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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.
“United Press”36 pages
T H E A I R S E R V I C E I N W O R L D W A R I when war was declared, 55 trainers, of which General Pershing later said, ‘ ‘ 5 I were obsolete and the other 4 obsolescent.” lo N o r was there in existence an aircraft industry which could remedy the deficiency. About a dozen companies were considered capable of filling government contracts, but their output was pitifully meager; in 1916nine factories had contributed to the delivery of 64 planes out of 366 ordered.“ Because of exaggerated ideas of security and the rapid changes in combat models, the Allies had not turned to Ameri- can industry for aircraft as they had for other munitions. Few Ameri- cans had seen a modern tactical plane; fewer still knew what went into its construction other than airframe and engine. T h e organization of military aeronautics in the United States was wholly inadequate for fighting a large-scale war. T h e Army’s air establishment consisted of I 3 I officers, practically all pilots and student pilots ( I I were reservists on active duty), and 1,087 enlisted men.12 T h e first Army aviation office had been set up as the Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps on I August 1907; and since 1914 comrol had been vested in the Aviation Section of that corps. T h e Chief Signal Officer, no aviator, was swamped by the rapid increase of responsi- bilities more properly in his ken, and, as a critic later said, “a colossal air arm cannot be organized as a section of a section of another arm.”13 With so small an officer corps the Aviation Section was unable to fur- nish direction for the expansion program or commanders for the com- bat units. It turned naturally to civilian sources for leadership, and, while many of the industrial and professional men who were recruited were able enough, few had knowledge of aviation requirements or of military procedure. A ready source of technical advice existed in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) , and early in the war a number of joint Army-Navy aeronautical committees were formed. Most important of these was the Aircraft Production Board, a subsidiary of the Council of National Defense. By a law of I October 19 I 7 the former was given legal status as the Aircraft Board, headed by a civilian and containing two other civilians and six officers, three each from the Army and Navy. Modeled apparently after the Cowdray Air Board in England, this committee was “to supervise and direct” the purchase and production of all aircraft, engines, and related materials, “as authorized by the Secretary of W a r and the Secretary of the Navy.” l 4 T h e Aircraft Board lacked the authority of its English prototype. Organization and training of air units was a 7
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