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Headquarters, Army Air Forces

Washington

First of all, may I tell you how much I appreciate your asking me to participate in your historical record. I must warn you, however; that any record of the accomplishments of the Army Air Forces in the past three years is in my mind a more fit subject for a thousand-page volume than a letter, however heartfelt. Therefore, I believe it will be more fruitful if I confine myself to a few of the highlights of our history in the past few years....

Remember, if you will, what the Japanese did to our Air Force in the first weeks of this war. We had 526 airplanes deployed to meet possible attacks on Hawaii and the Philippines. Within a few hours that number was reduced to 176. In the Philippines were our last two worn-out P-40's and a couple of Japanese ships with 500-pound bombs hitched to the wings - and then they, too, were lost.

Exactly two and a half years after those P-40's went down, twenty thousand American airmen flew over the English Channel on their zero hour D-Day mission....

One of the basic elements of aerial offensive is, of course, strategic bombardment - one of the great developments of modern warfare. Complex as its separate aspects appear, its basic principles are simple. At the Casablanca conference the Combined Chiefs of Staff were able to state the aims of our bombing offensive in a single sentence. Our objective was "the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened."

We knew that, to accomplish this, the United States had to produce enough airplanes, build enough bases, train enough men to make up the largest and best Air Force in the world. And we could not wait to begin operations until all the aircraft were built and all the crews ready.

The 17th of August, .1942, was D-Day for the AAF's offensive against Germany. On that day, our first heavy bombers took off from English bases to bomb a target at Rouen. Less than two years later, on the 6th of June, 1944, the Luftwaffe was unable to offer serious opposition to the landing of our Ground Forces in Normandy....

Our heavy bomber missions brought cumulative disruption into the entire German war economy. When we stopped production in the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt and Berlin, we created shortages that effected the making of tanks, artillery, engines - in fact of any of the special weapons of modern war. We diverted millions of able-bodied Germans to the jobs of aircraft defense, plant dispersal and camouflage, shelter building wreckage, disposal, and warning services.

We did not, of course, neglect our tactical air arm. Tactical Air Forces are composed of lighter aircraft - the medium bombers and fighters - although heavy bombers are sometimes used for tactical purposes. By tactical purposes I mean the attainment of more or less immediate objectives.

In our implement of tactical air power we have arrived at what appears to be an extremely sound set of basic principles. We have found these principles as simple as they are effective.

First, we neutralize the enemy's air power by hitting his airdromes or taking out his planes in aerial combat.

Second, we isolate a battle area of our own choice by cutting enemy supply and communication lines, such as bridges and railroads. We call this process interdiction.

Third, and last, our tactical Air Forces cooperate in the closest possible way with our advancing or defending ground troops.

These were our guiding principles in the drive against North Africa and up the Italian peninsula, in France, in Germany, as well as in New Guinea, and along the last of the long road to Japan. In this war, control of the air has come to be an absolute prerequisite of success on land or sea....

But the Army Air Forces must never rest on their laurels - not even after the defeat of Japan.

An Air Force can never stand still; it must either go forward or be left hopelessly behind. The aircraft types of a year ago are today either obsolete, obsolescent, or about to become so. And the same will hold, true for our present types in the very near future. The battle of the laboratories knows no armistice.

At the same time an Air Force is not a question of laboratories alone. We do not dare ever again to cut our best in training facilities down below the needs of the largest and best Air Force the world has known. We must never again relinquish the leadership first seized by Wilbur and Orville Wright. To retain that leadership will not be an easy matter. It must be done. I am confident the American people will see to it that we shall.

		Sincerely,
		Commanding General,      Army Air Forces.

General Henry H. Arnold

June 25, 1886 - January 15, 1950

Henry Harley Arnold graduated West Point, 1907. Assigned (1911) to the aviation division of the Signal Corps, Arnold later served almost entirely with the air arm. He was chief of the Air Corps from 1938 to 1940, when he became deputy chief of staff for the air. Chief of the U.S. Army Air Forces throughout World War II, Arnold was made (1944) general of the army.

Born in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania into a military family he entered West Point in 1903 at age 17. At the institution he joined and later led the student "Black Hand". He wanted to join the cavalry but his poor discipline and average academic achievements resulted in him being commissioned in 1907 as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry, initially assigned to the newly-won Philippines.

In 1909 while stationed at Fort Jay he was offered the chance of flight instruction. In 1911 he began the course with fellow soldier Thomas DeWitt Milling at Simms Station, the Wright brothers' school. After approximately four hours of lessons over the course of two months he took his first solo flight in May and received his civil certificate in July, his military rating was awarded a year later, the first man to qualify.

