“Nevers”44 pages
- p. 43 …cavalry mounted on gas driven flying horses” never arrived to
“sweep the Germans from the sky…
- p. 46 …Mitchell never received an American air force commensurate with
the ambitious idens of air power which…
- p. 49 …This project, like so many others, had lagged, and the Air Service was
never equipped during…
- p. 50 …the Army or the Air Corps?” but never, “Are
you in the Army or the Corps…
- p. 55 …any Air Service officers, and I have never heard
anybody yet-any Air Service officer-against…
- p. 69 …But one axiom,
with its corollaries, never varied. T o him the airplane was first and…
- p. 75 …Powerful air attacks resolutely pressed home could never be
completely stopped, but their effects could best…
- p. 94 …rate for the time being, the decision never-
theless left an open question as to how…
- p. 121 …large-scale warfare; production of combat types never exceeded 300
aircraft a month. The pattern of…
- p. 122 …the German Air Force, the
Regia Aeronautica never exhibited sufficient power to be decisive in
the…
- p. 133 …Except for a few raids against French
factories, the force had never been employed in a…
- p. 140 …into
a complete war economy production was never equal to the demands
of our own forces…
- p. 150 …Long-term needs
of the Air Corps and the sudden availability of funds in quantities
never…
- p. 181 …Actually, the Air Staff had
never approved of the method followed in RAINBOW No. 5 . l…
- p. 217 …Members of the Hawaiian Air Force, who had never flown
heavy bombers, began to receive intensive…
- p. 219 …were not then satisfactory for permanent garrisons. Never-
theless, the commander of the Hawaiian Department, Lt…
- p. 227 …T h e planes never reached their destination. Other
bombardment units were being prepared for transfer…
- p. 241 …responsible officers, a few crucial points
have never been satisfactorily explained.
T h e general pattern…
- p. 277 …motors, sole-
noids, and gun mounts-were never found. After many hours of fruit-
less search…
- p. 288 …planners and
from which AAF Headquarters was never to deviate.
The translation of the accepted grand…
- p. 303 …the principal features of the plan
were never challenged, it was subsequently revised in a draft…
- p. 309 …W a r Plans Division was
never incorporated into GHQ and remained a potential rival to…
- p. 336 …the shooting and wrote that they were never
able to make out an airplane.g6It is…
- p. 412 …As it happened, the B-24's never
returned to India, but, instead, remained in the…
- p. 457 …Meanwhile the Edsall with the remaining
pilots had headed for Java, never to be heard from…
- p. 492 …Squadron was assigned, but which it would never reach, going from
Australia to Tongatabu; ( 3 ) Christmas…
- p. 500 …deck of a carrier presented a problem never
before challenged by Army planes. Hence an accelerated…
- p. 502 …the bows and wetting the flight deck. Never before had this been
accomplished, yet now it…
- p. 509 …Island, in the
Louisiade Archipelago.” They were never needed, for on 7-8 May
the two…
- p. 513 …exist, it was at a point which never reached the
aircrews, for on the operational level…
- p. 524 …handicaps under which
AAF planes had operated. Never were more than fourteen B- I 7’s…
- p. 527 …AAF planners clung firmly to their belief that
proper observance of economy of force would never…
- p. 531 …Crews which had
previously never loaded torpedoes now for the first time fitted these
weapons into…
- p. 544 …But the Japanese never at
any time based their bombers in appreciable numbers a t either…
- p. 548 …26's in torpedo-dropping, but they never would be put into
All told, the record…
- p. 556 …until it had been thoroughly trained and never to com-
mit it piecemeal. General Magruder had…
- p. 560 …pressed into service against the Germans," and never reached the
CBI." Colonel Haynes had reached India…
- p. 606 …reason that the Antilles Air Task Force
never evolved, as did I Bomber Command, into an…
- p. 614 …that reason deserving a high
priority, could never dispose of the U-boat menace but must…
- p. 635 …In Washington the Munitions Assign-
ments Board t had never considered this schedule as more than…
- p. 670 …they bombed from 39,200 feet, and never
below 30,000. By AAF standards they had…
- p. 672 …Goering had never put enough bombers over England,
nor had he concentrated his forces on the…
- p. 690 …of co-operation and combined action probably never
before equaled by the military forces of two…
- p. 729 …shoot at aerial targets, and several
had never operated a turret in the air. This deficiency…
T H E E I G H T H A I R F O R C E
general of the AFCC and commanding general-designate of the con-
templated Army Air Force in Great Britain (AAFIB), had previously
sought to have the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron of the
AFCC transferred intact to the AAFIB, in the hope of providing at
least a head for that heretofore incorporeal organization." A decision
to assign the AFCC personnel to AAF Headquarters precluded
this move, but General Spaatz was quick to seize the opportunity
presented by the release of the Eighth Air Force from GYMNAST.
On 3 1 March, he suggested that the now "task-less" force be made
available as a nucleus for the AAFIB, and within the next few days
the Eighth Air Force was committed to the United Kingdom."
Already in England since February on a mission to prepare the way
for the AAFIB were Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker and a small bomber
command staff, who by this new commitment were rewarded with
the definite knowledge that their plans and preparations would soon
have practical application.
T h e assignment to the AAFIB involved a drastic change in the na-
ture of the Eighth. SUPER-GYMNAST had called for a mobile
tactical air force, whereas the principal air task in the United King-
dom had long been conceived as strategic bombardment of Germany.
T o adapt the Eighth Air Force to its new mission required a con-
siderable reshuffling of its combat organizations. It was this need
which had brought about the release to the Third Air Force at the
end of March of all Air Corps and service units save the headquarters
of the Eighth Air Force and the VIII Bomber and Interceptor Com-
mands.I8 In April, the VIII Air Force Base Command, the 12th Re-
placement Control Depot, and the 7th Photo Squadron were reassigned
from the Third Air Force.lg The Eighth got, also, others of its
original units, of which the most important was the 2d Air Depot
Group, and in April a large number of combat units assigned to
operational training units were earmarked for eventual assignment
to the Eighth Air Force and shipment to the United Kingdom. These
units comprised twenty-three heavy bombardment groups, four
medium bombardment groups, five light bombardment groups, four
dive bomber groups, and thirteen pursuit groups.2o Actually com-
mitted to the Eighth Air Force for the initial movement to the United
Kingdom were only the 1st and 3 1st Pursuit Groups, the 97th Bom-
bardment Group ( H ) , and the 5th Photo Squadronz1 Before the
Eighth Air Force could reach the combat strength envisaged for it
61 5