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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.
“Churchill”21 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 1 In the Scandinavian and western campaigns which followed during the first half of 1940, the Luftwaffe continued to perform with skill and success its established missions. The German invasion of Norway was swiftly executed in April 1940 with an excellent demonstration of airborne operations and of the potentialities of air power in con- trolling limited sea lanes. The Luftwaffe employed some 800 tactical planes in the brief campaign, while an additional 250 to 300 transport aircraft operated between Germany, Denmark, and Norway to estab- lish air bases in a record time a t strategic points in Norway. Recon- naissance and sea rescue work also figured in Luftwaffe operations. The badly outnumbered Norwegian air forces could offer only slight resistance. The western campaign, which began on 1 0 May 1940,saw the con- tinued success of the German forces as they sped across the Low Countries and France. T w o air fleets of the Luftwaffe, comprising some 3,000 planes, were more than sufficient to wipe out the weak air opposition of the invaded countries and to provide support for German army forces. For the first time, German parachute troops were successfully employed when the Nazi forces invaded Holland. The Netherlands army ceased formal resistance within four days. Leading the rapidly advancing Panzer divisions through the Low Countries, the Stukas bombed troop concentrations and installations of the defending forces, while German transport aircraft evacuated many of the wounded and carried supplies to air force units which quickly moved into bases in southern Belgium and northern France. Most of the German air effort during May was directed toward close support of the army forces as they raced toward the Channel ports. At Dunkirk the Luftwaff e momentarily yielded supremacy to the RAF, which was able to gain the local air superiority necessary to allow most of the battered British Expeditionary Force to be evacu- ated from the port. The Luftwaffe then turned to completion of the drive against France, which proved to be a not very difficult task.” The French Air Force, in particular, was ill prepared for the Ger- man ~ n s l a u g h t . ~ ~It had failed to fulfil the promise which it exhibited during the years immediately after World War I, when France had spent large sums on her air force and had been a leader in the field of aviation. A separate air ministry was established in 1928, but lack of continuity in leadership resulted from frequent changes in the French cabinet. With nine changes in the position of air minister 90
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