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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. 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…
N O T E S T O P A G E S 4 7 2 - 7 4
NOTES TO CHAPTER 13
I . Immediately after the fall of Cor-
regidor, for instance, General MacArthur
argued for development of a second
front in the Pacific which, in addition to
affording a necessary protection for Aus-
tralia and India, would assist the U.S.S.R.
by forcing a Japanese withdrawal from
Siberia. (CM-IN-2333 [5-8-421, Mac-
Arthur to Marshall, #176, 8 May 1942.)
2 . CM-IN-0469 (62-42), MacArthur
to C/S, #217, 2 June 1942; CM-IN-2264,
GHQ SWPA to C/S, #913, 8 June 1942.
MacArthur argued that now was a pro-
pitious moment to rush forces from the
Indian and Atlantic oceans for temporary
action against the Japanese. (CM-IN-
6409, MacArthur to C/S, #199, 23 M a y
1942.) Without such additional striking
forces and greater security of commu-
nications, he opposed a landing on Tulagi
which had been suggested by the Navy.
(CM-IN-8352 [5-29-421, GHQ SWPA
to C/S, #840, 28 May 1942.)
3. Memo for Gen. Twining from Col.
Frank Everest, Office of G-3, WDGS,
2 3 June 1942; draft memo for C/AS
from Col. O.A. Anderson, AC/AS, Plans,
25 June 1942. General Marshall was
inclined to support General MacArthur’s
proposals. His staff was working on the
logistics for an operation similar to one
proposed by MacArthur, and he was
preparing to urge the Navy to move two
or three carriers into Australian waters
and to suggest to the British that they
move two or three of their carriers from
the Indian Ocean, all to be available for
operations against New Britain and
New Ireland. (Msg. #204, Marshall to
CinC/SWPA, 10 June 1942.) A later
development of this plan was that the
British units should operate against
Timor with the support of army aircraft
based in northwestern Australia. This
action was to be co-ordinated with an
operation in the South Pacific against
Tulagi by an American task force includ-
ing at least two carriers and supported
by land-based aviation from northeast
Australia, the New Hebrides, and New
Caledonia. (CM-OUT-5704 [6-23-421,
Marshall to CinC SWPA, # q 7 , 23 June
1942.) General MacArthur informed
General Marshall that air strength in the
Southwest Pacific was insufficient for
support of operations both to the north-
east and to the northwest. (CM-IN-7976
[6-24-42], GHQ SWPA to AGWAR,
4. CM-OUT-5704 (6-23-42), Mar-
shall to CinC/SWPA, #277, 2 3 June 1942;
memo for C/S from Brig. Gen. T.T.
Handy, AC/S, OPD, 24 June 1942, in
OPD 381 SWPA. See also other sources
cited in preceding note.
5 . Sources in n. 3 ; CM-OUT4596
(6-26-42), Marshall to CinC/SWPA,
8289, 26 June 1942; CM-OUT-7366 (6-
28-42), Marshall to MacArthur, #300, 28
June 1942; CM-OUT-~SOI (6-29-42),
Marshall to CinC/SWPA, #306, 29 June
1942; memos for Adm. King from Mar-
shall, 26 June 1942, and for C/S from
CinC US. Fleet, 26 June 1942, both in
OPD 381 SWPA. MacArthur expressed
a fear that the Navy’s proposals would
reduce the Army’s functions to sub-
sidiary ones and implied that army forces
would be used largely for garrisoning
the islands. (CM-IN9329 [6-28-42],
MacArthur to Marshall, #254, 28 June
6. CM-lN-7976 (6-24-42), GHQ
SWPA to AGWAR, #248, 24 June 1942.
7. Directive quoted in W a r Diary of
ComSoPac for 4 July 1942. The agree-
ment was a compromise between the
MacArthur view that the campaign
should be co-ordinated under his com-
mand and the view of the Navy that
the entire operation should be directly
under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but with
Admiral Ghormley in immediate com-
mand. There was still some hope that
British carriers might be available, but
in view of the desperate situation in the
Middle East, this was considered uncer-
tain. (CM-IN-0088 [ 7-1-42], MacArthur
to C/S, #261, I July 1942; CM-OUT-
0677 [7-3-42 I , Marshall to MacArthur,
#394, 3 July 1942; CM-IN-1306 [7-4-421,
MacArthur to C/S, #GI,4 July 1942.)
8. Directive quoted in War Diary of
ComSoPac for 4 July 1942. It is interest-
ing to note that after their first confer-
ence on the proposed offensive, both
‘‘Genera MacArrhur and Admiral
#248, 24 June 1942.)
1942.)

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