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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 4 7 4 - 8 2
Ghormley recommended that the initia-
tion of the offensive be deferred” because
of insufficient resources. (USSBS, Em-
ployment of Forces under the Southwest
Pacific Command [Feb. 19471, p. 10.)
9. Enemy statistics from Allied Air
Forces and RAAF Intelligence Sum-
maries; Allied statistics from cable status
reports. See also Histories, 49th and 35th
Fighter Gps.
10. CM-IN-2 I 14 (4-8-42), Australia
to T A G , 8 Apr. 1942; interview with
Capt. Charles L. Marburg, 3 Nov. 1942;
interview with Capt. Carey L. OBrien, 5
Dec. 1942; Lt. Gen. George Brett report,
Air Operations in Australia, Sum. J ; un-
recorded interview with Maj. M.J.
Keane, Mar. 1944; Eric Feldt, T h e Coast-
watchers (New York, 1946).
11. RAAF Intel. Sums.; History, 49th
Fighter Gp.
12. History, 49th Fighter Gp.; His-
tory, V Fighter Command.
13. Memo for C/S from Maj. Gen.
Robert C. Richardson, Jr., Report $5, 9
July 1942; Brett report; CM-IN-7277
$811, 26 May 1942. It will be recalled
that two squadrons of the 8th Fighter
Group equipped with P-39’s had reached
Port Moresby by I May. (See chap. 11.)
14. RAAF and Allied AF Intel. Sums.;
cable status reports; Histories, 39th and
40th Sqs. and V Fighter Command. The
heaviest raid of this period damaged
water mains, burned fuel dumps, and
destroyed two P-39’s and one P-400 on
the ground.
15. See sources in n. 14 and CM-IN-
AAF, #A119, 19 July 1942. A t least
twenty P-39’s and P-400’s were destroyed
during June and eight more in July by
enemy action.
16. Osmar White, Green Amour
(New York, 1945), p. 148; msg., Brett to
NE Area, Townsville, I I May 1 9 4 2 ; msg.,
Hq. USA Townsville to Hq. USAFIA,
12 May 1942; msg., NE Area, Towns-
ville to Hq. Allied AF, 14 May 1942;
Histories, 374th Troop Carrier Gp., 3d
Bomb. Gp., 13th and 90th Bomb. as.;
(5-26-42), GHQ SWPA to AGWAR,
6849 (7-20-42), GHQ SWPA to C G
CM-IN4701 (7-2-42), GHQ SWPA to
C/S, #27, 3 July 1942; CM-IN-925,
GHQ SWPA to C/S, #CIS, 3 July 1942.
17. Histories, 3d and 27th Bomb.
Gps.; cable status reports.
18. Histories, 27th Bomb. Gp. and
13th Bomb. Sq.; Consolidated Statistical
Report, Materiel Command, Sec. Vl’, 30
June 1942; cable status reports.
19. R A M and Allied AF Intel. Sums.,
specifically #14, 3 July 1942, p. 6; Keane
interview; Histories, 13th and 90th Sqs.
20. Ibid.; RAAF and Allied AF Intel.
Sums. During this same period and in
these same bomber missions, Allied crews
claimed twenty enemy fighters shot
down.
2 1 . Histories, 8th Photo Sq., 435th
Bomb. Sq., and 3d Gp.; interview with
Maj. Frank P. Bostrom, 5 Dec. 1942;
cable status reports.
2 2 . Interview with Lt. Col. W.F.
Coleman by author, 2 1 June 1946.
23. RAAF and Allied AF Intel. Sums.
24. Cable status reports; Bostrom
interview; Sec. of War’s Conference,
18 May 1942; AFDAS to AFAEP, 14
May 1942.
2 5 . See, for example, General Arnold‘s
undated memo to General Marshall in
regard to JCS 48, and AAJ? Reference
History No. I, The AAF in the South
Pacific to October 1942.
26. Enemy Order of Battle, from
RAAF and Allied AF Intel. Sums.; other
statistics from cable status reports. It
should also be pointed out that the Jap-
anese had no four-engine bombers for
offensive missions.
27. Thus the flow of aircraft was
hardly providing the supposedly estab-
lished wastage of 20 per cent a month.
(Cable status reports; c M - o u T - 7 5 ~ ~
[629-42], Arnold to CinC/SWPA, $308,
2 9 June 1942.)
28. Lt. Col. William J. Kennard, Re-
port on Philippine and Australian Activi-
ties, 14 Nov. 1942.
29. Coleman interview; interview with
members of 19th Bomb. Gp., 5 Dec. 1942;
statement of Col. William Hipps to
author; Kennard report; Richardson and
7 2 3

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