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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.
“The Invaders”15 pages
T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I f An air sport association encouraged the formation of flying clubs throughout Germany, which gave flying and gliding training to thou- sands of members. In addition, pilot training schools were set up, ostensibly for airline pilots; but at the end of the usual three years’ schooling, which was conducted in a strictly military manner, the pilots were actually qualified to operate bombers. Many former pilots of the German Air Force assumed controlling positions in the civilian airlines, while other pilots went to foreign areas, South America in particular, where they established commercial aviation companies. In 1 9 2 6 all German airlines, with the exception of one operating to Russia, were consolidated into the Deutsche Lufthansa, a heavily sub- sidized company which soon was extending its lines throughout Europe. The aircraft manufactured in Germany were still “civilian” aircraft, but they had been designed with a view to conversion for military purposes. Even at the time of its initial organization, the Luft- hansa could have furnished the Reichswehr with at least two fighter squadrons, one bombardment squadron, and one auxiliary squadron of bombers. The extension of the Lufthansa into other countries was accompanied by the establishment of German training centers outside Germany proper and by the assignment of officers to a number of foreign air forces for observation and training. By 1931 the German Air Force, officially nonexistent, was composed of four fighter, three heavy bomber, and eight reconnaissance-bomber squadrons, not including German units in Russia. As an indication of the rate at which airmen were being trained, in 1 9 3 2 the air sport association (Deutscher Luftsportverband) alone trained I ,500 pilots and had under training 3,000 power pilots and I 5,000 glider pilots.2o The military complexion of the clandestine Luftwaffe became much more obvious after Hitler’s assumption of power on 3 0 January 1933. Within three days the new chancellor placed Hermann Goering in charge of all civil aviation and air raid protection, which previously had been under the Ministry of Transport. Members of all flying clubs of the air sport association were immediately put into uniform, and a large-scale flying training program was inaugurated among the mem- bers. Students in training under the Lufthansa were also placed in uniform, and “commercial” schools were expanded considerably. An extensive construction program of modern airdromes was begun in secret. The aircraft industry was greatly enlarged, not only by the expansion of existing plants, but also by the conversion of many com- 86
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