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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.

  • p. 40 …On recommendation of an American mission sent to Europe in June under newly commissioned Col. Raynal…
  • p. 50 …a r I1 and its self- conceived mission can be appreciated only in light of a…
  • p. 52 …In the lower grades, where promotion was controlled inexorably by seniority, Air Service pilots found themselves…
  • p. 56 …complete control of the Army and form an integral part thereof.” Yet the Crowell mission, appointed…
  • p. 60 …The Lampert Committee went far beyond its designated mission, bringing under review the whole province of…
  • p. 63 …to it a more or less independent mission. Experi- ence in World War I seemed to…
  • p. 65 …Command respon- sibility for that mission within the Air Corps devolved upon the Com- manding General…
  • p. 66 …Navy in further- awe of their respective missions. The Air Corps Tactical School claimed for air…
  • p. 69 …which fights for and gains control of the air,’’ and to calculate a well-balanced air…
  • p. 71 …Mitchell could still believe that “it was an established fact that the principal mission of an…
  • p. 80 …based on the fundamental doctrine that their mission is to aid the ground forces to gain…
  • p. 81 …The mission of the Army was defense of the United States and its outlying territories, but…
  • p. 129 …assigned to the air force an independent mission of strategic bombing. Accordingly, in March 1918 the…
  • p. 155 …By taking control of French or English colonial possessions, victorious Axis powers might lodge themselves at…
  • p. 175 …T h e planners were concerned only with the mission of the US. Army and Navy…
  • p. 235 …Long-standing differences between the Army and Navy over jurisdictional control of offshore patrol had brought…
  • p. 241 …And because the chain of command in both Pacific areas and in Washington vested ultimate control…
  • p. 270 …Other combat activity by pursuit piiots was incidental to scheduled reconnaissance missions, as when on I…
  • p. 273 …Atlantic and India,” would come under his control at Bangal~re.’~ It soon became evident, however…
  • p. 295 …American forces in Burma, and later in India, had as a primary mission the promotion of…
  • p. 306 …The mission of the MAB was to keep current estimates of U.S.-British munitions resources…
  • p. 308 …of a “nucleus of GHQ.” Its original mission was to direct the training of the tactical…
  • p. 314 …The field forces remained under the control of the General Staff, and the War Plans Division…
  • p. 316 …General Arnold’s control of the US. Air Force is as com- plete, virtually, as is…
  • p. 317 …it also made possible a certain indirect control from Washington through letters written more often in…
  • p. 343 …To permit effective control of fighter planes at night or during bad weather would have required…
  • p. 368 …constituted as of 29 May.’l The mission of the new command was, first, “to move…
  • p. 379 …A North African military mission under Brig. Gen. Russell H. Maxwell had been established at Cairo…
  • p. 397 …In helping to prepare HALPRO for overseas movement by air and in controlling the flight along…
  • p. 412 …to perform a series of remarkable special missions. Shuttling between Australia, the Philippines, the Nether- lands…
  • p. 426 …formation of task forces to undertake specific missions, and for their command he was to designate…
  • p. 441 …But of these, four missions involving a total of seventeen bombers were abortive because of un…
  • p. 458 …During January and February the bomber command dispatched approxi- mately sixty heavy bomber missions, for a…
  • p. 464 …attempting a take-off for yet another mission of relief.’ If the Americans on Bataan and…
  • p. 472 …naval control, during which time six of the planes flew the first American bomber mission against…
  • p. 475 …Such missions, however, could be flown only with the greatest expenditure of time and effort. Until…
  • p. 500 …remain in the Far East under the control of General S t i l ~ e l…
  • p. 503 …But circumstances beyond the control of the aircrews were against the flight. Although a fortuitous and…
  • p. 525 …of Midway, nor had it retained operational control of the few planes actually sent up to…
  • p. 527 …If the vulnerable PBY's were shot down while executing their search mission, this was a…
  • p. 549 …those who had flown their first combat mission in April had to fight a feeling of…
  • p. 571 …largest mission to date comprised a total of six bombers- would remain under theater control but…
  • p. 589 …This, the Army felt, might lead ultimately to Navy control of all air forces. As late…
  • p. 620 …At the same time, it initiated projects peculiar to its own mission and by the end…
  • p. 621 …It would work in conjunction with naval forces and under their operational control “wherever this may…
  • p. 646 …the British Joint Staff Mission a t Washington, the American Military Mission at London.” The American…
