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Army Air Forces

World War II

On August 1, 1907, an Aeronautical Division was established in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army, with one officer, two enlisted men, and no airplanes. The mission of the new division was "to study the Flying machine and the possibility of adapting it to military purposes." Late in the year 1907 the Army asked for an airplane capable of flying for 60 minutes and of attaining a speed of 40 miles per hour while carrying two men whose combined weight did not exceed 350 pounds. In June, 1909, the Wright Brothers demonstrated a plane which the Army accepted. This plane, which remained airborne for 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 40 seconds, was the world's first military airplane.

Beginning in September 1939, the German army and the German air force rapidly conquered Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France and within one year had driven the British off the continent. Leaders of the Air Corps now found themselves in the novel position of receiving practically anything they requested. Plans soon called for 54 combat groups. This program was hardly underway before revised plans called for 84 combat groups equipped with 7,800 aircraft and manned by 400,000 troops by June 30, 1942. All told, U.S. Army air forces strength in World War II would swell from 26,500 men and 2,200 aircraft in 1939 to 2,253,000 men and women and 63,715 aircraft in 1945.

With this enormous expansion underway, the War Department began in 1939 to establish new bases and air organizations in rapid succession overseas and in the continental United States. At the same time air leaders worked to create an independent institutional structure for air within the U.S. Army.

Both necessity and desire thus caused a blitz of organizational changes from 1940 through 1942. On November 19, 1940, the General Headquarters Air Force was removed from the jurisdiction of the Chief of the Air Corps and given separate status under the commander of the Army Field Forces. Seven months later, these air combat forces returned to the command of air leaders as Gen. George C. Marshall, U.S.Army Chief of Staff, established the Army Air Forces on June 20, 1941, to control both the Air Corps and the Air Force Combat Command.

Early in 1941, the War Department instituted a series of actions to create a hierarchy for noncombat activities. It set up a command eventually designated Flying Training Command to direct new programs for training ground crews and technicians. The next year, the new command assumed responsibility for pilot and aircrew training. In mid-1942 the War Department established the Air Corps Ferrying Command to fly aircraft overseas for delivery to the British and other Allies. As the functions of the Ferrying Command expanded, it was redesignated as the Air Transport Command. To control supply and maintenance, the War Department established the Air Corps Maintenance Command under the Air Corps Materiel Division. The Materiel Division then concentrated on procurement and research development.

Vintage Lyrics to The Army Air Corps Song From WWII Off we go — into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high — into the sun; Here they come — zooming to meet our thunder, At 'em boys — give 'er the gun! Down we dive — spouting our flame from under, Off with one — helluva roar! We live — in fame Or go down — in flame, HELL! Nothing can stop the Army Air Corps! Minds of men — fashioned a crate of thunder, Sent it high — into the blue; Hands of men — blasted the world asunder; How they lived — God only knew! Souls of men — dreaming of skies to conquer; Gave us wings — ever to soar, With scouts before And bombers galore, HELL! Nothing can stop the Army Air Corps!

At the time of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, ours was not the greatest air force in the world, but it was an air force already rich in traditions and proud of its achievements in World War I. The attack that plunged us into another World War presented American air power with its greatest challenge.

Army Air Forces attained quasi autonomy in March 1942, a few months after we entered the war. Acting under authority of the War Powers Act, Secretary Stimson approved a major War Department reorganization. The War Department released Circular 59, War Department Reorganization, which, among other things, defined the Army Air Forces as an autonomous command within the army. The only problem was that Circular 59 was only a temporary solution as it was due to expire six months after the end of the war. Army Air Forces and Army Ground Forces were made co-equal commands. Significantly, as Commanding General of the AAF, General Arnold became a member of the WW II Joint Chiefs of Staff along with the Army Chief of Staff (General Marshall), the Chief of Naval Operations (Admiral Ernest J. King), and President Roosevelt’s principal military adviser (Admiral William D. Leahy). The War Department reorganization on March 9, 1942, created three autonomous U.S. Army Commands: Army Ground Forces, Services of Supply (later, in 1943, Army Service Forces), and Army Air Forces. This administrative reorganization did not affect the status of the Air Corps as a combatant arm of the US Army.

When World War II began, many air officers thought it was time to allow the air force to lead strategic bombing campaigns unfettered by ground leadership. But Hap Arnold knew that the only way to achieve independence would be to establish first a successful record for aviation during the war. He made an agreement with army chief of staff General George C. Marshall that the Army Air Forces would operate autonomously during the war and when it was over, it would be made independent. The case for air force independence was strengthened on July 21, 1943, with the publication of War Department Field Manual (FM) 100-20, Command and Employment of Air Power. It stated that air and ground forces were equal and "gaining air superiority is the first requirement for ground success." Some army officials referred to it as "the Army Air Forces ‘Declaration of Independence.’"

