A Concise History of the US Air Force - Air Force Historical Studies ...

World War 11-Global Conflict
Despite the heroics of such airmen as Lieutenant George Welch, who
was credited with having downed 4 enemy aircraft, the surprise strike on
Pearl Harbor showed the limitations of the USAAF’s preparations for
war. The Hawaiian Air Force lost 66 percent of its strength on December
7, 1941, while the Japanese lost only 29 pilots. Across the International
Dateline, Lieutenant Joseph Moore claimed 2 Japanese aircraft the next
day in the skies over Clark Field in the Philippines, but General Douglas
MacArthur’s air force of 277 aircraft, including 2 squadrons of B-17s (35
aircraft in all), was destroyed. These greatest concentrations of American
air power at the time had failed to deter or hinder the Japanese.
At the start of World War I a solid industrial infrastructure on
which to construct the world’s greatest air force had not existed in the
United States. At the start of World War I1 this was not the case. The air-
craft manufacturing sector was large and growing daily. Before the war,
General Arnold had established nine civilian primary flight training
schools, two Air Corps basic flight training schools, and two Air Corps
advanced flight training schools. The number of trained pilots had jum-
ped from 300 in 1938 to 30,000 in 1941 (plus 110,OOO mechanics). On
December 7,1941, the USAAF had a running start and was in the war for
the duration.
Arnold planned first for vastly expanded production, training,
and resedch, with the long-term military interests of the nation in mind.
While German factories maintained a one-shift peacetime work week
until 1943, American plants ran around the clock. Swelled by hundreds of
thousands of women, more than two million American workers built
nearly 160,000 aircraft of all kinds for the Army and 140,000 for the
Navy and Allied nations during the war. America’s aircraft production
overwhelmed that of every other nation in the world. Altogether, its fac-
tories turned out 324,750 aircraft for the war effort; Germany’s factories
turned out 11 1,077 and Japan’s 79,123. Where other nations stopped pro-
duction lines to make modifications, or manufactured models long obso-
lescent, the United States, according to Arnold’s orders, left its factories
alone to insure high production levels and established separate depots to
modify and modernize older models. Until the German Me 262 jet, Ame-
rican aircraft set the standard for performance and combat success with
their ruggedness (the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, and P-47
Thunderbolt); their range and bomb load (the B-29 Superfortress); their
range, speed, and agility (the P-51 Mustang); and their utility (the C-47
Skytrain). Eventually, they were to equip 243 groups, consuming about
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