaganda war]], conducting large-scale leaflet-drops.<ref name="Chappell 2011 67">{{Harvnb|Chappell|2011|p=67}}.</ref> A flight of [[de Havilland Vampire]] jets flew in from [[Aden]], but were used for only ten days of operations. Some light aircraft of the Police Air Wing also provided support.<ref>Smith, J. T. ''Mau Mau! A Case study in Colonial Air Power'' [[Air Enthusiast]] 64 July–August 1996 pp. 65–71</ref>

After the [[Lari massacre]] for example, British planes dropped leaflets showing graphic pictures of the Kikuyu women and children who had been hacked to death. Unlike the rather indiscriminate activities of British ground forces, the use of air power was more restrained (though there is disagreement<ref name="Edgerton 1989 86">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|p=86}}.</ref> on this point), and air attacks were initially permitted only in the forests. Operation Mushroom extended bombing beyond the forest limits in May 1954, and Churchill consented to its continuation in January 1955.<ref name="Chappell 2011"/>