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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 A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1 two Air Corps generals to head up the office was in itself an indica- tion of the prominence assigned to air power in existing plans for the war against Germany. General Chaney opened his headquarters in the American Embassy building on 19 May 1941.'' His mission was a complex one, involving preparation for the possible establishment of US. ground and air forces, assistance in allocating lend-lease materiel, advising General Marshall on the employment of Army forces in the United Kingdom, and, in general, handling any problems involved in implementing ABC-I." Chaney attacked his manifold duties with energy and dis- patch. H e reported immediately to the British Chiefs of Staff Com- mittee, and on 6 June began what was to be a close association with the Air Ministry; throughout his tour of duty, his relations with the British were good.83 Chaney himself, or members of his staff, in- spected potential sites for Army installations in Iceland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England, and made tentative arrangements with the British for development of desired bases.84 In September, Chaney accompanied the Harriman-Beaverbrook mission to Mos- During the months just preceding and following Pearl Harbor, Chaney, often working with special AAF missions from or in the States, was concerned with a number of special projects: TRIGGER, a plan to set up in America, with RAF aid, a model air defense sector; SHADOW 82, a plan for the AAF to understudy and eventually to relieve RAF fighter units in Northern Ireland; TURBINLITE, a design to provide an AAF night fighter squadron with special RAF equipment and indoctrination.86 These projects were adversely af- fected by new priorities established early in the war; in spite of much effort expended, all proved abortive. Throughout his incumbency, General Chaney, like every AAF commander, was hampered by a dearth of properly trained officers and by frequent changes in plans in Washington. There was, too, until a clarification of his directive in September, some ambiguity in the relations between SPOBS and the military attach6 in respect to responsibilities for technological aspects of air materiel." But however consuming in time and attention these duties may have been, the most important function of SPOBS was to prepare for the establishment and control of U.S.forces in Great Britain as provided in RAINBOW No. 5. At the time of his assignment to SPOBS, General Chaney had been informed that he would probably remain as head of the military mis- 578
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