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    World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power
    World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power
    World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power
    Ebook422 pages2 hours

    World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power

    By Merriam Press

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    About this ebook

    Merriam Press World War 2 In Review Series. The following articles on air power in World War II are in this issue: (1) USAAF Training (2) Lockheed P-38 in the Mediterranean and Pacific Theaters (3) RCAF “Op” Wings (4) South African Pathfinder Force VC Captain Edwin Swales (5) Soviet First Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (6) Camouflaging America’s Aircraft Plants (7) Air to Air Bombing (8) Dugway Proving Ground: USAAF Bombing Test Site (9) Mitsuo Fuchida (10) No. 208 Squadron, Royal Air Force (11) American Laister-Kauffmann CG-10A Trojan Horse Transport Glider (12) American Waco CG-13 Transport Glider (13) American Waco CG-15 Glider (14) Battle in a Darkened Sky: The War in the Air Over Europe at Night (15) Nuremberg, 30-31 March 1944: Bomber Command’s Most Disastrous Raid of World War II (16) Suicide Run to Berlin: The First American Bombing Raid (17) Prelude to a Mission: What it Was Like to Go to War with a USAAF Bomber Group. 278 B&W/color photos/illustrations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateSep 23, 2018
    ISBN9780359110704
    World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power

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      Book preview

      World War 2 In Review No. 51 - Merriam Press

      World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power

      World War 2 In Review No. 51: Air Power

      F:\Working Data\Merriam Press Logo CS.jpg

      Hoosick Falls, New York

      2018

      First eBook Edition

      Copyright © 2018 by Merriam Press

      Additional material copyright of named contributors.

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

      The views expressed are solely those of the author.

      ISBN 978-0-359-11070-4

      This work was designed, produced, and published in the United States of America by the Merriam Press, 489 South Street, Hoosick Falls NY 12090.

      Notice

      The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

      Mission Statement

      This series presents articles and pictorials on topics covering many aspects of World War 2. In addition to new articles and pictorials on topics not previously covered, future volumes may include additional material on the subjects covered in this volume. The volumes in this series will comprise a single source for innumerable articles and tens of thousands of images of interest to anyone interested in the history and study of World War 2. While no doubt some of these images and other materials could be found online, countless hours could be spent searching thousands of web sites to find at least some of this material.

      The Images

      These photos are seventy-plus years old, were taken under less than ideal conditions, and some were taken by individuals who were neither professional photographers nor using professional equipment. Thus, the quality of the original image may be less than perfect. While Merriam Press tries to obtain the best quality images possible, the quality of the images in this publication will no doubt vary greatly.

      This series of publications utilizes the editor’s collection of tens of thousands of photographs and other illustrative material acquired since 1968. Hundreds of sources over the years have been searched for material on every subject.

      Photographs Needed

      Merriam Press welcomes any contributions of photographs

      of this or any subject for future volumes in this series.

      How to Use This Publication

      To get the best viewing experience, the use of the Adobe Digital program is highly recommended. This free program is available from Adobe.

      This publication was designed to allow for larger images than most eReaders will accommodate. When the publication was created, the images were inserted in a fixed size (6.2 inches wide and up to 8 inches high) and cannot be resized in the program. The text, of course, can be enlarged and reduced as desired.

      Viewing on a computer or other device with a large enough screen will allow viewing of the photos and other illustrations in their entirety. Viewing this publication on most eReaders will result in the images not being shown in their entirety.

      To view the images properly, adjust the program’s viewing window’s right-side edge accordingly. If the viewing window is too wide, images may overlap, and moving the right-side edge will fix this.

      •

      Welcome to No. 51 of the World War 2 In Review Series

      The following articles are in this issue of World War 2 In Review:

      (1) USAAF Training

      (2) Lockheed P-38 in the Mediterranean and Pacific Theaters

      (3) RCAF Op Wings

      (4) South African Pathfinder Force VC Captain Edwin Swales

      (5) Soviet First Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment

      (6) Camouflaging America’s Aircraft Plants

      (7) Air to Air Bombing

      (8) Dugway Proving Ground: USAAF Bombing Test Site

      (9) Mitsuo Fuchida

      (10) No. 208 Squadron, Royal Air Force

      (11) American Laister-Kauffmann CG-10A Trojan Horse Transport Glider

      (12) American Waco CG-13 Transport Glider

      (13) American Waco CG-15 Glider

      (14) Battle in a Darkened Sky: The War in the Air Over Europe at Night

      (15) Nuremberg, 30-31 March 1944: Bomber Command’s Most Disastrous Raid of World War II

      (16) Suicide Run to Berlin: The First American Bombing Raid

      (17) Prelude to a Mission: What it Was Like to Go to War with a USAAF Bomber Group

      with 278 B&W and color photographs, maps and illustrations.

      Watch for future issues of this series with more articles on the history of World War II.

