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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.
“King”32 pages
C O M M I T M E N T S T O C H I N A the problem had been suggested by a retired Air Corps officer, Claire L. Chennault, who since 1937 had been serving as special adviser to the Chinese Air Force. Known to Americans chiefly as a member of the “flying trapeze” team which over preceding years had electrified spectators at air shows and races by its demonstration of formation flying, Chennault was also a diligent student of fighter tactics.’ Having been retired from the Army in 1937 because of defective hearing, he promptly accepted the opportunity offered to him by the Chinese government to put some of his theories into practice under combat conditions. In China, he found the procurement of necessary equipment, even be- fore the outbreak of war in Europe, an increasingly difficult problem for the Chinese Air Force. T h e Soviet Union had become after 1939 the main source of supply, 3 source cut off by her entry into war in June 1941. Recognizing a trend of events that ultimately would permit the Japanese to bomb Chinese targets a t will, and convinced at the same time that the United States eventually would have to fight Japan, Chennault already had turned to the idea of recruiting for service in China an international air force that would include American planes manned by American pilots. T h e participation of German, Russian, and Italian airmen in the Spanish civil war offered a precedent for action against the Japanese; such action would pro- vide, he believed, valuable experience for the Americans.1° Haviny secured the agreement of Generalissimo Chiang-Kai-shek, Chennault returned to the United States early in 1941 with Gen. P.T. Mow of the Chinese Air Force. T o the latter’s attempt to secure aid for a long-ranqe prosram that would rebuild the Chinese Air Force, Chennault lent assistance, but he was more active in an effort to put across his idea of an international air force. In Wash- ington he was aided by Chinese Foreign Minister T.V. Soong, and after preliminary discussions with the War, Navy, and State depart- ments, Chennault presented the plan at the White House. There were, of course, arguments against the proposal, but the current trend of events argued strongly for it. T h e precedent in Spain might be dis- missed as of doubtful validity, but to stand on the niceties af inter- national law only to permit China to fall a complete victim of Japanese aggression was also a disturbing suggestion. T h e clinching argument was the inescapable necessity to provide aerial protection for the 487
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