Documents / Document
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 f era1 of USAFBI and Army member of the U.S. Military Mission in London-under direct control of the commanding general of U S . Field Forces in the former capacity, of the War Department in the latter.g6H e continued also in charge of SPOBS, now vested with en- larged functions, and direct communications between that office and AAF Headquarters were a u t h o r i ~ e d . ~ ~In his efforts to secure for Army air forces in the British Isles the organizational system he pre- ferred, General Arnold had two avenues of approach. H e could attempt to convince Chaney, now vested with full authority in USAFBI, either through the commanding general of U.S. Field Forces or by direct communication with SPOBS; or as Deputy Chief of Staff, he could try to influence the War Department, through the Chief of Staff, to change Chaney’s directive. Neither maneuver was immediately successful. The confusion in Chaney’s multiple command was enhanced by the shortage of trained staff officers, a phenomenon which was then common enough but which confirmed his resistance toward the multiplication of air headquarters in England.’’ There was, too, some of the perennial friction between air and ground officers in his staff. SPOBS had been made up largely of Air Corps officers 99 and Chaney himself was a command pilot of long standing, but initial contingents of the U.S. Army bomber command found some of his “G’s’’ at USAFBI “not very friendly to Air effort.” loo As for the efforts to have Chaney’s directive modified, time and the maturing of Anglo-American strategy were to lend point to Arnold’s arguments. In January 1942, Arnold submitted to GHQ a chart illustrating the organization he favored for USAFBI, and on the 21st received ten- tative approval subject to Chaney’s concurrence.1o1 On the 26th, Arnold enumerated for Marshall the air units scheduled for the United Kingdom, both for 1942 and for eventual deployment, re- questing that the War Department accept his chart as a “general guide” and activate the air force and constituent commands (bomber, interceptor, air base) which it called for.lo2The several headquarters were ordered activated,lo3 but the War Department was not yet fully committed to Arnold’s plan. On 24 January, Arnold had informed Chaney of Marshall’s tenta- tive approval of an air force for USAFBI with Spaatz as commander and with three subordinate commands, suggesting that the force be located in the York area.lo4Chaney objected to that site, preferring 5 8 2
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 863 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.