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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. 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 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.