“Nevers”44 pages
- p. 43 …cavalry mounted on gas driven flying horses” never arrived to
“sweep the Germans from the sky…
- p. 46 …Mitchell never received an American air force commensurate with
the ambitious idens of air power which…
- p. 49 …This project, like so many others, had lagged, and the Air Service was
never equipped during…
- p. 50 …the Army or the Air Corps?” but never, “Are
you in the Army or the Corps…
- p. 55 …any Air Service officers, and I have never heard
anybody yet-any Air Service officer-against…
- p. 69 …But one axiom,
with its corollaries, never varied. T o him the airplane was first and…
- p. 75 …Powerful air attacks resolutely pressed home could never be
completely stopped, but their effects could best…
- p. 94 …rate for the time being, the decision never-
theless left an open question as to how…
- p. 121 …large-scale warfare; production of combat types never exceeded 300
aircraft a month. The pattern of…
- p. 122 …the German Air Force, the
Regia Aeronautica never exhibited sufficient power to be decisive in
the…
- p. 133 …Except for a few raids against French
factories, the force had never been employed in a…
- p. 140 …into
a complete war economy production was never equal to the demands
of our own forces…
- p. 150 …Long-term needs
of the Air Corps and the sudden availability of funds in quantities
never…
- p. 181 …Actually, the Air Staff had
never approved of the method followed in RAINBOW No. 5 . l…
- p. 217 …Members of the Hawaiian Air Force, who had never flown
heavy bombers, began to receive intensive…
- p. 219 …were not then satisfactory for permanent garrisons. Never-
theless, the commander of the Hawaiian Department, Lt…
- p. 227 …T h e planes never reached their destination. Other
bombardment units were being prepared for transfer…
- p. 241 …responsible officers, a few crucial points
have never been satisfactorily explained.
T h e general pattern…
- p. 277 …motors, sole-
noids, and gun mounts-were never found. After many hours of fruit-
less search…
- p. 288 …planners and
from which AAF Headquarters was never to deviate.
The translation of the accepted grand…
- p. 303 …the principal features of the plan
were never challenged, it was subsequently revised in a draft…
- p. 309 …W a r Plans Division was
never incorporated into GHQ and remained a potential rival to…
- p. 336 …the shooting and wrote that they were never
able to make out an airplane.g6It is…
- p. 412 …As it happened, the B-24's never
returned to India, but, instead, remained in the…
- p. 457 …Meanwhile the Edsall with the remaining
pilots had headed for Java, never to be heard from…
- p. 492 …Squadron was assigned, but which it would never reach, going from
Australia to Tongatabu; ( 3 ) Christmas…
- p. 500 …deck of a carrier presented a problem never
before challenged by Army planes. Hence an accelerated…
- p. 502 …the bows and wetting the flight deck. Never before had this been
accomplished, yet now it…
- p. 509 …Island, in the
Louisiade Archipelago.” They were never needed, for on 7-8 May
the two…
- p. 513 …exist, it was at a point which never reached the
aircrews, for on the operational level…
- p. 524 …handicaps under which
AAF planes had operated. Never were more than fourteen B- I 7’s…
- p. 527 …AAF planners clung firmly to their belief that
proper observance of economy of force would never…
- p. 531 …Crews which had
previously never loaded torpedoes now for the first time fitted these
weapons into…
- p. 544 …But the Japanese never at
any time based their bombers in appreciable numbers a t either…
- p. 548 …26's in torpedo-dropping, but they never would be put into
All told, the record…
- p. 556 …until it had been thoroughly trained and never to com-
mit it piecemeal. General Magruder had…
- p. 560 …pressed into service against the Germans," and never reached the
CBI." Colonel Haynes had reached India…
- p. 606 …reason that the Antilles Air Task Force
never evolved, as did I Bomber Command, into an…
- p. 614 …that reason deserving a high
priority, could never dispose of the U-boat menace but must…
- p. 635 …In Washington the Munitions Assign-
ments Board t had never considered this schedule as more than…
- p. 670 …they bombed from 39,200 feet, and never
below 30,000. By AAF standards they had…
- p. 672 …Goering had never put enough bombers over England,
nor had he concentrated his forces on the…
- p. 690 …of co-operation and combined action probably never
before equaled by the military forces of two…
- p. 729 …shoot at aerial targets, and several
had never operated a turret in the air. This deficiency…
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
States.g3T o those most intimately concerned, this directive and that
of 3 July extending the responsibilities of GHQ might seem to overlap
in respect to authority for operational planning and control. Divergent
attitudes toward the role of air power made difficult any substantial
agreement. The newly created Air Staff clearly indicated a desire to
extend the powers of the AAF along lines parallel, rather than sub-
ordinate, to those of GHQ. Such action would have in effect reduced
GHQ to a ground force command, a trend which its leaders objected
to but which seems to have been acceptable to WPD. In these circum-
stances, there was then much to justify WPD’s judgment that relations
between General Headquarters and the Army Air Forces were “in-
definite and unsatisfactory.” 9 4
General McNair was determined to preserve the authority of GHQ
against threatened encroachments from the AAF. Early in July he
secured from General Arnold an oral disclaimer of any intent to in-
fringe in the realm of operational command; the latter wrote, confirm-
ing his declaration, “There is no thought of aerial combat operations
controlled by the Air Force Combat Command, coincident with simi-
lar operations controlled by a theater commander.” 9 5 Nevertheless,
McNair seems to have felt that the AAF was striving for independent
command; apropos of a reorganization suggested by W P D he com-
mented that “the Chief of the Army Air Forces does not command
the aviation of overseas garrisons-at least not yet.” 9 6 O n 1 5 August,
McNair defined in detail his concept of the relationship between the
AAF and GHQ in a memorandum specifically calculated to prevent
any intrusion on the latter’s authority over operational planning and
His anxiety was not ill founded; already the War Depart-
ment had initiated deliberations which were to result, some seven
months later, in the abolition of GHQ and the extension of air force
authority. In its efforts toward that end, the AAF received effective
support from WPD.
Wishing to settle the broad issues raised by the directive of 3 July
and General McNair’s criticism thereof, General Marshall appointed
a board representing GHQ, the several sections of the General Staff,
and the Army Air Forces. Convened on 14 August, the board soon
recommended “a major reorganization of the War Department.” ’*
T w o alternatives seemed possible: to increase the powers of GHQ
along lines which McNair had suggested; or to reduce it to a ground
force command comparable to the AAF and add a service of supplies.
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