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The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

Air Force Historical Studies Office · 863 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 12 …T h e term “first narrative,” bor- rowed from the RAF, was frequently used to describe…
  • p. 16 …history would constitute a lifetime assignment-the RAF’s history of World W a r I…
  • p. 47 …being made up of aircraft from the RAF’s Independent Force, the whole of the French…
  • p. 48 …early 1917.O n 6 June 1918the RAF’s Independent Force had been established with its…
  • p. 53 …Most radical was the independent air force, usually drawing heavily upon the RAF and its Air…
  • p. 114 …I when a British mission of retired RAF officers and others arrived in Japan to assist…
  • p. 127 …At Dunkirk the Luftwaff e momentarily yielded supremacy to the RAF, which was able to gain…
  • p. 128 …After French surrender on 2 2 June, only the RAF remained for the Luftwaffe to conquer…
  • p. 129 …T h e RAF and the Battle of Britain The German bombing of Britain in World…
  • p. 130 …The RAF retained its autonomy; but, even so, sentiment for many years, like that in the…
  • p. 131 …it was hoped that the badly ournumbered RAF would be able to hold off any German…
  • p. 132 …By the end of September the RAF had asserred its control of the air over rhe…
  • p. 133 …It will take no credit from the RAF’s outnumbered “few” to sug- gest that the…
  • p. 136 …Operations of the RAF after the fall of 1940 were as widely dis- persed as were…
  • p. 137 …on strategic bombardment, would find in the RAF a stout and under- standing ally. It is…
  • p. 171 …British requirements amounted to 49,385 planes, including first-line strength and wastage for the RAF…
  • p. 186 …with fresh data and a familiarity with RAF experience. Actual authorship of a military document is…
  • p. 290 …to prewar plans, was to join the RAF in the attack on Germany. This project was…
  • p. 338 …Fortunately, the RAF, magnificently served by such advisers as Robert Watson-Watt, rapidly went beyond the…
  • p. 341 …enjoyed through the co-operation of the RAF unusual opportunities to com- pare results with those…
  • p. 343 …United States military mission in London, the RAF offered the services of Robert Watson-Watt, Scientific…
  • p. 369 …The majority of the Hudsons were delivered a t Montreal to the RAF Ferry Com- mand…
  • p. 391 …of its production was required by the RAF to meet current operational commitments. The gasoline had…
  • p. 398 …an initial mission to participate with the RAF in the bombardment of Germany. Questions remained regarding…
  • p. 404 …air force personnel were concentrated at the RAF base a t Reykjavik, occupying facilities on the…
  • p. 553 …of models considered obsolescent for AAF and RAF needs, and cadres of American pilots and ground…
  • p. 555 …were considered obsolescent by the AAF and RAF) previously allocated to Sweden were released for the…
  • p. 556 …in addition to collaboration with a small RAF contingent in defense of Rangoon, he provided patrol…
  • p. 557 …Even when the enemy after his first experience sought to wipe out the RAF and A…
  • p. 565 …General Naiden’s survey indicated that the normal run should be between the RAF base a…
  • p. 566 …Unable to challenge seriously the enemy’s supremacy in the air, meager RAF and A V…
  • p. 568 …May, the bombers struck at Mingaladon, former RAF airdrome near Rangoon which the Japanese were using…
  • p. 570 …fensive efforts between the Tenth and the RAF, and on 1 5 April the War Department…
  • p. 571 …Accordingly, on 24 May the order committing the Tenth Air Force to operations under RAF supervision…
  • p. 609 …It also reflected the profound influence exerted by the RAF Coastal Command on AAF thinking. That…
  • p. 610 …Fleet Air Arm by creating a special RAF command, equipped and trained for sea search and…
  • p. 614 …control in terms comparable to those governing RAF Coastal Command. Almost from the beginning, the question…
  • p. 615 …it had been the experience of the RAF “that a purely defensive policy only leads to…
  • p. 619 …On the tactical side, valuable assistance was obtained from an experienced RAF crew which flew two…
  • p. 626 …bomber crews flying borrowed Bostons in an RAF routine sweep against enemy airfields." During the seven…
  • p. 628 …current allocation of heavy bombers to the RAF.6 N o immediate cut was contemplated; and…
  • p. 630 …was suggested that for the present the RAF would assume sole responsibility for the air offensive…
  • p. 633 …the conduct in co-operation with the RAF of an offensive against western Europe in 1942…
  • p. 634 …T o the Air Staff, as to RAF Bomber Command, the bomber offensive had figured as…
  • p. 635 …Now that the SLEDGEHAMMERJROUNDUP strategy had been accepted, the RAF wanted the United States to increase…
  • p. 636 …the British desire for reinforcement of the Middle East; the RAF Coastal Command’s request for…
  • p. 637 …I ) allocate to Great Britain for the RAF and Dominion air forces aircraft according to an…
  • p. 647 …TRIGGER, a plan to set up in America, with RAF aid, a model air defense sector…
  • p. 648 …important fea- tures were borrowed from the RAF. H e proposed to effect a sharp cleavage…
  • p. 649 …Because AAF bombers would have the special mission, in co-operation with the RAF, of attacking…
  • p. 653 …Chaney must provide for their operational control with- out recourse to the RAF. Chaney’s immediate…
  • p. 656 …forces and the RAF, provision must be made for two chains of command-that of the…
  • p. 657 …i.e., Eighth Air Force = RAF; VIII Bomber Command = RAF Bomber Command) ; and while it provided…
  • p. 659 …Under these conditions, relations with RAF Bomber Command were more important for the Eighth Air Force…
  • p. 660 …ning for the bomber offensive with the RAF. Daylight or Dark? As an argument in favor…
  • p. 661 …weapons are the Russian army and the RAF.” 1 5 5 It is significant that this…
  • p. 662 …Critics complained of the RAF’s failure to provide adequate close support for ground operations in…
  • p. 663 …Messages from that office cast doubts upon the results of the RAF bomber offensive and criticized…
  • p. 664 …When in 1941 the two air staffs began planning their combined attack on Germany, the RAF…
  • p. 665 …Even before the war, RAF preference had run to night tactics for strategic bombardment, an attitude…
N O T E S T O P A G E S 2 0 6 - 1 1
we had decided upon; the orders were we
couldn’t attack until we were attacked;
that we could go out on photo reccos in
force (loaded with bombs) but were not
to use them unless attacked.” (Doc. 10,
in History, Fifth Air Force, Pt. I, App.
