Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

AIR SUPERIORITY
Republic’s hefty P47 Thunderbolt was the finest multipurpose American
fighter of the Second World War.
tioned the tactical organization and the formations employed by the
Eighth.47 Arnold’s growing impatience was not limited to Eaker. In October,
he wrote a rather intemperate letter to Sir Charles Portal, the RAF
Chief of Air Staff, complaining that neither RAF Fighter Command nor
Bomber Command had lent sufficient aid to the daylight strategic bombing
offensive.48
At the Sextant Conference in November, Arnold gave full vent to his
frustration with Eaker’s leadership.
They [Eighth Air Force] had not changed their technique. He [Arnold] had sent a
series of inspectors to the UK to try and probe into the reasons for this. In other
theaters sixty or seventy percent of available aircraft were used in operations. In
the UK, only fifty percent were used .... There were approximately 1,300 bombers
supplied to the UK .... In spite of this, only once in the last month had 600 aircraft
taken part in operations in one day.. . .The failure to destroy targets was due directly
to the failure to employ planes in sufficient numbers. A sufficient weight of bombs
was not being dropped on the targets to destroy them, nor was the proper priority
of targets being followed.. ..At present, the necessary drive and ideas were coming
from Washington. He believed that more aircraft were being sent to the UK than
were being effectively used and that unless better results could be achieved no more
planes should be sent.49
Gen. George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, then added that he
“believed that a commander in England was required who could give full
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