Documents / Document
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.
“Seattle”8 pages
A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G twin-engine transports. Cargo handled amounted to approximately 2 , 0 0 0 tons in May and 2 , 5 0 0 tons in June.’” For several months after war began, there was no serious overlap- ping of the transport activities of the Ferrying Command and the Air Service Command. T h e former was engaged only in long-range over- seas operations, while the latter, at least in the beginning, confined its own transport activities to the domestic field. But when the Air Service Command began extending its operations beyond the borders of the United States, areas of duplication developed, and by March 1942 the need arose for a clear division of responsibility. O n 24 March, Generai Arnold issued a directive assigning to the Air Service Com- mand responsibility for transporting aviation technical supplies to points within the Western Hemisphere, including Alaska, the Carib- bean area, Greenland, and Iceland. As soon as possible it was to inaugurate a transport service to Honolulu. T h e Ferrying Command was given control of all air transport services beyond the Western Hemisphere and, for the time being, it was to control all ferrying of aircraft within the United States and to overseas destinations. It will be noted that the Ferrying Command’s title to its basic function of ferrying aircraft within and beyond the United States was rendered somewhat uncertain by the phrase “for the time being.” Furthermore, the proposed Air Service Command operation to Honolulu would have been in contravention of the Ferrying Command’s responsibility to operate all transport services extending outside the Western Hemi- sphere.186 Obviously, the whole arrangement was only a temporary expedient, but nothing further in the way of clarification was attempted until Jiine. By that time it had become apparent that the division of author- ity given on 2 4 March had resulted, to quote General Arnold, in “substantial duplication of effort and a confusing dual responsibil- ity.” 1 8 7 Mr. L.W. Pogue, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, in a memorandum dated 1 5 June, gave a detailed and trenchant description of the confusion and duplication then prevalent in the field of military air transport. H e expressed the opinion that the ideal solution would be the creation of a new command, independent of both the Army and the Navy, which should control practically all military air transport operations. As a less desirable but more feasible step he recommended that, a t the least, all air transport services within the Army be unified under one command.lss 3 61
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.