11.)
32. Other than General Brereton’s
accounts as given in answer to letter
from Colonel Paul, Chief, AAF His-
torical Office, 30 Jan. 1946, and T h e
Brereton Diaries, pp. 36ff., the most de-
tailed narrative is the history of the 24th
Pursuit Group. Fn an unrecorded inter-
view of some two hours’ duration with
the author on 7 December 1944, General
Brady in answer to specific questions
growing out of the author’s own re-
search gave further corroboration to the
essential details. Among other informa-
tion supplied, he called attention to a
report which he and Brereton had pre-
pared and forwarded to Washington, as
he recalled it, late in January or early in
February 1942. Unfortunately, an ex-
tended and intensive search through
AAF and War Department files failed to
locate a copy. In reply to a question
regarding this report, General Brereton
(see memo for Paul, 6 Aug. 1947) stated:
“I do not have a copy of the paper
referred to. I was informed that this
paper was in General Arnold’s own
secret files, presumably it had been
shown to the Chief of Staff. Whether it
is still in existence, I do not know.” (See
also Eubank interview; Fisher Report on
Philippine and Java Operations received
in spring of 1942; History, Fifth Air
Force, Pt. I , I I ff.)
33. 1st ind., Brereton to Paul, where
the general recalls, as in his published
Diaries, that at this time he instructed
Eugene L. Eubank, bomber commander
who had flown down from Clark Field,
to prepare for an operation against
Takao harbor with target priority for
enemy transports and warships and at
the same time to make ready three planes
for reconnaissance of airfields on
Formosa.
34. History, 24th Pursuit Gp.
35. 1st ind., Brereton to Paul; History,
30th Bomb. Sq.
688
36. History, 24th Pursuit Gp.; Sum-
mary of Activities, 8 Dec. 1941.
37. 1st ind., Brereton to Paul; T h e
Brereton Diaries, pp. 40-41. General
Brereton’s memo of 6 Aug. 1947 (cited
in note 31 above) indicates that authori-
zation for the reconnaissance mission to
Formosa may have been received as early
as 0800. With reference to a “second
conference” by telephone with Suther-
land at “approximately 8 a.m.,” Brereton
states that “reconnaissance missions were
authorized in this conversation,” but his
recollection in the same place that the
order to Eubank for a specific mission
of reconnaissance over Formosa was not
given until after 1000 tallies with his pre-
viously given account in T h e Brereton
Diaries, p. 40, and in 1st ind., Brereton
to Paul.
38. 1st ind., Brereton to Paul; Brady
interview; Fisher report, as cited in n. 32.
39. History, 24th Pursuit Gp.
40. Interview with Col. A.H. Camp-
41. Ibid.
42. History, 24th Pursuit Gp.
43. 1st ind. (ltr., Chief, Air Historical
Office to C G Thirteenth AF, 17 July
1945), Maj. Gen. E. L. Eubank to C G
AAF, 5 Aug. 1947. See also, in support of
General Eubank’s statement, Fisher re-
port and talk, confirmed in an interview
with author, 17 June 1947; 1st ind.,
Brereton to Paul; History, 24th Pursuit
Gp.; ltr., Col. A.W. Marriner, Dir. of
Communications to C G USAFIA, 2 Apr.
1942; Ind, Bataan, p. 99. Most of the
sources attribute the failure to a break-
down of communications. Thus the his-
tory of the 24th Pursuit Group states that
“at approximately I I :45 an unidentified
report was received of a bombardment
formation over Lingayen Gulf, headed
south,” but it adds “that communications
breakdown prevented proper identifica-
tion.’’ This view is not borne out by the
testimony of Colonel Campbell. (See
n. 40.)
44. USSBS Intrs. 424 and 601; Opera-
tions of the Japanese Navy in the Inva-
sion of the Philippines.
45. History, 24th Pursuit Gp.; Fisher
report. According to Japanese sources,
bell by author, 11 July 1947.

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