U. S. A. A. F. Handbook 1939-45

In January 1939 President Roosevelt, alarmed at the utter inadequacy of the US Army Air Corps, asked Congress to strengthen America's airpower dramatically. With little more than 22,000 personnel and barely thirteen operational B-17 bombers, the USAAC would have been no match for a well-armed aggressor. Yet five years later, through the exigencies of global war, the US Army Air Force (as it had then become) had flourished and grown out of all recognition into a massive and immensely powerful fighting machine. By 1944 it had reached a peak strength of 2.4 million personnel and by the war's end boasted an overseas front-line strength of more than 24,000 aircraft. The seventeen air forces that constituted the USAAF made it the greatest air arm the world has ever seen. Its men and aircraft fought with distinction in Europe, the Pacific, Alaska, CBI, and the Far East theatres of operations, helping to turn the tide of war against the Axis powers.
The USAAF Handbook 1939-1945 is the first single-source reference book to deal with the many aspects of the US Army Air Force's organisation and equipment in the Second World War, ranging from global strategies to command structures, flight training to combat aircraft, uniforms and equipment to health and welfare, morale, medals and awards, to a 'who's who' of the Army Air Forces. Detailed listings also cover air force strengths and deployments, group and squadron codes, Medal of Honor recipients, and casualties.
Illustrated with more than 150 photographs and line drawings, the USAAF Handbook 1939-1945 will appeal to all with an interest in the world's greatest air force and the key part it played in winning the Second World War.

by Martin W. Bowman
Published by Sutton 1997 1st edition. 277pp illustrated, index, appendix, bibliography. 16x24 mint, including d/j.





Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.