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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 E I G H T H A I R F O R C E Central Interpretation Unit.61 AAF officers in various categories con- tinued to receive training in British intelligence schools throughout the war. Similarly, the Eighth Air Force long remained dependent on the British for essential weather services. But in line with AAF policy to make the American air force as independent of the RAF as was practicable, General Eaker urged in March a prompt dispatch of weather officers “to begin the study of this beastly weather.” H e emphasized the basic importance of weather forecasts to the type of operations planned for the American bombers, and in his appeal to General Spaatz observed that it was all right “to say ‘get it from the British,’ but we want to be self-supporting as soon as possible and it takes weather people to get it from the British and to transmit it.77 6 2 In response to this request, the 18th Weather Squadron was activated at Bolling Field in May, and shipped to England in August. On its arrival, a weather school conducted by American personnel at High Wycombe was established, and liaison with RAF weather services was promptly a c c ~ m p l i s h e d . ~ ~No small part of the training required involved an introduction to the organization, procedure, techniques, and terminology employed by the British, for they con- tinued to be the major source of weather information. Integration with the British communications system naturally pre- sented one of the more fundamental problems antecedent to opera- tions-a problem that in its solution would leave a mark upon the organizational as well as the operational history of the Eighth. The RAF had developed an elaborate system, based on extensive radio and radar installations, for the control of air traffic over the United Kingdom. It was necessary, of course, that American and British forces operate subject to one control; and every advantage lay in having the Americans, by such adjustment of equipment and training as might be necessary, fitted into the already established and highly efficient British system. The overriding importance of this problem had brought AAF communications experts into close consultation with their counterparts in the RAF as early as January 1942 in an effort to determine the communications requirements of American aircraft to operate from England and to translate their conclusions into practical terms of production and m~dification.~~This prompt action made possible the provision of at least minimum equipment for air-to-ground communication for flights during the summer of 6 2 5
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