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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.
“King”32 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 1 1 ward. But from an early date the Historical Office gave increasing consideration to the definition of its ultimate objectives. Among these, first place was given to the preparation of a comprehensive history of the AAF’s war activities, to be written when victory would release security controls. In the winter of 1943-44 the conviction was reached that this history should not be conceived as the sum of the histories of separate air forces and other major components bound only by the physical format of a single work but rather as the story of our national effort exerted through the Army air arm against determined foes in widely scattered regions. It should be scholarly in tone, should be addressed to those readers who have a serious interest in the study of the air war, and should be of a length appropriate to the magnitude and complexity of the subject but should not overlook certain human limitations that presumably would govern both the author and the reader. Such, at any rate, was the decision ultimately reached, and seven volumes more or less arbitrarily came to be settled upon as a practical compromise. In intervals of relief from assignments of more immediate urgency the office worked at an outline, which, though always tentative in nature, began to take definite shape as the war in Europe drew to a close. In September 1945 both the proposal and the suggesred outline were approved in principle by the civilian Advisory Committee and soon thereafter by the Air Staff. Since V-J Day the project, under the weighty title of “The Seven Volume History,” had enjoyed a No. I priority in the Historical Office. But there remained the practical problem of translating the plans into actuality. T h e importance of the story to be told and the wealth of archival materials available suggested that a mature historian of outstanding abilities be invited to undertake the task; informal caucusing for a possible “Mahan of air power” became a favorite lunchtime occupa- tion. But it was realized that, even in the unlikely event a distinguished scholar could be lured from his own special interests, a seven-volume history would constitute a lifetime assignment-the RAF’s history of World W a r I, done in similar fashion and on a comparable scale, had been finished only in 1937. It was eventually accepted that a seven- volume work could be completed within a reasonable length of time only as a co-operative venture. And it was not inappropriate that the final product should bc a group enterprise. Inevitably the history must bear the stamp of the field historians and of the legion of men who, xv1
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