The AAF expanded rapidly. It initially had two subordinate organizations, the Air Corps for training and materiel and Air Force Combat Command (replacing GHQ Air Force) for operational forces. As the wartime build-up proceeded, more commands were added -- Flying Training Command, Technical Training Command, Ferrying Command, the numbered air forces and so on. All of these actions affecting the air forces and commands that comprised the AAF emphasized the surge towards an independent service and the expansion of combat forces that took place during World War II.

While it would not be true to say that World War II was won entirely by air power, it is true that American air power, supported by American industry and the American people, made a unique and positive contribution to victory. Air power shortened the war and was responsible for an enormous saving in American lives and in the material of warfare.

The Army Air Forces, instrument of American air power, was developed into a destructive force unparalleled in history by hundred-fold expansion and development in the comparatively brief space of four years. Time was on our side - because our allies held the enemy in Europe until we were prepared to engage him. Space was on our side - because in 1941 the natural barrier of distance had not been overcome by our enemies.

In the course of wartime expansion and reorganization, the Air Corps ceased to be an operating organization. All elements of Army aviation were merged into the Army Air Forces. Although the Air Corps still legally existed as an Army branch, the position of Chief of the Air Corps was left vacant, and the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps was dissolved. Before 1939 the Army's air arm was a fledgling organization; by the end of the war the Army Air Forces had become a major military organization comprised of many air forces, commands, divisions, wings, groups, and squadrons, plus an assortment of other organizations.

If numbers can tell the story of air war over Europe, Asia, Africa, the Aleutians, Pacific Islands, and the Atlantic Ocean, then 37 billion dollars plus 23,000 lost planes was the cost to America - plus 122,819 airmen wounded, missing or dead. For their bravery beyond the call of duty, 38 flyers of World War II were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award bestowed in the name of the American people.

Awards and exploits, however, cannot measure the success with which the Army Air Forces completed its mission, nor define its contribution to ultimate victory, More than 2,360,000 combat sorties were flown against Germany and Japan, during which 2,000,000 tons of bombs were dropped, and 40,000 enemy planes were destroyed. The enemies' tools of war production were ruined.

Air power is not composed alone of the war-making components of aviation. It is the total aviation activity of a nation - civilian and military, commercial and private, potential as well as existing. It includes a nation's ability to deliver cargo, people, and war-making potential through the air to a desired destination to accomplish a desired purpose.

Military air power - or air force - is dependent upon the air potential provided by industry which, in turn, thrives best in an atomsphere of individual initiative and Free enterprise. The remarkable development of American air power during World War II is a tribute to American industry and to American labor.

The war ended without further agreement regarding air force independence. Postwar studies lauded aeronautical successes, notably in the bombing arena. The nuclear bombs dropped in the final days of the war offered a new view of the future of warfare. They were a good argument for keeping a fully operational air force prepared to deliver such bombs on a moment’s notice, ending a war before it could begin.

The Army Air Forces was not able to stay fully operational as it was subjected to the same rapid demobilization as the rest of the armed forces. On V-J Day, the USAAF listed 2,253,000 military personnel. By the end of 1945, the number was down to 888,769 and by May 1947, the USAAF had only 303,600 military personnel remaining. The ranks were decimated as many men with experience and talent went home. There was still plenty of equipment left in stock, but no one to repair or fly it. Ninety percent of the mechanics had gone home in the first six months of peace. The air force was no longer prepared to fight at a moment’s notice.

A War Department letter of March 21, 1946, created two new commands and redesignated an existing one: Continental Air Forces was redesignated Strategic Air Command, and the resources of what had been Continental Air Forces were divided among Strategic Air Command and the two newcomers - Air Defense Command and Tactical Air Command. These three commands and the older Air Transport Command represented respectively the strategic, tactical, defense, and airlift missions that provided the foundation for building the postwar, independent Air Force.

The Army Air Forces thus replaced the Air Corps as the Army aviation arm and -- for practical purposes -- became an autonomous service. All World War II Army aviation training and combat units were in the AAF. About 2.4 million men and women served in the AAF. Around 600,000 of these were members of other branches, such as Engineers, Ordnance and Quartermaster.

World War II Air Corps personnel had a strong sentimental attachment to their branch. The Air Corps had an aura about it that seemed to set it apart from other Army branches. Now, sixty years later, many WW II servicemen still proudly identify themselves as veterans of the Air Corps. However -- although the Air Corps was their branch -- they actually served and fought in the Army Air Forces! In honoring Army aviation in WW II, the most appropriate and inclusive identification is Army Air Forces.

Air Force Colors This series covers U.S. military aircraft color schemes from 1926-1947, a time of phenomenal growth in U.S. air power as the service evolved from the post-WWI Army Air Corps to the post-WWII U.S. Air Force as a separate service branch - all of which was reflected in changing markings and colors, as you'll see through hundreds of B&W photographs and color illustrations, nose art samples and squadron insignia.

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