USAAF During WWII Volume 1 - Plans and Early Operations Jan 1939-Aug 1942 AFD-101105-005

IN March 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget ordering each war agency to prepare "an accurate and objective account"of that agency's war experience. Soon after, the Army Air Forces began hiring professional historians so that its history could "be recorded while it is hot and that personnel be selected and an agency set up for a clear historian's job without axe to grind or defense to prepare." An Historical Division was established in Headquarters Army Air Forces under Air Intelligence, in September 1942, and the modern Air Force historical program began. With the end of the war, Headquarters approved a plan for writing and publishing a seven-volume history. In December 1945, Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, Deputy Commander of Army Air Forces, asked the Chancellor of the University of Chicago to "assume the responsibility for the publication" of the history, stressing that it must "meet the highest academic standards." Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Frank Craven of New York University and Major James Lea Cate of the University of Chicago, both of whom had been assigned to the historical program, were selected to be editors of the volumes. Between 1948 and 1958 seven were published. With publication of the last, the editors wrote that the Air Force had "fulfilled in letter and spirit" the promise of access to documents and complete freedom of historical interpretation. Like all history, The Army Air Forces in World War II reflects the era when it was conceived, researched, and written. However, these books met the highest of contemporary professional standards of quality and comprehensiveness. They contain information and experience that are of great value to the Air Force today and to the public. Together they are the only comprehensive discussion of Army Air Forces activity in the largest air war this nation has ever waged. RICHARD H. KOHN Chief, Office of Air Force History Front......Page 1 Foreword......Page 5 Contents......Page 23 List of Maps & Charts......Page 25 List of Illustrations......Page 27 Appendixes......Page 31 I. The Early Heritage......Page 33 1. The Air Service in WWI......Page 35 2. The Army Air Arm Between Two Wars, 1919-39......Page 50 II. Prelude To War......Page 110 3. Air War, 1939-41......Page 112 4. The Air Corps Prepares for War, 1939-41......Page 138 5. Deployment of the AAF on the Eve of Hostilities......Page 191 6. Pearl Harbor & Clark Field......Page 240 7. Establishment of the Fundamental Bases of Strategy......Page 284 III. Tactical Demands: Concentration vs Dispersal of Forces......Page 319 8. Air Defense of the Western Hemisphere......Page 321 9. Early Development of Air Transport & Ferrying......Page 362 10. Loss of the Netherlands East Indies......Page 424 11. The Defense of Australia......Page 461 III. Tactical Demands: Concentration vs Dispersal of Forces......Page 0 12. Drawing the Battle Line in the Pacific......Page 488 13. The Problem of New Guinea......Page 536 14. Commitments to China......Page 551 15. AAF in the Battle of the Atlantic......Page 582 IV. Preparations for the Air War Against Germany......Page 624 16. Plans, Policies, and Organizations......Page 626 17. Establishment of the 8th AF in the UK......Page 681 18. Rouen-Sotteville NO. 1, 17 August 1942......Page 728 Glossary......Page 828 A......Page 838 B......Page 842 C......Page 843 D......Page 846 E & F......Page 847 G......Page 848 H......Page 849 I......Page 850 J & K......Page 851 L & M......Page 852 N......Page 854 O......Page 855 P......Page 856 Q & R......Page 857 S......Page 858 T......Page 861 U, V & W......Page 862 X, Y & Z......Page 863 v. 1. Plans and early operations, January 1939 to August 1942. v. 2. Europe: Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943. v. 3. Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945. v. 4. The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944. v. 5. The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945. v. 6. Men and planes. v. 7. Services around the world.