United States Army Air Forces

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United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)
USAAF Shoulder Sleeve Insignia
Active	1941-06-20 to 1947-09-17
Branch	Army of the United States
Commanders
Notable commanders	Gen. Henry H. Arnold, 1941-46 Gen. Carl Spaatz, 1946-47

The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was a part of the U.S. Army during World War II. The direct precursor to the U.S. Air Force, the USAAF formally existed between 1941 and 1947.

1 History
2 Notable people who served in the USAAF
3 Badges of the United States Army Air Forces
4 Sources

[edit] History

[edit] Lineage of the United States Air Force

Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps 1 August 1907 - 18 July 1914
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps 18 July 1914 - 20 May 1918
Division of Military Aeronautics 20 May 1918 - 24 May 1918
U.S. Army Air Service 24 May 1918 - 2 July 1926
U.S. Army Air Corps 2 July 1926 - 20 June 1941**
U.S. Army Air Forces 20 June 1941 - 18 September 1947**
United States Air Force 18 September 1947 - Present

** The Air Corps became a subordinate element of the Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941, and it continued to exist as a combat arm of the Army (similar to Infantry) until disestablished by Congress with the creation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.

[edit] Origins of the air arm

The USAF had its roots in a turn-of-the century effort at technology assessment. In January 1905 the War Department took up consideration of an offer it had received from two inventors in Dayton, Ohio, to provide the government with a heavier-than-air flying machine. The fact that many still doubted the claim of Wilbur and Orville Wright to have invented a workable airplane is part of the history of aviation. But the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications, which examined the Wrights' proposal, had other facts to consider as well. Outside the realm of science fiction, the role in warfare of airships, gliders, and airplanes was by no means clear. Only balloons had proven value of any sort. The French revolutionaries had used a balloon at the battle of Fleurus in 1794. In the American Civil War, balloons had seen service, and the job of procuring and operating them had duly passed to the Signal Corps. Only in 1892, however, did the Signal Corps organize a permanent balloon section, and this unit's service in the war with Spain in 1898 was undistinguished. In 1898, the Signal Corps contracted with Samuel P. Langley for an airplane, but tests ended with a spectacular dive into the Potomac River on December 8, 1903, nine days before the Wright brothers flew. The War Department, still smarting from that episode in 1905, turned down the new offer.

But the progress of aviation, the issuance of a patent to the Wrights in 1906, and the interest of President Theodore Roosevelt brought the matter up again. On August 1, 1907, Captain Charles DeF. Chandler became the head of the Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps, newly established to develop all forms of flying. In 1908, the corps ordered a dirigible balloon of the Zeppelin type then in use in Germany and contracted with the Wrights for an airplane. Despite a crash that destroyed the first model, the Wright plane was delivered in 1909. The inventors then began to teach a few enthusiastic young officers to fly.

[edit] Development of the Air Service

The progress of U.S. military aviation was slow in its early years. Congress voted the first appropriation for military aviation in 1911. The Navy was starting its own program at about the same time. Soon after, the aviators rejected a proposal to separate their service from the Signal Corps. A provisional squadron was formed to support the Punitive Expedition under with General John J. Pershing on the Mexican border in 1916 but failed largely because of poor equipment and bad maintenance.

The importance of military aviation was established with its role in Europe during World War I. There balloons used for artillery spotting and airplanes for reconnaissance over enemy lines made a decisive contribution. Dirigible airships and airplanes proved effective at bombing. Every army sought control of the air, and great battles between the "knights of the air" became the stuff of romance. Yet at the same time a serious doctrine of air warfare was beginning to emerge. The commanders began to distinguish, for example, between "strategic" air operations, deep in an enemy's territory, directed at his vital war-making industries and civilian morale, and "tactical" operations against his ground forces.

At the time of America's declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917, the Aviation Section was marginal at best. Its 1,152 officers and men had no knowledge of the air war in Europe. Its 55 airplanes and 5 balloons could not have survived long in combat. The nation's aircraft manufacturers had up to that time produced 1,000 planes. Yet, when France asked the United States to provide an air force of 4,500 airplanes and 50,000 men, there was no hesitation. With more enthusiasm than wisdom, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker asked for and received $ 640 million from Congress for aviation. The result was a fiasco. By the spring of 1918, it was clear that the Signal Corps had failed. The War Department then set up an Air Service consisting at first of two agencies reporting directly to the Secretary of War: one under a civilian to deal with the manufacturers and one under a military officer to train and organize units. This setup, begun in April and May, was consolidated in August, when President Woodrow Wilson appointed John D. Ryan, Second Assistant Secretary of War, as aviation "czar" to straighten out the mess and consolidated the whole under the aegis of the Air Service.

