The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

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
date of embarkation or until the beginning of training with the Mobile
Reserve Corps. It was attached for administration and supply to
the Third Air Force,Dwhich continued to act as a parent to most
of the units of the infant Eighth until their departure for the United
Kingdom several months later.
By 12 February it had become apparent to Colonel Duncan that
the 24,125 men and 621 aircraft planned for the Eighth would not
be adequate to carry out the mission intended for it under GYM-
NAST. H e recommended, therefore, that his force be augmented by
the addition of three heavy bombardment groups, one medium bom-
bardment group, and three pursuit groups.1o But such an augmenta-
tion of strength would have required the diversion of combat units
intended for other task forces. The Air War Plans Division (AWPD),
therefore, on 25 February recommended instead the elimination of
GYMNAST from current projects.” The project had been period-
ically deferred during February, largely because of the demands
made by our hard pressed forces in the Pacific, and early in March
the Combined Chiefs took under consideration a recommendation
that SUPER-GYMNAST be continued as an “academic study’’
only.12 Until it was revived some months later under the name of
TORCH, the North African venture ceased to affect the fortunes
of the Eighth Air Force.
As though to indicate the trend of policy, the Eighth already had
sustained a practical reduction in strength. O n 19 February it had
been instructed to make available to Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle
twenty B-25’S with combat crews from its 17th Bombardment Group
for the special mission to be led by him against Tokyo.” During
March, intensive training of VIII Bomber Command units was in-
terrupted further by the imperative demands of the antisubmarine
campaign in the Atlantic; and while planes and crews of the 17th
Group participated in the defense of the southeast coast of the United
States, an additional sixty-seven pilots of the VIII Bomber Command
were on special duty outside the continental limits of the United
state^.'^ Finally, a t the end of March all combat groups then as-
signed to the Eighth Air Force passed from its control to that of
the Third Air Force in an administrative shift preparatory to the
assignment of a new mission and of new units for its f~1filment.l~
Abandonment of GYMNAST had left the Eighth Air Force un-
committed to any operation. Maj. Gen. Carl Spaatz, commanding
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