Northwest African Air Forces

Northwest African Air Forces (NWAAF, NAAF)
Active	Formed February 18, 1943[1]
Allegiance	Allies of World War II
Branch	United States Army Air Forces/Royal Air Force
Type	Major Command
Role	"open the Mediterranean sea lanes and help drive the Axis from Tunisia and Africa" (Spaatz' biographer)[2]
Engagements	1943-02-18 North African campaign 1943-02-18 Tunisia Campaign[3] 1943-06-25/26 Oil Campaign of World War II (Bari, Italy)

Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) was the principal sub-command of the Mediterranean Air Command created when the Allied air forces in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) were reorganized in February of 1943. Based on the successful air interdiction model of the Royal Air Force (RAF) pioneered primarily by Air Marshal Arthur Tedder and Air Vice Marshal Arthur Coningham of Middle East Command in Egypt and Libya during 1942, the main combat commands of NAAF consisted of strategic, coastal, and tactical air forces. The tri-force command structure was successfully implemented and developed during the Tunisian, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns and therefore retained when the air forces were again reorganized in December of 1943 as the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF) which persisted until the end of the Second World War in Europe. Effective coordination of air and ground forces was a key feature of the tri-force model fostered by the command structures of NAAF, MAAF, and today's air forces. Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz was the commander of NAAF.^[4][5]

Formation

See also: Allied Force Headquarters, Mediterranean Air Command, 9th Air Force, 12th Air Force, and Mediterranean Allied Air Forces

When the first United States Army Air Force (USAAF) groups arrived in the Middle East in June of 1942 and the 12th Air Force established a foothold in Algeria following Operation Torch in November of 1942, cooperation between the Allied air forces became an important priority in the North African and Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO). Such cooperation was a major concern of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and their staffs at the Casablanca Conference in January of 1943 when they established a new Allied air force organization known as the Mediterranean Air Command (MAC) with Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as Air Commander-in-Chief.

Effective February 18, 1943, the Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) under Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz became the largest and primary sub-command of MAC. The Casablanca planners modeled NAAF after the successful coordination of strategic, coastal, and tactical forces of the Royal Air Force (RAF) Middle East Command under Tedder during the campaigns in Egypt and Libya in 1942. Those three forces consisted of:

• No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group's long-range strategic bombardment force consisting of 5 Wings (10-12 RAF and SAAF squadrons^[6] co-operating with Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton's 9th Bombardment Squadron of B-17s and Colonel Harry A. Halverson's detachment of B-24s^[7]);
• No. 201 (Naval Co-operation) Group's anti-shipping coastal force (10 squadrons: Greek, RAAF, SAAF and RAF); and
• Air Headquarters, Western Desert's tactical fighter command including its attached Desert Air Task Force consisting of the United States 57th Fighter and 12th Bombardment Groups with P-40F's and B-25C's, respectively.

Accordingly, the Northwest African Air Forces was invested with three major combat commands:

• Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) under former 12th Air Force commander Major General James H. Doolittle;
• Northwest African Coastal Air Force (NACAF) initially under Group Captain G. G. Barrett (Acting) and soon after under Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Lloyd; and
• Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF) under Acting Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham.

Additionally, the following support commands were assigned to NAAF:

• Northwest African Air Service Command (NAASC) under Major General Delmar H. Dunton;
• Northwest African Training Command (NATC) under Brigadier General John K. Cannon;
• Northwest African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing (NAPRW) under Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, the US president's son; and
• Northwest African Troop Carrier Command (NATCC) initially under Colonel Ray Dunn and later under Brigadier General Paul L. Williams.

To foster cooperation between the British RAF and the American USAAF, the commands listed above and their various sub-commands were intended to have a commanding officer from one air force and a deputy from the other air force. In keeping with this plan, Spaatz's deputy of NAAF was Air Vice-Marshal James Robb who handled operations.^[8][9]

Strong consideration was also given to the concept that air, naval, and ground forces should coordinate effectively to provide optimum support of ground troops. In 1942–1943, when the role of air power was still being explored on the battlefield, classic close air support was essentially pioneered and developed by Tedder as Commander-in-Chief of Middle East Command and Coningham as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Air Headquarters Western Desert.