In the end the only American achievement in the field of aircraft production was the Liberty engine. Of the 740 U. S. aircraft at the front in France at the time of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, almost all were European-made. Still, the Air Service of General Pershing’s American Expeditionary Forces, organized by Major General Mason M. Patrick and Brigadier General William (Billy) Mitchell, had distinguished itself in action against the Germans.

As a result of the important role air power had played in the war, a movement developed during the 1920s and 1930s to create an independent air force. The model for this was Great Britain, which, early in 1918, had combined its Army and Navy air arms into the Royal Air Force (RAF) under an Air Ministry. But the Army's leaders saw the airplane primarily as a weapon for supporting the infantry and gave the Air Service a branch status comparable to that of the field artillery or the engineers, responsible for procuring equipment and training units. Local ground forces commanders, none of them aviators, directed the aviation units assigned to them. A series of boards and commissions studied and restudied the question of air organization, with no result other than the name change to the U.S. Army Air Corps in mid-1926.

[edit] The Army Air Corps

The Lassiter Board, a group of General Staff officers, recommended to the Secretary of War in 1923 that a force of bombardment and pursuit units be created to carry out independent missions under the command of an Army general headquarters in time of war. The Lampert Committee of the House of Representatives went far beyond this modest proposal in its report to the House in December 1925. After eleven months of extensive hearings, the committee proposed a unified air force independent of the Army and Navy, plus a department of defense to coordinate the three armed services.

Another board, headed by Dwight Morrow, had already reached an opposite conclusion in only two and one-half months. Appointed in September 1925 by President Coolidge ostensibly to study the "best means of developing and applying aircraft in national defense" but in actuality to minimize the political impact of the pending court-martial of Billy Mitchell and to preempt the findings of the Lampert Committee, the Morrow Board issued its report two weeks before the Lampert Committee's. In accordance with the views of the President, it rejected the idea of a department of defense and a separate department of air, but it recommended several minor reforms including that the air service be renamed the Air Corps to allow it more prestige, that it be given special representation on the General Staff, and that an Assistant Secretary of War for air affairs be appointed.

Congress accepted the Morrow Board proposal, and the Air Corps Act was enacted on 2 July 1926. The legislation changed the name of the Air Service to the Air Corps, "thereby strengthening the conception of military aviation as an offensive, striking arm rather than an auxiliary service." The act created an additional Assistant Secretary of War to help foster military aeronautics, and it established an air section in each division of the General Staff for a period of three years. Other provisions required that all flying units be commanded by rated personnel and that flight pay be continued. Two additional brigadier generals would serve as assistant chiefs of the Air Corps. The position of the air arm within the Department of War remained essentially the same as before, that is, the flying units were under the operational control of the various ground forces corps commands and not the Air Corps, which remained responsible only for procurement of aircraft, maintenance of bases, supply, and training. Once more the hopes of air force officers had to be deferred. Even the new position of Assistant Secretary of War for Air, held by F. Trubee Davison from 1926 to 1932, did not help very much.

Perhaps the most promising aspect of the act for the Air Corps was the authorization to carry out a five-year expansion program. However, the lack of funding caused the beginning of the five-year expansion program to be delayed until 1 July 1927. The goal eventually adopted was 1,800 airplanes with 1,650 officers and 15,000 enlisted men, to be reached in regular increments over a five-year period. But even this modest increase never came about as planned because adequate funds were never appropriated in the budget.

Nevertheless, just as in the RAF, the formulation of theories of strategic bombing gave new impetus to the argument for an independent air force. Strategic or long-range bombardment was intended to destroy an enemy nation's industry and war-making potential, and only an independent service would have a free hand to do so. Amid intense controversy, Billy Mitchell came to espouse these views and, in 1925, went to the point of "martyrdom" before a court-martial to publicize his position. But despite what it perceived as "obstruction" from the War Department, much of which was attributable to a shortage of funds, the Air Corps made great strides during the 1930s. A doctrine emerged that stressed precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed long-range aircraft.

The next major step toward creation of a separate air force was taken in March 1935 with the creation of a centralized operational air force, commanded by an aviator and answering to the Chief of Staff of the Army. Called General Headquarters, Air Force, this command took all combat air units in the United States out of the control of corps area commanders, where they had resided since 1920, and organized them administratively into four geographical districts and operationally into a strike force of three wings.

