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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 Wash”17 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 editors or to the contributors to this and succeeding volumes and that the sum thus saved will be used to reduce the sale cost of each volume. And now a few words about the authors. For obvious reasons they were chosen from the staff which had been engaged in the program during the war. They bring to their respective assignments, then, a familiarity with the problems, the personalities, and the sources gained in several years of research, often at the headquarters most intimately concerned. Several were civilian employees of the Historical Office in Washington, but for the most part they were officers who had served in the Air Staff there, in a Zone of the Interior command, or in a thea- ter of operations. It would be naive to suppose that their interpretations have been unaffected by their military experiences. But the authors, like most members of the wartime Army, were civilians in uniform rather than professional soldiers. In all cases the period of academic training and practice exceeded in length that of military indoctrination and service; the authors were citizens and taxpayers before, and after, their tour of military duty, and they have felt called on to write no official apologia. Service loyalties they undoubtedly carried with them in returning to their academic posts, but not to the degree that their critical faculties have been submerged. They have written as present scholars rather than as former Air Carps officers. Of the individual contributors to this volume, the following bio- graphical facts are pertinent. Maj. James L. Cate, as a member of the staff of the Historical Office, devoted his attention chiefly to the prob- lems of strategic bombardment and after June 1944served as historical officer of the Twentieth Air Force. Miss Kathleen Williams’ research and writing, done under the immediate direction of the chief of the Operational History Branch, ranged over varied fields of AAF organi- zation and operation according to the immediate need of the moment. Maj. Richard L. Watson for three years carried the main responsibility in the office for the Southwest Pacific; Maj. Kramer J. Rohfleisch held a similar responsibility for the remainder of the Pacific; and Maj. Herbert Weaver bore the responsibility for the China-Burma-India theater. Capt. William A. Goss served as historian with the Fourth Air Force and was subsequently brought into AAF Headquarters for study of continental air defenses. Lt. Arthur B. Ferguson divided his atten- tion between antisubmarine operations and the Combined Bomber Offensive. Capt. John D. Carter served first as historian of the South Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command, and after chat at Headquar- xviii
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