U.S. Air Power Visual History of Army Air Forces

U.S. Air Power provides a fascinating visual history of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) in May of 1944. During World War II, the Air Force was part of the U.S. Army. On July 26, 1947, the National Security Act created the U.S. Air Force as a separate military service. At its peak strength, the AAF had more than 2,400,000 service members. For combat operations, the AAF was organized into 16 separate air forces--11 overseas and 5 in U.S. territories. Pilots were formed into squadrons and squadrons into groups. Groups were organized into wings, wings into commands and commands into the 16 air forces. U.S. Air Power shows the location of each of the 16 air forces along with two circles showing the regular effective range of its combat aircraft. The outer circle shows bomber aircraft range and the inner circle the normal tactical range of fighters. With special auxiliary gas tanks, aircraft frequently make raids over longer distances. The airplane silhouettes in the lower right-hand corner i