“Nevers”44 pages
- p. 43 …cavalry mounted on gas driven flying horses” never arrived to
“sweep the Germans from the sky…
- p. 46 …Mitchell never received an American air force commensurate with
the ambitious idens of air power which…
- p. 49 …This project, like so many others, had lagged, and the Air Service was
never equipped during…
- p. 50 …the Army or the Air Corps?” but never, “Are
you in the Army or the Corps…
- p. 55 …any Air Service officers, and I have never heard
anybody yet-any Air Service officer-against…
- p. 69 …But one axiom,
with its corollaries, never varied. T o him the airplane was first and…
- p. 75 …Powerful air attacks resolutely pressed home could never be
completely stopped, but their effects could best…
- p. 94 …rate for the time being, the decision never-
theless left an open question as to how…
- p. 121 …large-scale warfare; production of combat types never exceeded 300
aircraft a month. The pattern of…
- p. 122 …the German Air Force, the
Regia Aeronautica never exhibited sufficient power to be decisive in
the…
- p. 133 …Except for a few raids against French
factories, the force had never been employed in a…
- p. 140 …into
a complete war economy production was never equal to the demands
of our own forces…
- p. 150 …Long-term needs
of the Air Corps and the sudden availability of funds in quantities
never…
- p. 181 …Actually, the Air Staff had
never approved of the method followed in RAINBOW No. 5 . l…
- p. 217 …Members of the Hawaiian Air Force, who had never flown
heavy bombers, began to receive intensive…
- p. 219 …were not then satisfactory for permanent garrisons. Never-
theless, the commander of the Hawaiian Department, Lt…
- p. 227 …T h e planes never reached their destination. Other
bombardment units were being prepared for transfer…
- p. 241 …responsible officers, a few crucial points
have never been satisfactorily explained.
T h e general pattern…
- p. 277 …motors, sole-
noids, and gun mounts-were never found. After many hours of fruit-
less search…
- p. 288 …planners and
from which AAF Headquarters was never to deviate.
The translation of the accepted grand…
- p. 303 …the principal features of the plan
were never challenged, it was subsequently revised in a draft…
- p. 309 …W a r Plans Division was
never incorporated into GHQ and remained a potential rival to…
- p. 336 …the shooting and wrote that they were never
able to make out an airplane.g6It is…
- p. 412 …As it happened, the B-24's never
returned to India, but, instead, remained in the…
- p. 457 …Meanwhile the Edsall with the remaining
pilots had headed for Java, never to be heard from…
- p. 492 …Squadron was assigned, but which it would never reach, going from
Australia to Tongatabu; ( 3 ) Christmas…
- p. 500 …deck of a carrier presented a problem never
before challenged by Army planes. Hence an accelerated…
- p. 502 …the bows and wetting the flight deck. Never before had this been
accomplished, yet now it…
- p. 509 …Island, in the
Louisiade Archipelago.” They were never needed, for on 7-8 May
the two…
- p. 513 …exist, it was at a point which never reached the
aircrews, for on the operational level…
- p. 524 …handicaps under which
AAF planes had operated. Never were more than fourteen B- I 7’s…
- p. 527 …AAF planners clung firmly to their belief that
proper observance of economy of force would never…
- p. 531 …Crews which had
previously never loaded torpedoes now for the first time fitted these
weapons into…
- p. 544 …But the Japanese never at
any time based their bombers in appreciable numbers a t either…
- p. 548 …26's in torpedo-dropping, but they never would be put into
All told, the record…
- p. 556 …until it had been thoroughly trained and never to com-
mit it piecemeal. General Magruder had…
- p. 560 …pressed into service against the Germans," and never reached the
CBI." Colonel Haynes had reached India…
- p. 606 …reason that the Antilles Air Task Force
never evolved, as did I Bomber Command, into an…
- p. 614 …that reason deserving a high
priority, could never dispose of the U-boat menace but must…
- p. 635 …In Washington the Munitions Assign-
ments Board t had never considered this schedule as more than…
- p. 670 …they bombed from 39,200 feet, and never
below 30,000. By AAF standards they had…
- p. 672 …Goering had never put enough bombers over England,
nor had he concentrated his forces on the…
- p. 690 …of co-operation and combined action probably never
before equaled by the military forces of two…
- p. 729 …shoot at aerial targets, and several
had never operated a turret in the air. This deficiency…
T H E A I R S E R V I C E I N W O R L D W A R I
bardment and on a unified air ~ommand.~‘Mitchell’s respect for
Trenchard was significant, for it was to be British rather than French
concepts which were to guide his own development and, through
him, were to affect American doctrines of air warfare.
Mitchell’s active curiosity drove him to study the logistical and
administrative foundations of air power. Within a few weeks of his
arrival in France he had, on his own initiative and with French aid,
drawn up and submitted to the War Department a detailed plan for
the organization of an A;EF air force. Receiving no reply to his recom-
mendations, Mitchell had turned to the French government as an
effective channel for his ideas and, according to his own statement,
had been largely responsible for Ribot’s cable of 24 May which
launched the US. aviation program on so ambitious a scale.35Joining
Pershing’s staff in June as aviation officer, Mitchell had at the latter’s
direction helped frame the estimates of I I July which formed the
basis of the AEF Aviation Project. Later, when that program had
bogged down, he had lent his influence to the administrative reorgani-
zation of the Air Service which was effected in May 1 9 1 8 . ~ ~More to
his liking, however, was his service at the front, where his colorful
personality and exploits soon made him a legendary figure. In the rapid
shifting of commands that was characteristic of the AEF, he served
successively as commander of Air Service for the Zone of Advance,
the I Corps, the First Army, and the First Army Group, advancing in
grade from major to brigadier general.
Mitchell never received an American air force commensurate with
the ambitious idens of air power which he was developing, but he
tested those ideas with such units as were put a t his disposal. American
aviators were fed into quiet sectors in April 1918,achieving their first
individual victory on the 14th. The Air Service had its initial lesson
in the use of organized air units in July in a sharp engagement during
the battle of Chiteau-Thierry. Throughout the war some squadrons
fought with the British or French; for those under U.S. command
much of the air action consisted of routine reconnaissance and patrol
duty.37In two battles the force under Mitchell’s command was power-
ful enough to indicate something of his imagination and tactical skill.
The initial objective of the First Army was the elimination of the
St.-Mihiel salient, planned for September 1918. Charged with control
of that army’s aviation, Mitchell determined to insure complete air
superiority over the field of battle. The plan, drawn and executed by
‘ 3