Word: spaatz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Doctrine. Pale, birdlike Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, who had planned the strategy for cracking Rommel's Luftwaffe in Egypt, had become Spaatz's boss by then. The Casablanca conference had given Sir Arthur command of Allied air from North Africa's west coast throughout the Mediterranean area...
...Spaatz had been made his chief of operations in Tunisia. Under Spaatz the jobs were carefully subdivided. One job was the bombing of Axis ports and supply lines; the other was the operation of fighter planes and attack bombers in coordination with ground activities. Spaatz's deputy to run the long-range bombing was Jimmy Doolittle, who had been none too happy with the mass of administrative detail which his original command had involved. His deputy to command the ground support: Arthur Coningham, the tall, genial expert who had run Tedder's Egyptian show...
...Spaatz and Tedder see eye to eye. They have the same airman's view of how air power should be used. Ground staffs conceived of it too often merely as "field artillery." This was not the way airmen saw it. Tedder spelled out their doctrine: "Air war is a separate war, though linked to those on land & sea. . . . Command of the air determines what happens on land & sea. . . . The essential lesson learned in the Middle East is that an air force is a separate offensive entity, striking at the enemy in cooperation with the army...
...Forces do not have the R.A.F.'s complete independence, but they do have operational autonomy. In Africa Spaatz's airmen found themselves operating with the same freedom enjoyed by the R.A.F. Said one U.S. officer at Souk-el-Spaatz: "The high command merely says 'The air force will take care of that...
...Spaatz and Tedder would not argue that they are fighting an unconnected war. Their main objective is the same as the ground troops'. Tedder and Spaatz confer often with Eisenhower and General Sir Harold Alexander, General Ike's chief of ground operations. They compose the tune. Spaatz arranges and conducts it. Doolittle and Coningham bang...