Nonetheless, the GHQ Air Force remained small in comparison to European air forces. Lines of authority were also difficult as GHQ Air Force controlled only the flying units, with the Air Corps still responsible for training, aircraft development, doctrine, and supply, and the ground forces corps area commanders still controlling their installations and the support personnel manning them. The commanders of GHQ Air Force and the Air Corps, Major generals Frank Andrews and Oscar Westover, clashed philosophically over the direction in which the air arm was heading, adding to the difficulties. The air arm had adopted strategic bombing as its priority doctrine, but could only buy a few of the new four-engined B-17 Flying Fortresses, so that by 1938 there were still only thirteen on hand and orders for more had been suspended.

[edit] Creation and expansion of the Army Air Forces

World War II was the true age of liberation for American air power. Reports from Europe in 1939 and 1940 proved the dominant role of the airplane in modern war. The likelihood of U.S. participation in World War II prompted the most radical reorganization of the aviation branch in its history, developing a structure that gave it total autonomy by March 1942.

On June 20, 1941, Major General Henry H. Arnold, then Chief of the Air Corps, assumed the title of Chief of Army Air Forces, creating an echelon of command over all military aviation components. The AAF was directly under the orders of the Chief of Staff of the Army, General George C. Marshall. Arnold and Marshall agreed that the AAF would enjoy autonomy within the War Department until the end of the war, when the air arm would become a fully independent service. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Arnold was given a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the body that served as the focal point of American strategic planning during the war, so that the United States would an air representative in staff talks with the British on the Combined Chiefs, and in effect gained equality with Marshall.

GHQ Air Force was replaced by an Air Force Combat Command that took its four geographical districts and converted them into numbered air forces, with a subordinate organization of 54 groups. Organizationally, the Army Air Forces was created as a higher command echelon encompassing both Air Force Combat Command and the Army Air Corps, thus bringing all of the air arm under a centralized command for the first time. Yet these reforms were only temporary, lasting just nine months as the air arm streamlined in preparation for war.

Executive Order 9082 [1] changed Arnold's title to "Commanding General, Army Air Forces" on March 9, 1942, making him co-equal with the commanding generals of the new Army Ground Forces and Services of Supply, the other two parts of the Army of the United States. War Department Circular No. 59 reorganized the Army Air Forces, disbanding the Combat Command (formerly GHQAF) and changing the Air Corps to a non-organizational combat arm, eliminating their layer of command. Replacing them were eleven numbered air forces (later raised to sixteen) and six major commands (which became eight in January 1943: Flying Training, Technical Training, Troop Carrier, Air Transport, Materiel, Air Service, Proving Ground, and Anti-Submarine Commands). In July 1943 Flying Training and Technical Training Commands merged into a single Training Command.

In its growth during World War II, the Army Air Forces became the world's most powerful air force. From the Air Corps of 1939, with 20,000 men and 2,320 planes (a limit set in 1934), to the autonomous AAF of 1944, with almost 2.4 million personnel and 80,000 aircraft, was a remarkable expansion. Robert A. Lovett, the Assistant Secretary of War for Air, together with Arnold, presided over an increase greater than for either the ground Army or the Navy, while at the same time dispatching combat air forces to theaters of war all over the globe.

Growth of the US Army Air Forces in World War II, aircraft


Type of aircraft	Dec 31, 1941	Dec 31, 1942	Dec 31, 1943	Dec 31, 1944	Aug 31, 1945	Date of maximum size
Grand total	12,297	33,304	64,232	72,726	63,715	July 1944 (79,908)
Combat aircraft	4,477	11,607	27,448	41,961	41,163	May 1945 (43,248)
Very heavy bombers	-	3	91	977	2,865	August 1945 (2,865)
Heavy bombers	288	2,076	8,027	12,813	11,065	April 1945 (2,919)
Medium bombers	745	2,556	4,370	6,189	5,384	October 1944 (6,262)
Light bombers	799	1,201	2,371	2,980	3,079	September 1944 (3,338)
Fighters	2,170	5,303	11,875	17,198	16,799	May 1945 (17,725)
Reconnaissance	475	468	714	1,804	1,971	May 1945 (2,009)
Support aircraft	7820	21,697	36,784	30,765	22,552	July 1944 (41,667)
Transports	254	1,857	6,466	10,456	9,561	December 1944 (10,456)
Trainers	7,340	17,044	26,051	17,060	9,558	May 1944 (27,923)
Communications	226	2,796	4,267	3,249	3,433	December 1943 (4,267)

SOURCE: Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (World War II), Table 84

