T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
the Interior. The Administrative History Branch, which he headed
throughout the war, would retain in its title the emphasis fixed by the
President’s directive for the preparation of administrative histories by
war agencies, but the responsibility of the branch actually included
comprehensive study of all phases of the AAF’s continental, as distinct
from its overseas, activities. It was Colonel Williams’ hope that he
might himself assume the major responsibility for coverage of over-
seas operations, and in the fall of 1942 he spent two months on tem-
porary duty in England, where, in addition to studying the practical
problems to be met in covering an overseas air force, he drew heavily
upon the experience of the well-established historical section of the
British Air Ministry. T o Mr. J. C. Nerney on this and other occasions,
and as well to historical officers of the Royal Air Force, the Royal
Canadian Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the Royal
New Zealand Air Force, with whom AAF historical personnel were
associated in the study of combined air operations, there is due an
acknowledgment of a variety of courtesies extended. After returning
to Headquarters at the close of 1942, Colonel Williams found the
pressure of a growing administrative burden such that in the fail of
1943 he turned over to a newly established Operational History
Branch, headed by Lt. Col. Wesley F. Craven, much of the responsi-
bility for coverage of overseas operations. In August 1945 the His-
torical Division was removed from Intelligence and given the status
of a special staff office.
The proportions of the task which had been assigned to it were
staggering. By the close of 1942 there were already twelve air forces,
eight of them engaged in widely scattered overseas operations, while
in this country the training and service commands alone dwarfed most
organizations theretofore known to American military history. Even-
tually there would be sixteen separate air forces whose several oper-
ations extended literally around the world, not to mention the Air
Transport Command, which pioneered in the development of the
first world-wide system of air transport. The rapidly accumulating
records of this varied activity were not only massive; they were also
scattered. The basic problem was to devise some scheme of selection
that would permit the assembly in usable form of that part of the
record which had clear historical significance and at the same time,
paradoxically, to supplement the record by capturing and recording
experiences that otherwise would be lost. Basic also was the factor of
X