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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.
“King”32 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 morale having worn thin from repeated “dry runs,” stretches of bad weather, and a frustrated desire to have at the enemy, needed badly the stimulus that a successful mission would give them. Generals and staff officers, conscious of public impatience at home for action in the European theater and aware especially of the long-range strategic planning that hinged on the successful initiation of daylight bombard- ment, watched with intense interest not unmixed with concern. As for the press, its representatives accurately sensed a good story in the making.’* At 1539 hours the twelve attacking planes were in the air, with General Eaker riding in the Yankee Doodle, lead bomber of the sec- ond flight of six. For over three hours privates and generals waited at the base for the return of the Fortresses, sharing alike the common suspense. Shortly before 1900 hours, watchers on the control tower spotted a cluster of specks to the west of the airdrome-twelve of them. At exactly 1900 the first B-17 settled down on the runway, followed by the others. Pilots and mechanics swarmed out to meet the incoming crews like, as one observer put it, the crowds a t a football rally. Soon the word passed around: all bombs dropped on or close to the target, no battle casualties, insignificant flak damage-in general, a successful mi~sion.~’ This first combat mission flown by the Fortresses of VIII Bomber Command could not have been more fortunately timed. Considerable “polite doubt” had been expressed in British circles during the summer of 1942 regarding the potentialities of the American bombers, and on 16 August, Peter Masefield, air correspondent to the Sunday Times, gave voice to an opinion which left little doubt and which bristled with “plain speaking.” ‘ O H e spoke of British satisfaction a t the pros- pect of American aid in the bombing of Germany. But he also made it perfectly plain that he considered the B-17 and B-24 quite unsuited to the job of bombing over heavily defended enemy territory: “American heavy bombers-the latest Fortresses and Liberators-are fine flying machines, but not suited for bombing in Europe. Their bombs and bomb-loads are small, their armour and armament are not up to the standard now found necessary and their speeds are low.” It was not simply that the American bombers could not perform the day bombing mission for which they were being prepared. They were likewise unsuited to night operations over Germany, and, in spite of the general desire in the British Isles to see these aircraft take part in 662
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