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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. 14 …with the commanding general, who in some instances moved in advance of promptings from Wash- ington…
  • p. 25 …EASTERNAND WESTERNAPPROACHESTO PANAMACANAL ALASKAAND THE ALEUTIANISLANDS PRINCIPALSEAAND AIR ROUTESAS DESIGNATEDBY WASH- ATLANTICFERRYINGAND TRANSPORTROUTESPRIORTO . . . . . . . . . . 297 30' 305…
  • p. 229 …the importance of the Far East Air Force in American strategy, the Air Staff in Wash…
  • p. 292 …Even so, there was in Wash- ington too little intelligence concerning the fluid tactical situation to…
  • p. 302 …The suggestion had been carried out in 1941 with the establishment of the U.S. Special…
  • p. 306 …work permanently with the British Joint Intelligence Committee in Wash- ington. The Combined Military Transportation Committee…
  • p. 389 …to delay the take-off was granted only after an appeal to Wash- ington.’O 3…
  • p. 442 …the time and attention of U.S. officers at Brisbane and of headquarters in Wash- ington…
  • p. 443 …Accidents delayed three planes en route, and one of the P-40’s was completely “washed…
  • p. 454 …promise of weakening the enemy. Attention already had been given in Wash- ington to establishment of…
  • p. 554 …In China, he found the procurement of necessary equipment, even be- fore the outbreak of war…
  • p. 636 …After further negotiations in Wash- ington, the Arnold-Towers-Portal agreement was adopted on z I…
  • p. 693 …Accordingly, Wash- ington was requested to send immediately 50 intelligence officers for training by the RAF…
  • p. 747 …before the Committee on Military Af- fairs, House of Representatives (Wash- 23. See, for instance, William…
  • p. 772 …The exact date of the arrival of air units is not known, as the latter source…
  • p. 799 …The road from Haiphong, Indo- China, to Yunnan was closed by the Vichy government in 1940…
  • p. 814 …Overseas (Ferrying), Air Min- istry, Memorandum on the Movement by Air of US. Forces to the…
F U N D A M E N T A L B A S E S O F S T R A T E G Y
last ARCADIA session on the 14th was submitted to the President
and Prime Mini~ter.~’Although the principal features of the plan
were never challenged, it was subsequently revised in a draft of 24
January and adopted on 10 February.73 This final version formed, as
it were, the constitutional framework for the combined direction of
the war; and in view of the remarkable success of Anglo-American
collaboration, it may be considered as one of the most significant
documents in the long history of military alliances.
T h e most important element in the new machinery was the Com-
bined Chiefs of Staff (CCS). Actually, that body had existed at
ARCADIA; what was new was the designation and the provision for
continuous rather than periodic sessions. In choosing the title, Amer-
ican rather than British usage was followed: the term “combined”
was officially defined as connoting collaboration between two or more
of the United Nations, “joint” as connoting collaboration between
two or more services of a single nation. This provided a more precise
designation than had existed before, though in respect to the sub-
sidiary agencies it reversed rather than confirmed earlier practice; thus
the group which had been commonly referred to as the Joint Plan-
ning Committee now became the Combined Planning Staff (CPS).
T h e Combined Chiefs of Staff was to sit normally in Washington,
with regularly scheduled meetings. It was to consist of the United
States chiefs of staff and the British chiefs of staff or, in their absence
from Washington, of their duly appointed representatives. For the
British this meant dual representation. Their members of the CCS
were Adm. Sir Dudley Pound, Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, and Air Chief
Marshal Sir Charles Portal, representing the three services, and Field
Marshal Sir John Dill representing Mr. Churchill as Minister of De-
fense. Sir John Dill was to remain in Washington after the departure
of his three colleagues, and with him were to act, vice those members,
the British Joint Staff Mission-Adm. Sir Charles Little, Gen. Sir Col-
ville Wemyss, and Air Marshal Arthur T. Harris. T h e United States
members consisted of Adm. Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Opera-
tions; Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet; Gen.
George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U. S. AEmy; and Lt. Gen. H. H.
Arnold, Chief, AAF and Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S. Army.
T h e use of the existing British Chiefs of Staff Committee as a model
for the new organization raised two awkward questions. In the British
system, the R A F enjoyed the same status as the older services, with
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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.