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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.
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 that of preparation for the support of ground operations not yet definitely scheduled, the command a t the time had only one unit assigned to it and that, the 15th Bombardment Squadron, was actually attached to the VIII Bomber Command for its current oper- a t i o n ~ . ~ ~ ~In August the VIII Ground Air Support Command took control of a troop carrier wing whose two groups, the 60th and 64th, were stationed a t Aldermaston and Ramsbury, both places in the vicinity of Membury.168 Under Brig. Gen. Charles C. Chauncey, the VIII Air Force Com- posite Command in September set up temporary headqyrters at Long Kesh, an RAF station southwest of Be1fa~t.l~'It carried forward plans for an ambitious program of training, but it would'remain for over a year without a job to do beyond that of planning. While the Eighth remained a relatively small organization, 'operational training continued to be predominantly a unit affair coeducted on the home bases of the several groups. Maj. Gen. Walter H. Frank and the headquarters of the VIII Air Force Service Command arrived early in July. Because its responsi- bility for supply and maintenance included every element in the Eighth Air Force, the service command's relationship to the force headquarters and to the several commands was both close and constant. Consequently, General Frank, who as commanding general of the Third Air Force had been actively identified with the origins pf the Eighth, set up his headquarters at Bushy Park.17' The need for close co-ordination between the VIII Air Force Service Command and its parent organization was thus recognized in their close physical proximity; the same need would result in 1944 in the integration of the two headquarters into a single operational and logistical organiza- tion. Meanwhile, in August I 942 the service command established two subcommands, known as service areas, for the direction of activi- ties respectively in Ireland and in England and Wales.171 Under the service command, too, the 12th Replacement Control Depot took over responsibility for receipt and process of incoming casual and filler personnel. Its stations at Stone in Staffordshire and Chorley in Lancashire would become familiar to hundreds of thousands of air force officers and enlisted men during the next three years.172 T h e European Theater of Operations United States h y (ETOUSA) having replaced USAFBI shortly before the assumption of the new command by Maj. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower on 24 648
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