CargoAdmin, Bureaucrats, Moderators (CommentStreams), fileuploaders, Interface administrators, newuser, Push subscription managers, Suppressors, Administrators
5,224
edits
United States Army Air Forces: Difference between revisions
m
Text replacement - "United Kingdom" to "United Kingdom"
m (Text replacement - "Harry S. Truman" to "Harry S. Truman") |
m (Text replacement - "United Kingdom" to "United Kingdom") |
||
| Line 32: | Line 32: | ||
The AAF administered all parts of military aviation formerly distributed among the Air Corps, General Headquarters Air Force, and the ground forces' corps area commanders and thus became the first air organization of the U.S. Army to control its own installations and support personnel. The peak size of the AAF during World War II was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft by 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943.<ref>Nalty (1997), pp. 176 and 378. Also, see growth tables above.</ref> By "[[Victory in Europe Day|V-E Day]]", the Army Air Forces had 1.25 million men stationed overseas and operated from more than 1,600 airfields worldwide.<ref>''AAF Statistical Digest'', Table 215 – Airfields in CONUS 1941–1945; Table 217 – Airfields outside CONUS 1941–1945.</ref> | The AAF administered all parts of military aviation formerly distributed among the Air Corps, General Headquarters Air Force, and the ground forces' corps area commanders and thus became the first air organization of the U.S. Army to control its own installations and support personnel. The peak size of the AAF during World War II was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft by 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943.<ref>Nalty (1997), pp. 176 and 378. Also, see growth tables above.</ref> By "[[Victory in Europe Day|V-E Day]]", the Army Air Forces had 1.25 million men stationed overseas and operated from more than 1,600 airfields worldwide.<ref>''AAF Statistical Digest'', Table 215 – Airfields in CONUS 1941–1945; Table 217 – Airfields outside CONUS 1941–1945.</ref> | ||
The Army Air Forces was created in June 1941 to provide the air arm greater autonomy in which to expand more efficiently, to provide a structure for the additional command echelons required by a vastly increased force, and to end an increasingly divisive administrative battle within the Army over control of aviation doctrine and organization that had been ongoing since the creation of an [[Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps|aviation section]] within the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] in 1914. The AAF succeeded both the Air Corps, which had been the statutory military aviation branch since 1926 and the GHQ Air Force, which had been activated in 1935 to quiet the demands of airmen for an independent Air Force similar to the [[Royal Air Force]] which [[1918 in aviation#April|had already been established]] in the | The Army Air Forces was created in June 1941 to provide the air arm greater autonomy in which to expand more efficiently, to provide a structure for the additional command echelons required by a vastly increased force, and to end an increasingly divisive administrative battle within the Army over control of aviation doctrine and organization that had been ongoing since the creation of an [[Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps|aviation section]] within the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] in 1914. The AAF succeeded both the Air Corps, which had been the statutory military aviation branch since 1926 and the GHQ Air Force, which had been activated in 1935 to quiet the demands of airmen for an independent Air Force similar to the [[Royal Air Force]] which [[1918 in aviation#April|had already been established]] in the United Kingdom. | ||
Although other nations already had separate air forces independent of their army or navy (such as the Royal Air Force and the German ''[[Luftwaffe]]''), the AAF remained a part of the Army until a defense reorganization in the post-war period resulted in the passage by the [[United States Congress]] of the [[National Security Act of 1947]] with the creation of an independent [[United States Air Force]] in September 1947. | Although other nations already had separate air forces independent of their army or navy (such as the Royal Air Force and the German ''[[Luftwaffe]]''), the AAF remained a part of the Army until a defense reorganization in the post-war period resulted in the passage by the [[United States Congress]] of the [[National Security Act of 1947]] with the creation of an independent [[United States Air Force]] in September 1947. | ||