Unfortunately, the importance of flexible coordination between air, naval, and ground forces took much time to realize let alone implement during the Desert war. Finally, it was Tedder (Churchill's second choice for Middle East Commander when Air Vice-Marshal Owen Boyd was captured) who finally realized, despite the encumberances of the current military dogma and commander egos, that every campaign must be planned and executed as a joint operation by all three forces. Soon after being named Air Officer Commanding of RAF Middle East in June of 1941, Tedder said:

"In my opinion, sea, land and air operations in the Middle East Theater are now so closely inter-related that effective coordination will only be possible if the campaign is considered and controlled as a combined operation in the full sense of that term."^[10]

In particular, the flexibility between Coningham's WDAF and the 8th Army has been contrasted with the more rigid relationship between the Luftwaffe and German ground forces.^[11]

Units and Organization of the Northwest African Air Forces on June 1, 1943.

Principal Sicilian targets of the Northwest African Air Forces for Operation Husky.

Units and Organization of the Northwest African Air Forces on August 15, 1943.

The United States 12th Air Force, the largest air force ever assembled soon after its inception several months earlier, ceased to exist in the new MAC organizational structure. The 12th simply disappeared as its groups were distributed among the various new NAAF commands above. The sole reference to the 12th Air Force among the higher tier commands was Brigadier General Edwin House's XII Air Support Command which along with Air Vice Marshal Harry Broadhurst's Western Desert Air Force, Air Commodore Laurence Sinclair's Tactical Bomber Force, and Air Commodore Sir Kenneth Cross' No. 242 Group, became subordinate commands of Coningham's NATAF. Later, XII Air Support Command became even less obvious in the MAC structure when it was detached to No. 242 Group. Prior to the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) in July of 1943, No. 242 Group was assigned to Lloyd's NACAF on Malta.

On December 10, 1943, MAC was disbanded and the Allied air forces in the MTO were again reorganized as the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF) with Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as Air Commander-in-Chief. In mid-January of 1944, Lieutenant General Ira Eaker took over MAAF when Eisenhower chose Tedder to oversee air operations and planning for the Normandy Landings. The new MAAF organization contained separate strategic, coastal, and tactical air forces under a single unified structure:

• Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force (MASAF) under Major General Nathan Twining;
• Mediterranean Allied Coastal Air Force (MACAF) under Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Lloyd; and
• Mediterranean Allied Tactical Air Force (MATAF) under Major General John K. Cannon.

Northwest African Air Forces was the first official command based upon the tri-force model. Successfully practiced and developed during the Tunisian, Pantellerian, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns, the tri-force model was retained by subsequent Allied air forces for D-Day Normandy and D-Day Southern France. Even some of today's air forces consider the historical precedents of the tri-force model.

Notes

1. ^ Arnold, Henry A., AAF: The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces, Special Edition for AAF Organizations, Pocket Books, New York, (1944), p. 152
2. ^ Mets, David R., Master of Airpower: General Carl A. Spaatz, Presidio Press, Novato, CA (1988) p. 156.
3. ^ Arnold, Henry A., AAF: The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces, Special Edition for AAF Organizations, Pocket Books, New York, (1944), p. 25
4. ^ Craven, Wesley F. and James L. Cate. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume 2, Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press, 1949 (Reprinted 1983, ISBN 0-912799-03-X).
5. ^ Richards, D. and H. Saunders, The Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (Volume 2, HMSO, 1953).
6. ^ http://www.guernsey.net/~mlihou/organisation_and_equipment_of_205_Group.htm
7. ^ Craven and Cate, Volume 2 (1949):p. 18.
8. ^ Craven, Wesley F. and James L. Cate. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume 2, Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press, 1949 (Reprinted 1983, ISBN 0-912799-03-X).
9. ^ Richards, D. and H. Saunders, The Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (Volume 2, HMSO, 1953).
10. ^ Dick, Ron and Dan Patterson, Aviation Century, World War II, Boston Mills Press, 2004, p. 71.
11. ^ House, Jonathan M., Combined arms warfare in the twentieth century, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, ISBN 0-7006-1081-2.

References

• Craven, Wesley F. and James L. Cate. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume 2, Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press, 1949 (Reprinted 1983, ISBN 0-912799-03-X).
• Richards, D. and H. Saunders, The Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (Volume 2, HMSO, 1953).
• Howe, George F., Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, Center of Military History, Washington, DC., 1991.