Documents / Document

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.

Open the PDF at page 347 Original source ↗

“United Press”36 pages

  • 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…
D E F E N S E O F T H E W E S T E R N H E M I S P H E R E
the First Air Force took over responsibility for defense operations
along the entire extent of the Atlantic coast. This arrangement lasted
until the fall of 1943, when the danger of air attack had greatly de-
creased and the First and Fourth Air Forces were reassigned to the
AAF.14‘ Much earlier-in March I 942-the Eastern Defense Command
had ceased to be a theater of operation^.^^'
Although the actual direction of air defense operations was thus
assigned to the theater commands, the AAF retained vital responsibili-
ties for training and experimental development. In the reorganization
of the W a r Department in March 1942, the reconstituted AAF staff
included a director of Air Defense.143T o this post was assigned Col.
Gordon P. Saville, whose energy and vision had been in large part
responsible for the rapid progress made in 1941 toward the creation
of an aircraft warning service. His experience in the experimental
work of the Air Defense Command and firsthand observation of the
operation of British defenses had convinced him that progress in the
development of an American defense depended on indoctrination of
key personnel in the latest techniques of controlled interception.
Accordingly, he secured the establishment (March 1942) of the Air
Defense Operational Training Unit, later renamed the Fighter Com-
mand School. This unit set up in Florida an ideal air defense net based
on the British system, using VHF radio and modern radar equip-
ment.144T h e R A F sent skilled officers and technicians to act in an
advisory capacity, but care was taken to adjust tactical procedures to
American usages. In addition to indoctrinating command and staff
members in the latest defense methods, the school trained radar units
and tested equipment. Its responsibilities included study of the tactical
and materiel requirements of overseas commands as well as the de-
mands of continental defense. At the expense of existing task forces,
the few specialists available were held for training of the large number
of technicians that would be required for later
T h e organizational adjustments directed on 30 December I 941 had
been accomplished by the end of February 1942, and thereafter the
pattern of continental air defenses became increasingly clear. Along
the Pacific coast from Canada to Mexico a “vital air defense zone” of
approximately I 50 miles depth and extending 2 0 0 miles seaward was
created by the Western Defense Command, and a similar zone along
the Atlantic coast was established by the Eastern Defense Command.146
Air operations within the western zone were directed by the Fourth
2 9 5

Cited by

About this file

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.