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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.
“Pacific Ocean”16 pages
T H E A R M Y A I R A R M B E T W E E N T W O W A R S undertook in collaboration with the OCAC an extended study which served as the basis of a letter from the Chief of Staff to the command- ing generals of all armies, corps areas, and departments dated 3 January 1933 and entitled “Employment of Army Aviation in Coast De- fense.” l S 2 The function of the Army air arm therein stated was “to conduct the land-based air operations in defense of the United States and its overseas posses~ions.’~T w o distinct classes of aviation con- cerned with frontier defense were recognized: ( I ) corps and army observation units normally assigned to ground organizations, mobile forces, and harbor defenses, and ( 2 ) “GHQ Aviation, the principal and only component of which, in addition to army reserve aviation, is the Air Force which normally operates initially directly under the Commander of the Army Group.’’ The observation component of the air force, it was declared, should include special equipment suited to long-range reconnaissance over !and and water in order that approaches to critical areas might be covered “to the limit of the radius of action of the airplanes.” The role of Army aviation in defense against an enemy attack was further described in terms of the follow- ing operational phases: ( I ) reconnaissance and offensive operations between the outermost range of the air force and the line of contact with ground forces; ( 2 ) the support of other forces after the enemy came within the range of ground weapons; ( 3 ) operations “in con- nection with the use of all arms on our frontier.” During the first phase Army aircraft would attempt to locate, observe, and destroy the enemy vessels and forces. In the second it would lend support by observation undertaken for the assistance of ground forces and by further offensive operations. Should the enemy force the engagement into the last phase, Army aviation would be employed in accordance with general principles governing co-operation with land forces. With its mission thus broadly and authoritatively defined, the way was now open for the Air Corps to press forward with plans for development of the special equipment required. During the course of the aforementioned study, the Chief of the Air Corps, Maj. Gen. B.D. Foulois, had pointed out to W P D the growing danger of carrier-borne attack on our coasts, the necessity of keeping hostile aviation a t least 2 5 0 miles a t sea, and the importance of developing seaward reconnaissance units for operation under GHQ. It was his feeling that the Air Corps at that time lacked both the equipment and the organization for its newly approved missions.183With this con- 63
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