British Bomber Command

The commitment of a large part of the British army to the Mediterranean and elsewhere meant that of the thirty-five divisions required for the cross-Channel invasion of France, only sixteen would be British, and that subsequent reinforcements would have to come from the United States. The overriding importance of the cross-Channel operation was such that from April to September 1944 the direction of Bomber Command was transferred to the American Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in North-West Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower. The appointment of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as deputy supreme commander, with his experience of air co-operation in North Africa, ensured that optimal use was made of Allied air power. 

Policymaking was not made any easier by the rapidity of technical change in nuclear warfare, on the one hand, and by the slowness of the development of British delivery systems, on the other. The first examples of Blue Danube, the production model of the British atomic bomb, were delivered to Bomber Command s Armament School in November 1953 to enable RAF personnel to be trained in their storage, service and use. It would have been possible to adapt the ageing Lincoln piston-engined bombers to carry Blue Danube, but the decision was taken to... 

Later, when the utility of RE/8 had been proven, operational research sections were established within the U.S. Army Air Forces. The impetus for this action came in the summer of 194a when the Joint Chiefs of Statf directed that a study be made of the British experience with operational research activities. General Arnold approved the resultant report and recommended that the commanding generals of the Army Air Forces establish operational research sections within their commands. The Eighth Air Force set up such a section in the VITI Bomber Command in October 1942. (i) Rpt, Lt Bradley Dewey, Jr., to Chief Tech Div CWS, 14 Sep 44. (2) Col John M. Harlan, The Opnl Research Sec at the Eighth AF, 18 Jul 44. Both in CMLHO. 

On Friday, March 28 (of the week when Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, opened a major offensive in North Africa when the British meat ration was reduced to six ounces per person per week when British torpedo bombers successfully attacked the Italian fleet as it returned from the Aegean, a performance that greatly interested the Japanese), Seaborg recorded ... 

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