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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.
“The Invaders”15 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 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
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