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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
P L A N S , P O L I C I E S , A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N terms, were in the nature of a general guide rather than of a specific directive. All armed forces of both nations serving in the United Kingdom and British home waters (including Iceland) were to be under the strategic direction of the appropriate British commander in chief; all U.S. forces were to be under the immediate control of the commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces in Great Britain (or British Isles-USAFBI) .74 What that would mean in actual practice, no one knew; an American general could write somewhat perplexedly in September I 94 I : I find certain terms not susceptible of standard interpretation by our own people, with the general result of a somewhat cloudy issue. I keep struggling with “strategical direction,” “operational control,” and “administrative com- mand”, . . . I am not trying to start an argument but I am trying to call attention to the need for evolving a practical and efficient command system under circumstances for which I know no p r e ~ e d e n t . ~ ~ RAINBOW No. 5 had vested the commanding general of USAFBI with the duty of developing such a system, giving him “authority to arrange with the Air Ministry and the War Office concerning the or- ganization and location of our task forces and operational control.” ‘‘ Until war should invoke RAINBOW No. 5 , there would of course be no USAFBI commander, but as an interim means of liaison, the two nations had agreed to exchange military missions: the British Joint Staff Mission a t Washington, the American Military Mission at London.” The American mission was to consist of offices known respectively as the Army Special Observer Group (SPOBS) and the Naval Special Observer Group (SPENAVO) . Ostensibly the establishment of SPOBS merely regularized a prac- tice already in operation, for in 1940 the Air Corps had sent a number of officers of various grades to watch the Battle of Britain.” Among the senior officers was Maj. Gen. James E. Chaney, a man of wide military experience; his tour was especially appropriate in view of an earlier assignment as a military attach6 in Europe and of his current dual command over the Air Defense Command and what was to be- come the vital Northeast Air District.* After six weeks in England, Chaney had returned in November 1940 to render an optimistic re- port on Britain’s chance of surviving the air blitz.TvIn the following April he was ordered back to London as commander of SPOBS, with Brig. Gen. Joseph T. McNarney as his chief of staff.*’ The choice of + See above, pp. 152-53. 577
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