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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 Wash”17 pages
T H E B A T T L E O F T H E A T L A N T I C tude. Provision was made for transferring units, with the concurrence of Operations Division, General Staff, to extracontinental areas on a detached service basis. General Larson, as commanding general, was responsible to the director of Military Requirements through the director of Bombardment, but matters of policy, broad plans, and the development of new weapons and equipment remained with the Commanding General, AAF.84 Naval headquarters viewed the new command with but modified approval. T o General Marshall’s proposal of 14 September, Admiral King had replied that, although he concurred in general, he believed “the preferable method” to be the allocation of air units to sea fron- tiers, such allocation to change from time to time and from frontier to frontier as the exigencies of the war dictated. H e would, he said, continue to exercise control over Army planes through the com- manders of the various sea frontiers. The final settlement involving the activation of the Antisubmarine Command he appears to have considered a W a r Department measure As a matter of fact, that settlement settled very little, except for the resultant improvement in the internal organization of the Army’s own antisubmarine forces. It left undefined the nature and extent of the operational control to be exercised by the Navy; and it left untouched the problem of duplication, the parallel development of two land-based air forces for the same task. Consequently, within this undefined area there remained ample room for continued debate and confusion, especially in view of the fact that differences also re- mained concerning the most effective way of employing long-range, land-based aircraft in the antisubmarine campaign. T h e story as it must be left in the present volume is thus an in- complete one. T h e submarine presented a still increasing menace, and the debate concerning the best organization for and employment of antisubmarine air forces continued well into the summer of 1943.+ The story of the Antisubmarine Command will be presented in Volume 11. 5 5 3
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