United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was the aviation component of the United States Army between 1941 and 1947. It was the direct precursor to the U.S. Air Force. The title of Army Air Forces replaced the prior name of Army Air Corps in June 1941 during preparation for expected U.S. combat in World War II. Although some other countries already had separate air forces independent of the army or navy (such as the Royal Air Force), the USAAF was formally an autonomous part of the U.S. Army, co-equal to the Army Ground Forces and Army Service Forces.

Origins of the air arm

The USAAF had its roots in a turn-of-the century effort at technology assessment of the progress of aviation. The issuance of a patent to the Wright Brothers in 1906, and the interest of President Theodore Roosevelt brought about the creation on August 1, 1907, of the Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps, headed by Captain Charles deForest Chandler, established to develop all forms of flying. In 1908, the corps ordered a dirigible balloon 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.

The progress of U.S. military aviation was slow in its early years. Congress voted the first appropriation for military aviation in 1911 and expanded the service into an Aviation Section in 1914. A provisional squadron was formed to support the Punitive Expedition under General John J. Pershing on the Mexican border in 1916 but failed, largely because of poor equipment unsuited to the harsh expeditionary conditions and bad maintenance.

The importance of military aviation was established with its role in Europe during World War I. At the time of America's declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917, the Aviation Section was marginal at best. France asked the United States to provide an air force of 4,500 airplanes and 50,000 men, and with more enthusiasm than wisdom, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker asked for and received $640 million from Congress for aviation. The result was chaos. By May of 1918, it was clear that the Signal Corps was overtasked in the aviation mission. 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. In August President Woodrow Wilson appointed John D. Ryan, Second Assistant Secretary of War, to consolidate the whole under the aegis of the Air Service.

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 the Royal Air Force in Great Britain, which early in 1918 had combined its Army and Navy air arms into the RAF. However the U.S. Army's leaders viewed the airplane merely as a weapon for supporting infantry, and gave the Air Service a branch status comparable to that of the field artillery, responsible for procuring equipment and training units. Local ground forces commanders, none of them aviators, directed the aviation units. A series of boards and commissions studied and restudied the question of air organization, with no result other than approval of the name change to the U.S. Army Air Corps in mid-1926.

The Air Corps Act of 1926 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," and created an additional Assistant Secretary of War to help foster military aeronautics. Other provisions required that all flying units be commanded by rated personnel and that flight pay be continued, but the position of the air arm within the Department of War remained essentially the same as before. Perhaps the most promising aspect of the act for the Air Corps was the authorization to carry out a five-year expansion program, though inadequate funding limited growth to organizational changes and aircraft development.

The formulation of theories of strategic bombing (long-range bombardment intended to destroy an enemy nation's war-making potential) at the Air Corps Tactical School gave new impetus to arguments for an independent air force. Despite the perception of Army General Staff resistance and even obstruction, much of which was attributable to lack of funds, the Air Corps made great strides in the 1930's. The strategy stressing precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed, long-range aircraft began to emerge. Along with this development, the Air Corps was given the task of coastal defense.

The next major step toward a separate air force occurred in March 1935. This began with the centralization of all combat air units within the United States under a single command called General Headquarters Air Force. GHQ Air Force took control of aviation operations from Air Corps area commanders, which had controlled them since 1920. It organized them administratively into four geographical districts headquartered in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and Tampa. It then created a strike force of three wings.

GHQ Air Force was small in comparison to European air forces. Lines of authority were difficult, at best, since GHQ Air Force controlled only its combat units while the Air Corps was still responsible for all support functions. The Air Corps area commanders, themselves, were still in charge of all airfields and the support personnel manning them. The commanders of GHQ Air Force and the Air Corps, Major generals Frank Andrews and Oscar Westover respectively, clashed philosophically over the direction in which the air arm was taking which added to the difficulties.