  • p. 647 …General Chaney opened his headquarters in the American Embassy building on 19 May 1941.'' His mission…
  • p. 648 …Air forces would have two missions: to pro- vide, in certain areas, an “air defense, integrated…
  • p. 649 …Because AAF bombers would have the special mission, in co-operation with the RAF, of attacking…
  • p. 651 …Military Mission in London-under direct control of the commanding general of U S . Field Forces…
  • p. 654 …They consider that function their primary mission here and are not willing to surrender it.1le…
  • p. 659 …bombardment missions, either by direct coverage or by synchronized fighter sweeps. Strategic control of AAF operations…
  • p. 669 …o n ~ . ~ ’ ~Such operations under the RAF control system required numerous modifications for the plane-about…
  • p. 683 …not be adequate to carry out the mission intended for it under GYM- NAST. H e…
  • p. 684 …T o adapt the Eighth Air Force to its new mission required a con- siderable reshuffling…
  • p. 717 …develop- ment of adequate machinery for the control of combat operations by establishing the Provisional I…
  • p. 728 …2 , 27 AUGUST 2942 HE Eighth Air Force flew its first mission in an atmosphere charged…
  • p. 730 …in preparation for initial operations under RAF control. Each of the three squadrons was attached for…
  • p. 731 …Policy concerning the pro- vision and control of fighter escort had not yet been determined, but…
  • p. 735 …Shortly before 1900 hours, watchers on the control tower spotted a cluster of specks to the…
P E A R L H A R B O R A N D C L A R K F I E L D
for the first time General Brereton publicly stated the facts as he
recalled them, General MacArthur announced that he had received
no such recommendation and that prior to that publication he knew
“nothing of such a recommendation having been made.” ’This state-
ment lent special weight to the testimony of General Sutherland, who
during the preceding year had stated in an interview that the responsi-
bility for holding the bombers on the ground that morning was
entirely Breret0n’s.t It was Sutherland’s recollection that the air
commander agreed that there would be no point in attempting a
bomber mission without advance reconnaissance. T h e interview did
not indicate whether the question of an immediate reconnaissance mis-
sion was considered, but General Brereton, in reply to a request for
information on that point, has indicated that no authorization for
reconnaissance was received until later. “At the first conference,” he
wrote, “General Sutherland approved my plans for an attack imme-
diately after daylight, instructed me to go ahead with preparations and
that in the meantime, he would obtain General MacArthur’s authority
for the daylight attack.” 3 1
* T h e Brereton Diaries (New York, 1946); MacArthur’s statement of 2 7 Sept. 1946,
in N e w York Times, 28 Sept. 1946. In response to a request for information, General
Brereton several months earlier had given the Historical Office a statement of develo
ments on the first day of war that was substantially the same as that subsequentri
published. (1st ind., Brereton to Paul [ltr., Chief, AAF Historical Office to C G Third
Air Force, sub.: Air Defense of the Philippine Islands in December 1941,30 Jan. 19461.)
t The record of an interview by Walter D. Edmonds with Lt. Gen. Richard K.
Sutherland in Manila on 4 June 194s (copy supplied the author through the courtesy
of Mr. Edmonds) reads on the question of “Why was Formosa not bombed?” as
follows:
Gen. Sutherland began by saying that all the B-17s had been ordered to Del Monte
some days before. On a check it was found that only half had been sent. GHQ
wanted the planes in Del Monte because they would there have been safe from
initial Jap attacks-they could not have been reached at all-and they could them-
selves have staged out of Clark Field to bomb Formosa. This direct order had not
been obeyed. And it must be remembered that GHQ gave out general orders and
that the AFHq were supposed to execute them. As Sutherland recalls, there was
some plan to bomb Formosa, but Brereton said that he had to have Photos first.
That there was no sense in going up there to bomb without knowing what they
were going after. There were some 25 fields on Formosa. On December 9th and
roth, photo missions were dispatched-Carpenter going on the first and returning
with generator trouble; Connally going on the second but being turned back by
fighters. Holding the bombers at Clark Field that first day was entirely due t o
Brereton. (Italics mine, WDE.)
General Sutherland’s statement that all B-17’s had been ordered to Del Monte (sub-
sequently confirmed in MacArthur’s statement of September 1946) and General
Brereton’s account of the move have been discussed above in Chap. 5 , pp. 188-89.
On the immediate question of the employment of the planes at Clark Field on 8
December, the question of a prior order for their transfer is a side issue.
2 0 5

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