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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 June, General Spaatz on 2 1 August was assigned additional responsi- bilities as theater Air 0 f f i ~ e r . I ~ ~Over and above the special assur- ance thus provided of the active participation of air officers in theater planning at its highest level, the step marked the beginning of a close personal relationship between Generals Eisenhower and Spaatz which contributed greatly to the successful development and employment of American air power in the war against Germany. The Eighth Air Force had been assigned to the theater's command, and already a directive of z I July to General Spaatz had gone far toward clarifying the main outlines of the relationship thus e~tablished."~That relation- ship naturally reflected something of the new status of semiautonomy attained by the AAF within the Army, as well as some of the diffi- culties inherent in a status which required sharper definition. In the attempt to work out a practical definition suited to the re- quirements of the European theater, primary importance attached to questions of supply. Maj. Gen. John C. H. Lee having been selected for command of the theater Services of Supply (SOS), which was on an organizational level with the Eighth Air Force, conferences between him and key figures of the VIII Air Force Service Command prior to their departure from the United States went far toward fixing the basic policies that would be followed after the opening of General Lee's headquarters in England on 2 4 May.175The SOS would be responsible for all problems of construction, for debarkation ac- tivities, and for the supply of items common to both ground and air forces. In addition the theater retained the final authority for determining priorities for shipping from the United States. Under the over-all logistical control of the SOS, however, the VIII Air Force Service Command held primary responsibility for all supply and main- tenance peculiar to the air f o r ~ e . " ~The decision in effect conceded to the AAF in Britain a substantial degree of logistical autonomy; yet in a matter as vital as airdrome construction VIII Air Force Service Command could act only through SOS."' A certain amount of fric- tion was unavoidable, and though individual differences usually could be settled by agreement, the fundamental difficulty continued. A natural goal of AAF personnel became the establishment of a service command independent of SOS and on the same echelon of com- mand."* In July the details of a master plan for the occupation and develop- ment of an VIII Bomber Command sector were worked out with 649
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