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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 tween British and American comrnander~.~~On undertaking the establishment of a headquarters at High Wycombe (PINETREE in code) that would serve for the immediate direction of American bomber operations, General Eaker followed as far as was possible the organization of the near-by RAF Bomber Command, thus achiev- ing a measure of organizational similarity designed to facilitate co- operation. By 18 May he was able to notify Spaatz that the bomber headquarters should be ready to “control and supervise in bombard- ment operations by the 1st of June.” 4 3 The tardy arrival of the first combat units obviated any test of that promise in June, but plans for close co-ordination with the RAF proceeded along lines that permitted the prompt adoption of formal agreements following the arrival of General Spaatz. Early in July, the RAF invited the Eighth Air Force to share membership on some of the more important RAF operational committees-those dealing with targets, operational re- search, interception, and bomber operation^.^^ Composed of senior staff officers for the study of operations data as a guide to policy, these committees thus took an important step toward their trans- formation into combined committees representative of the two air forces. Close personal agreement having theretofore marked the rela- tions between General Eaker, who continued to command the VIII Bomber Command, and Air Marshal Sir Arthur T. Harris, command- ing the RAF Bomber Command, they further agreed on the eve of the Eighth‘s entry into combat that Eaker, or his representative, would attend the daily operations conference held by Harris and that the two commands would co-ordinate action for the selection of targets and the issuance of communiquCs or other press releases.45 The pattern of collaboration thus established for bomber operations was promptly followed by the two fighter commands. Not until November 1942 was a definitive understanding with the British reached on the most fundamental question arising from the purpose to base American fighter planes in the United Kingdom. The RAF proposed that American fighter units be integrated with its own under a plan eventually to assign entire defensive sectors of the United Kingdom to AAF operational The suggestion had obvious administrative advantages to recommend it, but it would have involved the assumption of heavy responsibilities for defense of the British Isles. The AAF preferred that all of its forces be con- centrated in an offensive effort against Germany, with the defensive 6 22
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