Documents / Document

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 8 2 - 9 0
Brett reports; CM-IN-6753 (5-24-42),
MacArthur to C/S, #798, 24 May 1942.
30. See sources in n. 29.
31. CM-IN-5228 (7-15-42), GHQ to
C/S #CIIO, 1 5 July 1942; interview with
Maj. Tom A. Montgomery, in History,
ASC in SWPA; Hq. US. Army Air
Services to C G AAF, 7 July 1942, ibid.;
AAF, #89, 1 5 July 1942; CM-IN-0998
July 1942; interview with Capt. Vincent
L. Snyder (19th Bomb. Gp.).
32. It should be noted that General
MacArthur had felt as early as May that
his air force could be strengthened by
reorganization. Since this reorganization
did not begin until August 1942, it will
be discussed in a subsequent volume.
(Msg., Arnold to C G USAFIA, 10 May
1942; CM-IN-8604 [6-26-42], GHQ
SWPA to AGWAR, #74, 26 June 1942;
C M - I N - ~ I ~ O Z[6-30-4~1, GHQ SWPA
to AGWAR, #260, 30 June 1942.)
33. CM-l’N-1697 (8-5-42), MacArthur
to C/S, 3 Aug. 1942.
CM-IN-5037 (7-15-42). GHQ to C G
(7-3-42), GHQ to C G A M , #A159 3
NOTES TO CHAPTER 14
I. History, Hq. Tenth Air Force,
1942; memo for C/S from AAF Hq., 20
Feb. 1942; CM-OUT-29, AGWAR to
Brereton, #AF 2/442, 2 5 Feb. 1942; CM-
O U T , AGWAR to Brereton, #AF 3/7,
I Mar. 1942; CM-IN, Brereton to Arnold,
6 Mar. 1942.
2 . The road from Haiphong, Indo-
China, to Yunnan was closed by the
Vichy government in 1940 under pressure
from the Japanese. (Edward R. Stettinius,
Jr., Lend-Lease, Weapon for Victory, p.
111.)
3. Ibid., p. 109.
4. Instructions given General Clagett
may be found in ltr., C/S to Brig. Gen.
H.G. Clagett, Philippine Dept., 29 Mar.
194’-
5 . For formation and implementation
of the policy of air aid to China, see
AAG 000-800,l’ndia-China and 450, India-
China; also, n. 4, in AAF Historical
Study No. 12, The Tenth Air Force,
1942, chap. i.
7 2 4
6. Daniel Arnstein, Marco Hellman,
and Harold Davis, traffic and trucking
experts, reached Chungking in July.
John Baker, another American, was made
administrator of the Burma Road.
Largely as a result of their efforts the
tonnage leaving Lashio monthly for China
was increased from 4,000 early in 1941 to
15,000 by November. This included gas
used by the trucks en route. (Stettinius,
Lend-Lease, pp. I I I ff.)
7. Ibid., p. 116; memo for C/S by
Brig. Gen. L.T. Gerow, Acting AC/S,
WPD, 26 Aug. 1941.
8. For the relationship that the
Magruder mission was to bear to Chen-
nault’s AVG, see memo for Lauchlin
Currie from Oscar Cox, Lend-Lease
Administration, 2 8 Nov. 1941.
9. Claire L. Chennault, “Role of De-
fensive Pursuit,” Coast Artillery Journal,
Nov.-Dec. 1933, pp. 411-17; Jan.-Feb.
10. Stettinius, Lend-Lease, p. 115.
I I . See above, n. 5 .
1 2 . Memo for C/S from Gen. Spaatz,
C/AS, 3 Dec. 1941.
13. Army Air Force Study Pertain-
ing to Proposed Reinforcement of China
with Army Air Force Units for the Pur-
pose of Assisting the Chinese to Resist
the Possible Japanese Attack Against
Kunming, 20 Nov. 1941.
14. Memo for C/S from Gen. Spaatz,
C/AS, 3 Dec. 1941.
1 5 . Information on A V G operations
has been gathered from many fragmen-
tary sources such as cable messages
(British and American), letters, diaries,
interviews, and popular books. No of-
ficial source exists, but it is believed that
the material included here is as accurate
as it has been practicable to make it
without a far more extensive study than
is appropriate for this work.
16. British msg. #Wtooj57, ABDA-
COM (from Wavell) to W a r Office, 26
Jan. 1942; Brit. msg. #DBA 1 1 , CCS to
ABDACOM, 6 Feb. 1942.
17. Brit. msgs. #77801 and #78144,
W a r Office to Brit. Army Staff, Wash-
ington, 2 2 and 24 Mar. 1942; Brit. msg.
#78310, GOC BURMA to Brit. Army
1934, pp. 7-1 I ; Mar.-Apr. 1934, pp. 87-93.

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 863 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.