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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
A I R W A R , 1 9 3 9 - 4 1 As was the case with military aviation in the United States, how- ever, the survival and growth of the RAF after 1918 was accom- plished only with difficulty. In addition to postwar demands for retrenchment, the Admiralty began to press for control of naval air units, while the army attempted to regain control of land-based aviation. But the lessons of World War I as they pertained to avia- tion were more deeply impressed on the British mind than they were on the American. Moreover, Britain's geographic position and rela- tively small population with reference to Germany lent continuing validity to a doctrine of strategic bombardment which promised a means of striking at the very heart of the enemy and thus of avoiding the loss of life which in the first war had well-nigh bled England white. The RAF retained its autonomy; but, even so, sentiment for many years, like that in the United States, was hardly conducive to full military preparedness, and, after the new German menace became apparent, the RAF was forced to work against a decided disadvan- tage of time. Fortunately, the emphasis was placed upon quality. From 1935 forward, the Air Ministry proceeded with the develop- ment of long-range, heavy bombers-the twin-engine Manchester and the four-engine Stirling and Lancaster, the latter developed from the earlier Manchester. For the urgent needs of defense, the Hurricane and the Spitfire, two superlative fighter planes, were put into pro- duction after 1936. Production in quantity came slowly, for ade- quate manufacturing facilities were not immediately available. By September 1938, the month of Munich, only one squadron in the RAF had been equipped with Spitfires. In its pilot and aircrew training, as in its equipment, the RAF de- manded a high level of a~hievement.~'British air oficials recognized that the geographic position of the British Isles was at once vulnerable and potentially threatening to any continental enemy. The situation demanded not only technical excellence of the air force but also an organization designed to facilitate the defensive and offensive functions which a European war would thrust upon the RAF. Accordingly, the RAF was organized into bomber and fighter commands. T o these organizations there would be added later a coastal command, charged with special responsibilities for the protection of shipping."z By autumn of 1939 the RAF possessed a modest but well-trained force of airmen. Its bombers, fighters, reconnaissance planes, and fly- ing boats were few in number but efficient in operation, and "shadow 93
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