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This is Volume One of The Army Air Forces in World War II, titled Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate. The University of Chicago Press first published it in 1948, and the Office of Air Force History reprinted it in 1983. The front matter explains how the AAF historical program was set up during the war. The index covers Pacific, Atlantic and European operations, and nothing in the text concerns unidentified aerial phenomena.
“Italian Air Force”14 pages
A I R W A R , 1 9 3 9 - 4 1 opened near Tokyo; two additional schools were established in 1 9 2 2 . Organizational changes came with the expansion of the Japanese Army Air Force, which soon occupied a place along with the infantry, field artillery, and cavalry. Before the end of the 1930’s the post of Inspec- tor General of Military Aviation had been created, making one com- mander directly responsible to the Emperor for the training of the air force.2 The Japanese Navy Air Force had a similar history in its origin, development, and gradual assumption of importance. Naval officers who had received aviation instruction in France and in the United States established a training school at Oppama near Yokosuka in 1912. The first Japanese aircraft carrier was completed in 1920, but little progress in training and organization was made until 1 9 2 I when a British mission of retired RAF officers and others arrived in Japan to assist in reorganizing the naval air arm. Later British missions instructed the Japanese force in aircraft inspection, tactics, gunnery, and arma- ment. Though the London Naval Treaty of 1930 placed restrictions on Japanese naval construction, the Japanese continued to expand their naval air force, and four “replenishment plans” were approved during the thirties. Night carrier training was begun in 1933, and both carrier and shore-based strength of the naval air force continued to grow. The functions of the two Japanese air forces were clearly divided. The army air force was designed solely to support the army ground forces, while the naval air force, in addition to supporting the fleet, was responsible for coastal defense, convoy protection, and sea and antisubmarine patrols. There was apparently little co-operation be- tween the two forces, for they had developed independently and they were under the direction of respective army and navy commanders who showed little desire to co-ordinate the activities of the air arms. Despite the foreign influence which had aided in the establishment of the air forces, the Japanese concept of air power and of the role of the separate air arms did not constitute an exact copy of any foreign nation. In organization and theory, as well as in the design and manu- facture of aircraft, Japan adapted Western ideas to her own needs, and the resulting mixture of Oriental and Western strains while bear- ing resemblances to the air forces of other nations did not duplicate any one of them.3 In the period 1937-41 Japanese air power received its first extended 77
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