Growth of the US Army Air Forces in World War II, Personnel


Date	Total USAAF	Tot Officers	Tot Enlisted	# overseas	Officers o/s	Enlisted o/s
July 31, 1939	24,724	2,636	22,088	3,991	272	3,719
December 31, 1939	43,118	3,006	40,112	7,007	351	6,656
December 31, 1940	101,227	6,437	94,790	16,070	612	15,458
December 31, 1941	354,161	24,521	329,640	25,884	2,479	23,405
December 31, 1942	1,597,049	127,267	1,469,782	242,021	26,792	215,229
December 31, 1943	2,373,882	274,347	2,099,535	735,666	81,072	654,594
Peak size (March 1944)	2,411,294	306,889	2,104,405	906,335	104,864	801,471
December 31, 1944	2,359,456	375,973	1,983,483	1,164,136	153,545	1,010,591
Peak overseas (Apr 1945)	2,329,534	388,278	1,941,256	1,224,006	163,886	1,060,120
August 31, 1945	2,253,182	368,344	1,884,838	999,609	122,833	876,776

SOURCE: Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (World War II), Table 4

[edit] War strategy

As Arnold's staff saw it, the first priority in the war was to launch a strategic bombing offensive in support of the RAF against Germany. The Eighth Air Force, sent to England in 1942, took on that job. After a slow and often costly effort to bring the necessary strength to bear, joined in 1944 by the Fifteenth Air Force stationed in Italy, strategic bombing finally began to get results, and by the end of the war, the German economy had been dispersed and pounded to rubble.

Tactical air forces supported the ground forces in the Mediterranean and European theaters, where the enemy found Allied air supremacy a constant frustration. In the war against Japan, General Douglas MacArthur made his advance along New Guinea by leap-frogging his air forces forward and using amphibious forces to open up new bases. The AAF also supported Admiral Chester Nimitz's aircraft carriers in their island-hopping across the Central Pacific and assisted Allied forces in Burma and China.

Arnold directly controlled the Twentieth Air Force, equipped with the new long-range B-29 Superfortresses used for bombing Japan's home islands, first from China and then from the Marianas. Devastated by fire-raids, Japan was so weakened by August of 1945 that Arnold believed neither the atomic bomb nor the planned invasion would be necessary to win the war. The fact that AAF B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nevertheless, demonstrated what air power could do in the future. The Strategic Bombing Survey provided ammunition for the leaders of the AAF in the postwar debates over armed forces unification and national strategy.

Source: U.S. Air Force Historical Studies Office

Main Article: United States aircraft production during World War II

[edit] The sixteen air forces

USAAF recruitment poster.

By the end of World War II, the USAAF had created sixteen numbered air forces (First through Fifteenth and Twentieth) distributed world-wide to prosecute the war and defend the Americas, plus a Zone of the Interior general air force within the continental United States to support the whole. An additional eight air divisions served as an additional layer of command for the vast organization, capable of acing independently if the need arose. Several of these air forces and divisions grew out of earlier commands—for example, the Eighth Air Force was originally VIII Bomber Command, then later had its designation again assigned to the command when that organization was discontinued——as the service expanded in size and organization, with multiple lower tiers added and higher echelons such as U.S. Strategic Air Forces Europe became necessary to control the whole.

Several air forces were created de novo as the service expanded during the war. Inclusive within the air forces and divisions were a total of 91 administrative command headquarters called wings, denoted as bombardment, fighter reconnaissance, training or composite as defined by their functional role. Larger support organizations, such as Air Transport Command (successor to the pre-war Air Corps Ferrying Command) remained under the control of Headquarters Army Air Forces, while their operational organizations (wings, groups, and squadrons) were assigned to the numbered air forces.

USAAF recruitment poster.

After the war, U.S. Strategic Air Forces became the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). In 1947, USAFE became a component of the newly-created United States Air Force. From 1948–49, the unit was responsible for the Berlin Airlift.

While officially the air arm had become the Army Air Forces, colloquially the term Air Corps persisted among the public as well as veteran airmen, whose branch remained the Air Corps; in addition, the singular "Air Force" often crept into popular use, reflected by usage of the term "Air Force Combat Command" in 1941-42. This misnomer crept onto official recruiting posters (see image on right) and was important in promoting the idea of an "Air Force" as an independent service.

[edit] List of numbered air forces

[edit] Air Force independence

Following the immense buildup in aviation infrastructure and personnel during the war, and in recognition of the tremendous new importance and strength of airpower, then-President Harry S. Truman created the United States Department of the Air Force in 1947. This legislation renamed the aviation military group again to the United States Air Force, elevating it to a truly separate branch of the U.S. military. The Key West Agreement outlined the air assets that each service would be permitted to maintain, with the Air Force getting the bulk of strategic, tactical and transport aircraft. The Army was permitted light aircraft for reconnaissance, the transport of general officers and other miscellaneous duties, under the auspices of Army Aviation. This state-of-affairs lasted until the 1960's, when the advent of the jet-turbine helicopter and the concept of air-mobile brigades increased the size and scope of Army Aviation once again.

