The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

T H E A I R S E R V I C E I N W O R L D W A R I
tration of the war, adverse rumors began to be noised about. Rumors
were followed by disclosures, disclosures by congressional and presi-
dential investigations. In the spring it became obvious that, in spite of
the patent falsity of charges of graft and sabotage, the program was
failing; the huge cloud of planes which was to have darkened German
skies by June was as yet hardly larger than a man’s hand. Actually the
first U.S.-built DH-4 with Liberty engine was shipped from Hoboken
on 1 5 March and was airborne in France on 1 7 May, two months
after the great German offensive had been launched.ls In the mean-
while, the widely advertised threat of American air power had
spurred German plane production; the enemy sardonically dubbed
his intensified efforts of I 9 I 7 the Amerikaprogramnm.
Disillusionment in the United States was painful, but it brought
speedy reform. With legislative authority granted by the Overman
Act of 2 0 May 1918,President Wilson by executive order removed
Army aviation from the jurisdiction of the Signal Corps. Responsi-
bilities for training and operations were vested in a Director of Mili-
tary Aeronautics (Maj. Gen. William L. Kenly). A new executive
agency, the Bureau of Aircraft Production, was “to exercise full and
exclusive jurisdiction and control over production of aeroplanes,
engines, and aircraft equipment” for the Army; the bureau was con-
nected with the Aircraft Board by interlocking membership. The
new organization was soon officially recognized as the Air Service,
U.S. Army; but, inasmuch as its two components reported separately
to the Secretary of War, there was in reality no common policy for
the makers and users of planes. This functional duality was long to
plague the Army air arm; for the time being it was mitigated by the
appointment on 27 August of the civilian head of the Bureau of Air-
craft Production, Mr. John D. Ryan, as Director of Air Service (over
both phases of aviation) and as Second Assistant Secretary of War.lg
The latter appointment was a move in the direction of separate cabinet
representation for air, a measure which had been previously suggested
in Congress and which was proving successful in England. But the
arrangement was only a wartime expedient which recognized a cleav-
age within the War Department without providing a permanent
solution for the problems involved.
Under the new regime production increased rapidly, though it is
only fair to point out that many of the most stubborn dlaculties were
already yielding on the eve of the reorganization. Statistics emanating
9