Revolt of the Admirals : The Fight for Naval Aviation 1945-1950

by Barlow, Jeffrey G.

• ISBN13: 9781931641135
• ISBN10: 1931641137
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

The National Security Act if 1947, intended to unify the separate armed forces services under a single Defense Secretary, failed to settle the deeper issue that divided them, the debate over roles and missions. One symptom of this conflict was a showdown between the Air Force and the Navy over the role of carrier aviation in the national security framework of the United States.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Air Power Doctrines	p. 3
The Navy's Carrier Air Doctrine	p. 3
The Air Force's Strategic Bombardment Doctrine	p. 8
Doctrine at the Air Corps Tactical School	p. 11
The Experience of War in Europe	p. 13
The Air War in the Pacific	p. 17
Conclusions	p. 21
Unification, Service Rivalries, and Public Relations	p. 23
The Initial Fight Over Roles and Missions	p. 32
The Air Force Public Relations Effort	p. 44
Admiral Nimitz and the Continuing Controversy Over Unification	p. 52
Louis Denfeld Becomes CNO	p. 56
The Failure of Navy Public Relations	p. 58
Conclusions	p. 63
Atomic Weapons and War Planning	p. 65
The First Postwar Atomic Tests	p. 68
Early Service Thinking on the Atomic Bomb	p. 72
The AAF Position	p. 74
The Navy Position	p. 78
The Emerging Soviet Threat	p. 81
War Planning	p. 86
Some Air Force Planning Concerns	p. 95
Forrestal's Concerns About the Strategic Air Offensive	p. 99
Conclusions	p. 103
Navy Thinking on Atomic Weapons and the Strategic Air Offensive	p. 105
Carrier Delivery of Atomic Weapons	p. 106
Navy Doubts About the Strategic Air Offensive	p. 108
Navy Targeting Plans	p. 115
Air Force Opposition to a Navy Role	p. 121
Conclusions	p. 130
Super Carriers and B-36 Bombers	p. 131
The 6A Carrier	p. 131
The B-36 Bomber	p. 145
Conclusions	p. 157
A Time of Crisis and Change	p. 159
The Establishment of OP-23	p. 164
James Forrestal Departs as Secretary of Defense	p. 173
Louis Johnson Takes Over	p. 174
Changes in the B-36 Program	p. 177
The Cancellation of United States	p. 182
John Sullivan Resigns	p. 188
Conclusions	p. 191
The Navy's Troubles Increase	p. 193
The New Vice Chief of Naval Operations	p. 194
The Air Force Again on the Offensive	p. 197
The Navy Gets a Brief Respite	p. 201
Francis Matthews Becomes Secretary of the Navy	p. 205
Drafting the Anonymous Document	p. 206
The Aborted B-36 Navy Fighter Tests	p. 209
Conclusions	p. 212
The Navy and the B-36 Hearings	p. 215
The Navy and the B-36 Hearings	p. 216
The Navy at Sixes and Sevens	p. 222
Burke and Radford Enter the Fray	p. 224
The B-36 Hearings Begin	p. 226
The Run-Up to October	p. 233
OP-23 Is Put Under Hack	p. 237
The Navy Gets Its Chance to Testify	p. 243
Conclusions	p. 245
The "Revolt of the Admirals"	p. 247
Administration Reactions	p. 254
Omar Bradley's Attack on Denfeld and the Navy	p. 257
The Army Sides With the Air Force	p. 263
The Hearings End	p. 268
Conclusions	p. 268
Aftermath	p. 269
Louis Denfeld Is Fired	p. 270
The "Rebels" Are Put To Flight	p. 277
The Results of the Unification and Strategy Hearings	p. 283
Conclusions	p. 289
Conclusions	p. 291
Abbreviations	p. 295
Notes	p. 299
Bibliography	p. 369
Index	p. 401
Tables
Principal Precision Target Systems in Europe, 1940-1945	p. 16
Operations for Carrier Task Force	p. 116
U.S. Atomic Weapons Stockpile, 1945-1950	p. 128
BUAER's New Categories of Bombing Aircraft	p. 134
Original Program--Project 6A Carrier	p. 144
Projected Capability of VHB Groups	p. 147
B-36 Selected Performance Data, 1941-1949	p. 155
Navy Operating Forces, Fiscal Years 1947-1949	p. 161
Defense Budgets for Fiscal Years 1948-1950	p. 162
The Decline of Carrier Aviation, Fiscal Years 1949-1951	p. 224
B-36 Performance as of Mid-1949	p. 228
Charts
Navy Department Organization, May 1946	p. 47
Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, January 1949	p. 166
National Military Establishment, 30 September 1947	p. 170
Department of Defense, August 1949	p. 172
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