      USAAF Training

      F:\Working Data\WW2 In Review\WR Published\WR - 051 - Air Power - Lulu Published\WR051_LE1_files\image004.jpg

      The cadet pilot learned the theory of flight, what an airplane can do and what it cannot be expected to do.

      Army Air Forces Training Command

      Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC) is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to Headquarters, United States Army Air Forces, and was inactivated at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, on 1 July 1946.

      Training Command was the initial organization to which new recruits were assigned upon entry into the Army Air Forces during World War II. Its mission was the training of new personnel and the preparation of them for assignment to one of the numbered air forces for military service. It focused on pilot and aircrew training, technical training, basic training of enlisted personnel and Officer Candidate School. It was inactivated on 1 July 1946 as part of the reorganization of the Army Air Forces after the war, with all assets and personnel were assigned to the new postwar Air Training Command.

      AAFTC was created as a result of the merger of the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command and the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command on 31 July 1943. Constituted and established on 23 January 1942. Its mission was to train pilots, flying specialists, and combat crews. Re-designated on or about 15 March 1942, after the Army Air Forces became an autonomous arm of the United States Army.During its lifetime, the command struggled with the challenge of a massive wartime expansion of the air forces. Throughout 1942, the need for combat crew personnel far exceeded the current and contemplated production of the command’s flying training schools. The rate of expansion of housing and training facilities, instructors, as well as the procurement of aircraft and other equipment, though at a breakneck pace, constrained the rate of increase of production. Facilities were used to their maximum capacity as quickly as they could be stood up. Some schools were expanded while they were still under construction. New airfields had to be located in areas with sufficient flying space free of other air traffic, and the West Coast training center faced the extraordinary requirement to avoid sites near the internment camps for Japanese-Americans.

      During World War II, the training of its officers and enlisted men was one of the chief functions of the United States Army Air Forces, consuming a great deal of money, people, equipment, and time. Such training encompassed both flying personnel along with the ground support personnel needed to have a military force trained to defeat the enemy forces threatening the United States.

      When the Air Corps began to lay its plans for expansion in the fall of 1938, one of its major tasks was the provision of facilities for the additional thousands of men to be trained in (1) basic military courtesies, customs and traditions, to include classification of personnel for advanced training. (2) Flying and flight crew operations of military aircraft, and (3) the technical training necessary for the even larger numbers of men to be taught to service and maintain aircraft and aircraft equipment.

      Basic Military Training and Classification

      The United States has traditionally fought its wars with a citizen military mobilized and trained after the emergency arises. Its members on their induction into the military face an abrupt transition to a life and pattern of behavior altogether foreign to their previous experience. For their assistance the military has provided an initial period of basic military training, a course of instruction intended to transform the raw recruit into an airman. Only after completion of basic training are recruits, in theory, advanced to instruction in the technical specialties to which they are assigned.

      Upon entry into the Army Air Service in the 1920s, each man received some basic training. The mechanic school at Kelly Field, Texas (later Chanute Field, Illinois) emphasized technical training, and for the following two decades, the amount of military training provided to new enlisted personnel undergoing technical instruction varied with their unit commanders, who had sole responsibility for the program.

      In 1935 efforts to change this arrangement began, but the real change occurred in 1939 when the Army proposed that each component arm and service set up their own enlisted replacement centers. Army Air Corps policy had been to furnish initial basic training for recruits at established stations, followed by about a month’s preparatory training at Scott Field, Illinois, before they went to Chanute for specialized training.

      Basic Training Centers (BTC)

      In 1940 the War Department authorized the establishment of Air Corps enlisted replacement centers for the initial training of recruits. The Air Corps established the first of these centers at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in the summer of 1940, though formal activation did not occur until 21 February 1941. Since the road ahead for most AAF enlistees led toward some specialized technical training, the replacement centers were placed under the jurisdiction of the Air Corps Technical Training Command.

      That fall the Technical Training Command activated two more basic training centers at Keesler Field, Mississippi, and Sheppard Field, Texas, where the command already had mechanic schools. A group of officers and enlisted men from Scott Field became the initial staff for Jefferson Barracks, and it, in turn, provided cadres to staff the replacement training centers at Keesler and Sheppard. These installations did the same for subsequent replacement training centers. The curriculum of indoctrination training lasted six weeks. It consisted of:

      Basic military general orders, military conduct, close order and open order drill.

      Familiarization with all standard weapons, assembly, cleaning and utilization.

      Physical training with obstacle course.

      Gas mask training and procedures.

