American Airpower Comes of Age

AMERICAN AIRPOWER COMES OF AGE
Hank [Arnold] awaiting us on return, as were Beebe, Lindsay,
Darby; haven’t seen Pete or Proctor yet. Lunch alone with
Hank, bed at 1:45, up at 3:15. Went out in car with Hank, Tom
and Gil to Bois de Boulogne; saw Paris in [the] Spring, France
without a care, France with utter disregard of war a few hundred
miles away. Men, women and children by the thousands,
hundreds of thousands of all ages, walking, riding bicycles,
driving in horse drawn vehicles and in motor cars; men, thousands
of them of draft age. The horse vans of the racetrack,
charcoal burning engines as well as gasoline engines, 50 thousand
people at the track. Many hundred bicycles outside,
scores of autos parked outside, then the heterogeneous collection
of antique horse drawn vehicles that might well have
been collected from 1800 to date, some kinds and types that
beggar description.
Paris in [the] spring, Paris playing while the war is on. What
kinds of horses they had running I do not know but the horses
drawing the coaches, barouches, tallyhos, etc., were all in
excellent condition. 58
Drove back to hotel and met Lindsay, Beebe, Darby; Pete
and Proctor showed up later. Dinner with all the bunch later,
and to bed at 9:15. 59
Monday, April 9, 1945 [Paris, France]
A kind of mixed up day, nothing much to do but everything
was confused. I arose at 7:45, breakfast with the 2 Hanks,
wrote letters and had war presentation, took a walk for about
an hour, and lunch with Hank Jr. In bed for 1 1 ⁄ 2 hours at noon.
[A] barber, Tuey, Anderson and Knerr awaiting me when I got
up. Had conference re future operations in Europe and Pacific
and future of AAF after getting a haircut.
Message from Marshall showing concern over my well being;
decided not to go to London, 60 sent Beebe, Lindsay, Pool, Proctor,
Peterson and Darby; Sheffield, Marquardt and I go to
Cannes. 61 Went for an auto ride through Paris. Saw M. G.
Osborne for a few minutes. 62
All the visits we have made and all the reports from
observers indicate that the damage done by our bombers has
been much worse than that indicated by our photo interpreta-
236