American Airpower Comes of Age

AMERICAN AIRPOWER COMES OF AGE
ography was written. Nor is it, as are the other 12 diaries,
extant among his papers in the Library of Congress.
At Quadrant, the British were lavish in their praise of the
AAF Ploesti mission of two weeks earlier. In the opening session,
Portal felt that daylight bombing was “extraordinarily
effective” and called the attack “perhaps the most brilliant and
outstanding single air operation of the war.” 57 However, consistent
with British advocacy of continued operations in Italy
and the Mediterranean, he insisted that AAF efforts would be
vastly enhanced by operating from bases to be obtained in
northern Italy. In the same session, Arnold pointed out that
estimates of replacement of aircraft and aviators had proven
too low and conceded the additional problem of “war-weary”
crews. He was optimistic in telling the CCS that the aim of the
AAF was to have 1,900 heavy bomber aircraft with two crews
for each plane in the theater by 1 January 1944. 58 The reality
of the moment, however, was not encouraging. The promised
build-up, approved at Trident, called for 1,068 heavies to be in
the Eighth by 15 August. By that date, however, there were
only 921, including the more than 100 still in North Africa. 59
The first session also found Arnold reporting that superiority
was now being achieved in the air against the Japanese and
that a pipeline (which the conference agreed to) was necessary
to supply the bomber force operating and planned to operate
from Chinese bases. Hap then announced that only bases in
China would be available to support air operations against
Japan once Germany was defeated, prompting Portal to
express his skepticism about future RAF use of Pacific island
bases, a harbinger of further difficulties over British participation
in the war against Japan. 60 In other matters of importance
at the meeting, Arnold made the case for AAF use of the
Azores as a transit stop for aircraft en route from the United
States to Europe, Mediterranean, Middle East, and Far East
areas. He pointed out that use of facilities there by AAF aircraft
would save 15 million gallons of gasoline per month over
the 5,400-mile-longer South Atlantic route into the United
Kingdom. The British government was just completing
arrangements for their use of the Azores with the Portuguese
government and it was not considered prudent to push the US
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