      Rifle range qualification on the 30 cal carbine rifle

      One week of field training

      By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Air Corps had 21,000 recruits at the three replacement training centers. The subsequently phenomenal growth of technical school quotas made these three centers inadequate to supply recruits for technical training, so the number of basic training centers expanded to 12 (plus one provisional center) by the spring of 1943. This included new dedicated BTC facilities set up at Greensboro, North Carolina, Miami Beach and St Petersburg, Florida, and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

      By mid-1943, the basic training mission declined in size because requirements for technical training centers were being met. Consequently, some of the 13 centers were inactivated, while others moved to technical training centers such as Amarillo Field, Texas, that had previously not had replacement training centers. As lessons from combat theaters found their way into the training program, more attention was paid to camouflage, individual security, defense against air attack, scouting and patrolling, and recognition of American aircraft-subjects combined in 1944 into a nine-hour course.

      Military Operational Specialty (MOS) Classification

      All men were tested during the recruit training and indoctrination period to determine their eligibility for assignment to meet the enlarged technical training goals. A soldier’s qualification card (WD AGO Form 20), which occupied a central place in the scheme of classifying and assigning enlisted men, was filled out partly at the AAF reception center prior to entering training and more fully later at the BTC. This form was kept current throughout their career by the addition of pertinent information; it followed him wherever he went until he died in the service or was discharged, at which time the form was forwarded to The Adjutant General for permanent filing.

      The AAF used a series of test batteries and interviews to ascertain the job experience and mental equipment of recruits. An important phase of the classification of recruits was the interview which uncovered such civilian experiences as skills derived from employment or hobbies and the extent and type of schooling. The objective was to establish a relationship between civilian occupational experiences and a job specialty that would be most useful to the AAF. After the interview a classifier reviewed the recruit’s papers and made a recommended assignment to an MOS.

      Once the trainee was evaluated, tested and a recommended MOS assigned, after graduation they were assigned to various Advanced Technical Schools for specialization training. Recruits who were classified as possible flying personnel were sent to one of the three preflight and classification centers of the Flying Training Commands (Eastern, Central or Western) for further classification as a flying air cadet for, bombardier, navigator or flexible gunner training.

      Officer Candidate/Training School

      Training for non-rated offers was needed to relieve flying officers of their non-flying duties during the wartime expansion of the Air Corps and the Army Air Forces. The Officer Candidate School began as a 12-week course, but it expanded to 16 weeks in 1943. It also began as a uniform program for all officer candidates, but after 1943 the last phase of training was divided into specialized training for adjutants and personnel officers, as well as supply, mess, intelligence, guard company, and training officers. Later, it expanded to include physical training and technical officers.

      The Army Air Forces also commissioned some individuals with special qualifications directly from civilian life. These people required some military training, so Training Command also set up an Officer Training School (OTS) at the Miami Beach Training Center, Florida to provide six weeks of military instruction. Most OTS students were 30 years old or more, with the bulk of them in their 30s or 40s. They came from all walks of life, but most were teachers, businessmen, or professionals such as attorneys and accountants. Also, the value of World War I veterans (Retreads) who had obtained professional degrees between the wars was utilized in administrative roles such as Station Adjutants and Group Ground Commanders and underwent OTS training. The majority were slated for administrative or instructional duties in the Army Air Forces, but others such as Airline Pilots who became Air Transport Command ferry pilots. Beginning in the winter of 1942, Medical, Dental, and Sanitary Corps officers also attended Officer Training School in courses separate from those for other officers.

      Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps

      Public Law 554 on 15 May 1942 created a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps for service with the Army of the United States. In September 1943 the WAAC was replaced by the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). The measure permitted the enlistment of 150,000 women between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five, but the executive order which established the corps set an initial strength limit of 25,000. It was typical of the AAF, with its long-cherished ideas of independence, to desire a separate women’s corps completely independent of the women serving with other branches of the Army.

      WAACs went through indoctrination training at Fort De Moines, Iowa under Army Service Forces (ASF) auspices. Once completed, they began to arrive at Army Air Force stations in September. The influx of 27,000 recruits did not pose a major training problem for the AAF. There was no need for elaborate technical training because the majority of women, in contrast to the seventeen- and eighteen- year-old boys being inducted, had a usable skill before they enlisted, often in the highly prized clerical field. The AAF proposed and pioneered in a time-saving policy of avoiding unnecessary training for women already qualified.

      AAF policy did not prevent specialist training for women who would benefit by it or were highly qualified for it; in fact, the AAF early opened to women virtually its entire roster of job specialties and schools. On 20 November 1943 Wacs were declared eligible to attend any noncombat training course attended by AAF men, provided that the training would in a station commander’s opinion increase an individual’s job efficiency or would enable her to be utilized in some higher skill for which she had unusual aptitude or civilian background.

      The job training of women was so completely integrated with the entire AAF training program that virtually no separate statistics are available as a basis for comparing the record of the women with male trainees. Obviously, this policy meant that the Wacs had to be as well qualified as men to enroll in and graduate from a training course. It is known only that approximately 2,000 women completed courses in AAF technical schools, including those for Link-trainer instructors,

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