The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II

236 Pages·1999·1.31 MB·English

by  Charles Griffith

The Quest
Haywood Hansell and American Strategic
Bombing in World War II
CHARLES GRIFFITH
Air University Press
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
September 1999
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Griffith, Charles, 1957–
The quest : Haywood Hansell and American strategic bombing in World War II /
Charles Griffith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. World War, 1939–1945—Aerial operations, American. 2. Bombing, Aerial—History.
3. Strategy. 4. Hansell, Haywood S. 5. Generals—United States Biography. 6. United
States. Army Air Forces Biography. I. Title.
D790.G732 1999
940.54’4973—dc21 99-43324
CIP
ISBN 1-58566-069-8
Disclaimer
Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of Air University, the United States Air Force,
the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency. Cleared for public release:
distribution unlimited.
ii
This book is dedicated
to my son, Alexander Griffith,
and to the memory of
Lt Col Theodore B. Brydges, USAF.
Contents
Chapter Page
DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1 THE PROBLEMS OF AIRPOWER . . . . . . . . . 1
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 THE EARLY YEARS: EDUCATION AND ACTS . . . 23
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3 PLANNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4 THE FRICTIONS OF WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5 THE GLOBAL BOMBER FORCE . . . . . . . . . . 129
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6 TRIUMPH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
7 TRAGEDY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
v
Photographs
Page
B-1 Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Z-1 Zeppelin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
British Handley-Page Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Boeing B-17 Bombers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Maj Gen Haywood S. Hansell Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Boeing P-12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Martin B-10 Bombers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
B-29 Very Heavy Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
B-26 Medium Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
B-24 Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Douglas A-20 Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Generals LeMay and Hansell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
B-2 Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
B-52 Bomber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
C-47 Transport Aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
vi
Foreword
Maj Gen Haywood “Possum” Hansell Jr. was the first
legendary airman from the interwar years and World War II I
had the opportunity to meet on a personal basis. This
happened in 1972 when I was on the faculty of the history
department at the Air Force Academy. From that experience I
became a lifelong admirer of General Hansell and his gracious
wife, Dotta. He was a gentleman of great intellect who
continued throughout his life to be an active student of
history, a lecturer, and a spokesman who articulated the
advantages of airpower.
I first heard of Hansell 12 years earlier when I was a cadet
studying the history of airpower. The Air Force had been an
independent service for less than 15 years. Much of the
history being taught focused on the contributions of a few
airmen who were visionary thinkers with an almost zealous
belief in the potential of airpower to change the nature of
warfare. The key to achieving the promise was the ability to
conduct air operations independent of ground forces with an
objective of taking the war directly to the enemy heartland in
daylight precision attacks against key industrial and military
targets. The theory held that such attacks conducted against
a strategic target array would destroy an enemy’s ability to
field and support military forces by destroying his capacity to
manufacture and transport war materials.
In his book The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American
Strategic Bombing in World War II, Charles Griffith makes a
major contribution in detailing the role played by General
Hansell from his early days as an instructor at the Air Corps
Tactical School to the heady days and nights as a young war
planner developing the air war plan used by the United States
during World War II to his triumphs and disappointments as a
commander in the field. While the book tells this story well, it
does more than just relate the life and times of Possum
Hansell. The book goes a long way toward explaining the
origins of many of the arguments about the utility of airpower
in the closing decade of the twentieth century.
vii
The bottom line is Hansell had it right—technology and time
have made his vision a reality as evidenced by Desert Storm in
1991, Bosnia in 1995, and most recently in Kosovo. At the
heart of his vision was the idea of airpower as a tool for
precision engagement, not an indiscriminate weapon of mass
destruction. A tool that, if properly understood and employed,
would allow the United States to prevail while greatly reducing
the price of victory.
RONALD R. FOGLEMAN
General, USAF, Retired
viii
About
the Author
CHARLES GRIFFITH
Charles Griffith received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in
history from East Tennessee State University and earned his
doctorate in military history from the University of Tennessee.
He teaches advance placement American history and serves as
chairman of the social studies department at Science Hill High
School in Johnson City, Tennessee. Dr. Griffith also serves as
adjunct professor of history at East Tennessee State
University.
ix
Introduction
On the night of 24 November 1944, B-29 Superfortresses
landed in the darkness of Saipan with only smudge pots along-
side the runway to light their path. Inside the control tower an
anxious Brig Gen Haywood Hansell awaited their return. The
bombers were returning from the first bombing mission over
Tokyo since Jimmy Doolittle’s famous raid in 1942. This time
the raid consisted of 111 heavy bombers. Their target was the
Nakajima-Musashino aircraft factory complex, not token
targets to boost American morale. Hansell had been warned
by the chief of the Army Air Forces, Gen Henry H. “Hap”
Arnold, that experts had predicted that the raid as Hansell
had planned it was almost certainly doomed to fail, and
Arnold had placed full responsibility for the raid on Hansell’s
shoulders. In addition to this ominous warning, Brig Gen
Emmett “Rosie” O’Donnell, commander of the 73d
Bombardment Wing, which was executing the mission, had
written a letter to Hansell in which he advocated abandoning
the planned daylight mission in favor of a safer night mission.
Since the very idea of a night bombing mission ran counter to
all that Hansell believed about strategic bombing, Hansell
rejected the idea. Now, after hours of “sweating out” the
mission, Hansell’s decision was vindicated. Of the 111
bombers that had launched early that morning, 88 had
attacked targets in Japan and only two B-29s failed to return;
Hansell had proved that American heavy bombers could
conduct daylight operations over the Japanese home islands
without prohibitive losses. This was Hansell’s moment of
triumph. This triumph would all too soon be followed by the
tragedy of his dismissal, the end of his career, and the
temporary end of the strategic bombing doctrine he had done
so much to formulate and execute.
Haywood Hansell is arguably the most important proponent
and practitioner of high-altitude, daylight precision bombing
in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. Even
though his name is not as immediately recognized as the
names of Chennault, Spaatz, Doolittle, LeMay, Eaker, or
xi