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

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
the coast over an element heretofore regarded as almost exclusively
the Navy’s responsibility. A t the same time, the airplane offered to the
Navy a new weapon of growing potentialities in the performance of
such traditionally naval functions as patrol of coastal sea lanes. Placed
aboard a carrier, the airplane could be regarded merely as a new ele-
ment of the fleet, but the land-based plane carried ceriain advantages
in the fulfilment of some missions at sea. In the development of service
aviation, consequently, there was a tendency for the Navy to move
ashore and for the Army to extend its activities beyond the shore
line.177
In the resultant disputes-which focused from time to time on the
right of the Army to engage in seaward reconnaissance, on the right
of the Navy to acquire land-based planes, and increasingly on its right
to expand shore facilities for land-based planes at the risk of duplicat-
ing existing Army facilities-traditional delineations of function and
responsibility became blurred. Efforts to secure agreement all too
frequently ended in the airing of irreconcilable views, and such was
the peculiar perplexity of the problems raised that attempts to secure
some authoritative and definitive settlement had proved futile.”’
Readily understandable, therefore, is the very evident satisfaction
with which the W a r Department announced on 9 January 1931 the
conclusion of an agreement between Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Chief
of Staff, and Adm. William V. Pratt, Chief of Naval Operations,
intended to leave the air force of each service “free to develop within
well defined limits and each with a separate and distinct mission.”
In his annual report a few months later General MacArthur defined
the agreement in these terms:
Under it the naval air forces will be based on the fleet and move with it as
an important element in performing the essential missions of the forces afloat.
T h e Army air forces will be land based and employed as an element of the
Army in carrying out its missions of defending the coasts, both in the homeland
and in overseas possessions. Through this arrangement the fleet is assured
absolute freedom of action with no responsibility for coast defense, while the
dividing line thus established enables the air component of each service to
proceed with its own planning, training, and procurement activities with little
danger of duplicating those of its sister service.180
Before a congressional committee the following year, General Mac-
Arthur expressed the opinion that the question of coastal air defense
had been “completely and absolutely settled.”
In that same year the War Plans Division of the General Staff
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