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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 Wash”17 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 sharper definition of individual targets was possible. His enthusiasm, and the sustained research efforts of a large number of scientists at the Radiation Laboratory, led to the production within six months of a practical working model. By 1944, perfected MEW radar was ready to assist in the invasion of Europe, and the offensive employment of this new instrument revolutionized conceptions of what radar could A weapon inspired by the problem of defending the West Coast thus proved to be a valuable contribution to victory in other theaters. Helpful, also, to an immediate improvement of continental air defenses were organizational changes which served to clarify respon- sibilities. The Western Defense Command had been designated a theater of operations on 1 1 December 1941,with General DeWitt in command. With its headquarters a t San Francisco, the command included an extensive area of nine western states, Alaska, and the Aleutians, and to it three air forces were initially assigned-the Fourth and Second Air Forces along the Pacific coast and, in addition, the Alaskan Air Force. A similar situation existed on the other side of the continent, where on 2 0 December the Eastern Theater of Operations was established with headquarters in New York City and with Lt. Gen. Hugh Drum in command of defense units in the eastern seaboard states and in Newfoundland and Bermuda. T w o air forces, the First and the Third, were assigned to this theater.13’ Thus all four of the domestic air forces, which had been created early in 1941 and had been operating under the Air Force Combat Command, were removed from AAF control and placed under theater commanders. It is not sur- prising that this arrangement pleased no one: the defense commands found it confusing to have more than one subordinate air force com- mander, while the AAF felt that its combat training program would be jeopardized if it had no direct control of any of the continental air forces. A compromise was aecordingly worked out and announced on 3 0 December 1 9 4 1 . ~ ~ ’The essential element of the new plan was a provision which called for moving two of the continental air forces to inland stations and assigning them to the AAF as “training Air Forces.” T o effect this arrangement, the Second Air Force relin- quished its coastal stations in Washington and Oregon and was re- moved from assignment to the Western Defense Command; air defense duties for the entire Pacific coast were thereupon assigned to the Fourth Air Force. A similar move within the Eastern Defense Com- mand made the Third Air Force a training unit under the AAF, while 294
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