“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…
R O U E N - S O T T E V I L L E N O . I
then, for example, could it be determined whether the additional
armament and armor added to the B-17 in order to protect it from
fighter attack would, by slowing it down, render it correspondingly
vulnerable to antiaircraft fire. This problem was only one of many
a t this early date facing the exponents of daylight bombing. In each,
a delicate balance had to be sought between the requirements of
defense against flak, defense against fighters, and accuracy of bomb-
ing. High-altitude flying was believed essential for purposes of avoid-
ing flak, yet it was agreed that the higher the altitude the lower would
be the degree of accuracy possible in bombing. Under ideal condi-
tions, bombing by individual planes or by elements appeared to offer
the best chances of accuracy, yet the mutual fire support provided by
a relatively large group of bombers would aid greatly in defending
the bombers from fighter attack. These and other dilemmas, their
outlines as yet only dimly discernible, were to govern the tactical
development of the American bomber force." And in each case the
nature of the compromise adopted could be determined only on the
basis of experience gained in combat.
O n the night of 9 August, a wave of excitement swept the 97th
Group. An order had been received alerting the crews for a combat
mission. Ammunition was loaded and preparations made for the big
event. But the weather refused to co-operate, and the mission was
canceled. Weather conditions-which were to provide one of the
gravest obstacles to daylight precision bombing-continued unfavor-
able for the next week. Finally, on the night of 16 August, an alert
was again called. This time the weather held."
Rouen-Sotteville No. I , 17 August 1942
The mission for the 17th was to be small, involving in all only
eighteen bombers. Twelve were to attack the marshalling yard at
Rouen, flying under heavy fighter cover provided by RAF Spitfire
squadrons, while the remainder flew a diversionary sweep along the
coast. But, small as it was, this mission commanded the attention of
both American and British airmen as few larger undertakings had
done. General Spaatz was a t Grafton Underwood to watch the For-
tresses take off, and with him were a number of staff officers from
both the Eighth Air Force and the RAF. With him also were some
thirty members of the U.S. and British press. Everyone shared in the
excitement and tension of the moment. The crews of the 97th, their
66 I