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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 Invaders”15 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 position as Chief of the Air Corps, it nevertheless lent additional weight to his persistent efforts. One significant instance occurred soon after GHQ was established. As Chief of the Air Corps, Arnold promulgated on 14 August an elaborate training directive for the GHQ Air Force. Although GHQ had been made responsible for the training of all combat units, and on 19 November was specifically given “direct control” over the GHQ Air Force, the directive was allowed to stand. Thereafter Gen- eral McNair exercised hardly more than a nominal supervision over air training.8’ This de facto situation was legalized in the revision of Army Regulation 95-5 on 20 June 1941,+whereby the Army Air Forces was established and its Chief, General Arnold, was given con- trol over both unit and individual training.88 General Headquarters’ responsibility for air force training was limited to combined air- ground operations. If AR 95-5 clarified the training issue, it evoked more serious prob- lems concerning the planning and control of air combat operations when, a fortnight later, GHQ was made responsible for those func- tions. One purpose in creating the Army Air Forces was to eliminate internal friction between combat and service agencies, a hope which did not materialize.*’ In broader context, the move was one phase of the current trend toward “streamlining” the organization of the War Department. The Secretary of War had approved “decentralizing our staff work to permit Air Force autonomy in the degree needed,” while opposing “segregated independence.” Certainly the powers given to General Arnold as Chief of the Army Air Forces constituted the greatest single step toward autonomy as yet taken. He was charged with control over the Air Force Combat Command, successor to the GHQ Air Force, and over the Air Corps.“ Specifically, his duties in- cluded determining requirements for the AAF and the “preparation of necessary plans for the development, organization, equipment, training, tactical operations, supply, and maintenance thereof, includ- ing overseas garrisons and task forces for theaters of operations and the assignment of personnel and mathiel thereto.” ” Through its com- manding general, he controlled “all aerial operations’’ of the Air Force Combat Command save for units assigned or attached to task forces, overseas garrisons, or other commands, and on direction of the Chief of Staff was responsible for plans for the air defense of the United * See above, p. I 15. 260
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