[edit] Notable people who served in the USAAF

Many persons on this list also served in the United States Air Force after it became an independent service on September 18, 1947.

Carl Albert, U.S. representative from Oklahoma and Speaker of the House from 1971 to 1977
Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the USAAF
Sy Bartlett, Hollywood screenwriter and producer, co-author of Twelve O'Clock High
Lloyd Bentsen, U.S. Senator, Democratic Vice presidential candidate in 1988, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Clyde Cowan, discovered existence of the neutrino
James Gould Cozzens, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first African-American general in the USAF and commander of the 332nd Fighter Group.
Tennessee Ernie Ford, television comedian and recording artist
Nathan Bedford Forrest III, great-grandson of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Clark Gable, film actor
Barry Goldwater, U.S. Senator, Republican Presidential Candidate in 1964
William Wister Haines, author, screenwriter, and playwright
Charlton Heston, film actor and President of the National Rifle Association.
Arthur Harvey, oil pioneer, author, World War I veteran.
John Hope, television meteorologist and hurricane forecaster
Bobby Jones, champion amateur golfer, attorney, and founder of Augusta National
DeForest Kelley, actor
Beirne Lay, Jr., Hollywood screenwriter, co-author of Twelve O'Clock High
Norman Lear, Television and motion picture producer
Curtis LeMay, USAAF and USAF General, commander Strategic Air Command, Vice Presidential candidate
Walter Matthau, actor
George McGovern, U.S. Senator and 1972 Democratic Presidential candidate
Glenn Miller, popular musician and director of the Band of the USAAF Training Command
Walter M. Miller, Jr., science fiction author
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States
William Rehnquist, jurist and former Chief Justice of the United States
Gene Roddenberry. American television producer, Star Trek creator
Carl Spaatz, commanding general of the USAAF and later first Chief of Staff of the Air Force
Aaron Spelling, film and television producer
Jimmy Stewart, film actor - Bomber Pilot in 8th Air Force, USAF general after the war
Paul Tibbets, pilot whose B-29 dropped the first atomic bomb
Joseph A. Walker, military test pilot
Harris Wofford, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
Kenneth N. Walker Brig. Gen., Medal of Honor recipient, airpower visionary, co-author of the Air War Plan (AWPD-I)
George Wallace, Governor of Alabama and Presidential Candidate
Coleman Young, Mayor of Detroit, 1974-1994.
Chuck Yeager, military test pilot and USAF general officer

[edit] Badges of the United States Army Air Forces

To denote the special training and qualifications required for membership in the USAAF, the following military badges (known colloquially but ubiquitously throughout the service as "wings") were authorized for wear by members of the Army Air Forces during World War II:

These aviation qualification badges were typically worn in full three-inch size on service or dress uniforms, but two-inch versions were also authorized for less-formal shirt wear. Most aviation badges were made of sterling silver or were given a silver finish, and various devices were used to attach them to uniforms. These included the traditional pin and safety catch and, later, clutch-back fasteners. Most USAAF badges of World War II are now obsolete, having been superseded by later designs, and further information on them can be found under Obsolete badges of the United States military.

[edit] Sources

ArmyAirForces.com — private site, comprehensive look at the USAAF. Includes searchable databases, histories, dictionary, and forum.
- USAAF air force/division/wing histories History of all USAAF subdivisions.
- USAAF jargon dictionary — contains 526 words and abbreviations.
- USAAF unit search — searchable database of groups, squadrons, squadron codes, stations, and commanders.
- USAAF missing air crew report search — searchable database of missing air crew reports (MACRs) by MACR number, date, serial number, and group.
United States Army Center of Military History "Green Book" Chief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Preparations. Chap. IX: The Movement Toward Air Autonomy
USAAF.net — "Published accounts of the Army Air Forces in World War II available in the public domain."
USAAF in WWII — Combat chronology. Available for ZIP download.
Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. 1986.
Allied Fighter Combat Footage - Watch combat footage from Allied fighters
USAAF 1941-1945
Night Fighter by J R Smith
USAAF roll of honour - 1944-45
USAAF roll of honour - Postwar

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Preceded by: United States Army Air Corps	United States Army Air Forces 1941-1947	Succeeded by: United States Air Force

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