The first two Army pilots then became instructors, flying for the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps out of College Park, Maryland or Barnes Farm, Georgia Arnold set an altitude record of 6,540 feet in June and had his first serious crash in July. In September there was the first death, of Corporal Frank Scott, while another pilot died later that month. In October, Arnold won the inaugural Mackay Trophy for "the most outstanding military flight of the year." In September, Arnold took a ground job as assistant in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

Henry H. Arnold aboard a Wright Flyer.

In 1913 he married Eleanor Pool and lost his flying status; only unmarried pilots were allowed. Reassigned to the Philippines, he met George Catlett Marshall, soon to become his friend and long-time supporter. In 1915, with war imminent, Arnold was re-assigned to the Aviation Section at Rockwell Field and promoted to captain; he had to requalify for flight capability. He completed the course in November, 1916 and was promoted to Captain. Briefly assigned to the Panama Canal Zone as a squadron commander, he was recalled to Washington just before April 1917. He was assigned as an executive officer of the Air Division and given a temporary colonelcy. He never saw combat in World War I; he arrived in Europe just before the armistice -- he was given orders to relocate to France in October, 1918, when he fell ill with influenza and did not arrive until November. Poor weather prevented any operations before the end.

The improvements in aircraft during the war and the creation of organizations such as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics greatly improved the potential for US Army airpower. Arnold was ordered back to Rockwell Field in 1919 as district supervisor and Major, overseeing demobilization. He worked hard to preserve and promote aviation with shows and publicity stunts. At Rockwell Field Arnold first established relationships with the men that would be his main aides: Carl Spaatz and Ira Eaker, while supporting at a distance the highly visible efforts of William L. Mitchell. In 1924, Arnold was recalled to Washington to join the staff of the Chief of the Air Service, General Mason Patrick. Arnold also attended the Army Industrial College at this time. When Mitchell was court-martialed in 1926, Arnold was also threatened, and in 1927 he was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas -- a dingy cavalry post far from any aviation advances.

Arnold took his punishment and after his tour at Fort Riley he attended the Army Staff College before returning to Army aviation at Fairfield Air Service Depot, Ohio in late 1928. In 1930 he was moved to Wright Field to join the staff of General Pratt and in late 1931 he took command at March Field, California of the 1st Wing as a Lieutenant-Colonel; this was his first promotion in over ten years. In 1934 he won his second Mackay Trophy, when he lead ten of the new B-10 bombers 18,000 miles from Washington to Fairbanks; he was also promoted to a temporary Brigadier-General.

In 1936 Arnold returned to Washington as Assistant Chief of the Air Corps, under the new Chief Major General Oscar Westover. On the death of Westover, in an air accident in September, 1938, Arnold took over as Chief of the Air Corps and was immediately bumped to Major General. His first move was to push the R&D efforts much harder, especially over the new B-17 and the JATO concept. Happy to use civilian expertise, Caltech was an especial beneficiary of Air Corps funds and Theodore von Kármán of GALCIT developed a good working relationship with Arnold. Charles Lindbergh was also briefly co-opted by the Air Corps as a spokesman for aviation. Arnold concentrated on rapid returns from R&D, expanding proven technologies to provide operation-oriented solutions to meet the rising threat of the Axis Powers. From 1940 onward, Arnold also pushed for jet propulsion, especially after the British gifted the plans of the Whittle Turbojet in 1941.

With conflict approaching the separation between the Air Corps and the Air Force Combat Command was removed and the two were merged as the United States Army Air Forces. Arnold was made Chief of the Army Air Forces in June 1941. Even before then he pushed for aid to Britain; when the US began flying from England, Arnold flew there to organize the 8th Air Force's campaign. He was a strong supporter of strategic rather than tactical bombing.

In March 1942 he was promoted to Commanding General, and was also given places on the decision making Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined Chiefs of Staff. On December 21, 1944 he was made a General of the Army, ranking him fourth in the U.S. military structure.

After suffering a heart-attack he retired on June 30, 1946 after 43 years of service. He was succeeded by Carl Spaatz. The United States Air Force was created in 1947 and on May 7, 1949, Arnold was honored by being made the first General of the Air Force. He died in Sonoma, California and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His nickname Hap was short for Happy, a nickname he picked up in the 1930s replacing his West Point-gained nickname of Pewt.

History of World War II, Armed Services Memorial Edition. Iowa Falls: Riverside Book and Bible House, 1945. Miller, Francis T.

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