Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS for this volume came largely from the
U.S. Air Force’s record collection kept at the Air Force Historical Research
Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. A microfilm copy of these records
is available at the Air Force History Support Office, Bolling AFB, D.C. In
particular, the various files of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff,
Intelligence, contain material related to internal planning and assessment as well
as the administration of the office as it evolved through several reorganizations
during the war. The records of the AC/AS (I) also contain material related to
work with other Air Staff agencies; these documents are crucial to assessing the
influence of intelligence on the U.S. Army Air Forces’ plans and operations,
Closely related to the A-2’s file records are the files of the Committee of
Operations Analysts. Review of the COA’s work is necessary, since the
committee exercised a significant influence over the Air Staff‘s responsibilities
related to planning the air war both in the Pacific and Europe. Beginning with
1944, the records of the Joint Target Group (a part of the A-2) become of value
in tracing planning for the aerial assault of Japan.
Similarly, the records of the Manhattan Engineer District at the National
Archives are important to understand how the district employed the 509th
Composite Group and used air intelligence in target planning. The district’s
records are open to the public, although they are incomplete. Some of the
material was withdrawn from microfilming and release because of its sensitivity.
For purposes of this study, records of the Manhattan Project that are not
available do not appear to be an impediment.
The Library of Congress’s Manuscript Division holds a number of
collections of wartime officers whose understanding of the relationship of
intelligence to the AAF’s plans and operations was far-reaching. Paramount are
the assembled papers of General of the Air Forces H. H. Arnold, the man who
led the service throughout the war. These files were organized largely (though
not entirely) by use of the Army’s index file system. This is not a serious
impediment to a researcher unversed in the system, as a card file gives clues to
the possible locations of important items. Also in the Manuscript Division are
collections of the papers of Generals Carl A. Spaatz, Ira C. Eaker, Thomas D.
White, and Curtis E. LeMay. LeMay’s papers are particularly useful for
understanding the relationship between intelligence and operations in the
Pacific. The papers and diaries of Henry Lewis Stimson are in the Yale
469