Documents / Document
The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)
Air Force Historical Studies Office · 863 pages · text from the file's own layer
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.
“United Press”36 pages
- p. 2 THE UNIVERSITYOF CHICAGOPRESS, CHICAGO8
LONDON
The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada
Copyright 1948 by…
- p. 48 …An Associated Press dispatch of 10 October gave a contemporary
judgment of the importance of this…
- p. 55 …Air Service (Corps) found it difficult to press vigorously for reorgani-
zation and, by default, leadership…
- p. 56 …In 1919the W a r Department was pressing
for a drastic revision of the military establishment…
- p. 61 …It held that
there was no danger of an air attack on the United States and…
- p. 64 …GHQ Air Forcq a trial than to press for more radical measures,
and Howell’s group…
- p. 75 …Powerful air attacks resolutely pressed home could never be
completely stopped, but their effects could best…
- p. 98 …based air operations in defense of the United States
and its overseas posses~ions.’~T w…
- p. 99 …General Westover’s report concluded that “all Air Force units could
be concentrated on either coast…
- p. 130 …the Admiralty began to press for control of naval
air units, while the army attempted to…
- p. 149 …basic and advanced Responsibility for crew and unit train-
ing was vested in the GHQ Air…
- p. 164 …A m y air units in the
Territory existed primarily for the defense of this and…
- p. 176 …no military alliances
were made which would commit the United States to war; the plans
only…
- p. 278 …There were also grounds for hoping that heavy
bomber units now based on Darwin might increase…
- p. 285 …From 1938 the United
States had invoked sanctions against Japan in the form of moral em…
- p. 287 …Over-all Strategy and
lmmediate Deployment
On 2 2 December, the press announced dramatically the arrival…
- p. 289 …ground units sent
in that direction were not destined for immediate combat. No major
invasion of…
- p. 323 …Seizure of bases in Canada or Mexico for later attacks on the United States.
Capture of…
- p. 366 …United state^,^ and the British them-
selves were forced to withdraw some pilots from combat units…
- p. 380 …Upon the request of the Ferrying Command, the State Depart-
ment again pressed for an answer…
- p. 397 …the summer and fall, first as the United States Middle
East Air Force and later as…
- p. 430 …Attempts had been
made to replace these obsolete craft by purchase from the United
States, but…
- p. 440 …But as the Japanese pressed forward the Americans were given no
opportunity to get set. The…
- p. 463 …personnel that would be reassigned to infantry units whose rosters
already included many representatives of the…
- p. 552 …pines and more recently of American air units operating in the
Netherlands East Indies, he was…
- p. 560 …Moreover, examination proved
that most of the basic equipment of the units, including badly needed
trucks…
- p. 563 …Grady arrived from the
United States for a comprehensive survey of Indian resources with
reference to…
- p. 564 …TO C H I N A
graphic units, and unfavorable atmospheric conditions combined to
make high…
- p. 607 …Thus the AAF units engaged in the anti-U-boat war became
almost a t once…
- p. 628 …Army air bombardment units would operate
offensively in collaboration with the Royal Air Force, primarily
against…
- p. 658 …was to operate in the United Kingdom.14' All air
units initially based there were to…
- p. 683 …of the units of the infant Eighth until their departure for the United
Kingdom several months…
- p. 691 …The RAF proposed that American fighter units be integrated with
its own under a plan eventually…
- p. 748 …533.) By 1928he was
(Patrick, United States in the Air, pp.
190-91.)
38. Charges of…
- p. 770 …y.W D Press Release, 2 1 June 1941.
9 1 . AR 95-5, 3a.
92…
- p. 857 …Presque Isle, 344, 347-49, 641, 644-45
Press comment: B-17, 662-63; danger of…
F O R E W O R D
men whose professional training or career had been interrupted by
the war. What some of them may have lacked in the way of profes-
sional experience or polish found compensation in their energy and
the substantive knowledge acquired during their previous AAF assign-
ments. It is hoped that the following history may prove to be of a
quality in keeping with the contribution they have already made to it.
It was not within the power of the Historical Office to assure for
each and all of them the full access to records and the freedom of inter-
pretation that are fundamental to the proper exercise of the historian’s
function. But the degree of co-operation received by historical officers
was on the whole encouraging, and authority was secured a t the close
of hostilities to bring into AAF Headquarters certain of the field per-
sonnel for the purpose of completing their assignments in as close an
association with the personnel of the Historical Office as was possible.
This authority included provision for the temporary transfer to Head-
quarters of such documents and files as the historian considered neces-
sary for the completion of his task. At this stage of the project it also
proved possible to enlist the aid of several key operational and intelli-
gence officers whose firsthand knowledge of major operations pro-
vided a valuable supplement to the documentary record.
Many adjustments to practical necessity had to be made in the
original plan. For completeness of coverage it was necessary in the
case of overseas operations to depend chiefly upon narratives prepared
in the Historical Office itself for the first two years of the war and,
conversely, to rely principally upon the work of the overseas historical
officers for the story of later operations. But, when with the summer
of 1946 the bulk of the historical personnel had returned to their nor-
mal civilian activities, there existed in the files of the Historical Office
some narrative account or organized documentary record covering all
periods and areas of the AAF’s overseas operations and its major activi-
ties within the Zone of the Interior. Inevitably there were subjects
requiring more intensive study, narratives in need of revision in the
light of new evidence, and a multitude of monographic topics for
which there had been no time. But a balanced history of the AAF in
World War 11, drawn from the more pertinent records, had been
brought within reach.
Unavoidably the chief concern of the AAF Historian in the early
months had been to build his organization, select his men, and get them
into the field that they might begin the steady flow of materials home-
xv
About this file
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 863 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.