|
.
|
U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues
Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
.
.
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.
|
|
|
|
|
.
.
|
 
.
General George Churchill Kenney
(1889 - 1977)
.
|
It may truthfully be said that no air commander ever did so much with so little." Thus did Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General, Army Air Forces, describe Gen. George C. Kenney, commander of Far East Air Forces, at the close of World War II.
George Churchill Kenney was a kind of renaissance airman. He was an engineer, flier, logistician, tactician, strategist, and exceptional leader. It can be said that, as an operational airman, he was first among equals during World War II.
Arnold inserted Kenney into trouble spots because he considered him to be a tinkerer and a doer who could resolve difficult problems.
Kenney probably faced his greatest challenge in the Pacific in the period 1942-43, and he had limited resources to meet it. As Kenney emphasized to Arnold, he was operating on a shoestring. He pulled it off brilliantly because he had long ago mastered the intricacies of airmanship.
General George C. Kenney relaxing at the 3rd Slug bar of the 3rd Bomb Group
Born on Aug. 6, 1889, Kenney grew up in Brookline, Mass. He spent three years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While taking flying training under Bert Acosta, a crack flier, Kenney showed the flair and confidence that subsequently distinguished his career.
Kenney landed dead-stick on his first landing. He recalled that Acosta asked, "What is the idea, coming in there dead-stick?" Kenney replied, "Any damned fool can land it if the motor is running" and added, "I just wanted to see what would happen in case the motor quit."
General Kenney after a flight in "Sally".
During World War I, Kenney flew 75 missions, downed two German aircraft, was shot down himself, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star. Afterward, he decided to make Army aviation a career. He soon gained a reputation for technical and tactical innovation, as well as for candor and wit.
When Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews was appointed in March 1935 to command the General Headquarters Air Force, he tapped Kenney to be his assistant chief of staff for operations and training. In this key post on the GHQ Air Force staff, Kenney had responsibility for combat flying training.
Kenney (center) talks with Gen. Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz (left) and Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur at an airfield near Tokyo on Aug. 30, 1945.
And along with assumption of this position, Kenney was promoted to lieutenant colonel, his first promotion in 17 years.
Andrews knew Kenney well from the Air Corps Tactical School, where from 1927 to 1928 Kenney was an instructor and Andrews a student. Andrews had been impressed with Kenney's ability to explain technical problems and to find solutions to them. At the tactical school, Kenney developed doctrine and revised the basic attack aviation textbook.
At GHQ Air Force, Kenney emphasized training in instrument and night flying. He also wrote tables of organization and planned maneuvers and traveled extensively. "During the first year," Kenney noted, "I was home at Langley Field [Va.] something like 39 days; the rest of the time I was all over the country."
During one visit to the New Guinea area General Kenney ran into his son (far left)
His tenure at GHQ didn't last long, however. Kenney's outspoken and sometimes biting verbal manner caused him to run afoul of the War Department General Staff.
Like Andrews, Kenney championed the new B-17 long-range bomber, but the General Staff did not want to hear this. "They said there was no sense in having an airplane as big as that," recalled Kenney. "They didn't like some of the remarks I made because I was a temporary lieutenant colonel and a permanent captain, and these were all major generals." As a result, the War Department banished him to Ft. Benning, Ga., where, during the period 1936-38, he taught tactics at the Infantry School.
Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, Chief of the Air Corps, undoubtedly had a hand in Kenney's treatment. Westover and Andrews were at loggerheads. Andrews advocated more B-17s and autonomy for the Air Corps, while Westover preferred not to rock the boat.
Kenney's Fifth Air Force bombers and fighters destroyed some 175 enemy aircraft on the ground at Wewak, New Guinea. Here, B-25s make a minimum altitude bombing run on a Wewak airstrip.
It was Arnold, then a brigadier general and assistant chief of the Air Corps, who rescued Kenney. He assigned him to various special projects in Washington, D.C.
The Troubleshooter
When Westover was killed in an air crash in 1938 and Arnold became Chief of the Air Corps, one of his first actions was to send Kenney to a trouble spot at Wright Field, Ohio. Kenney went out to head the production engineering section of the Air Corps materiel division.
Far East Air Force Patch
"Every time [Arnold] got something going wrong," Kenney recalled, "he would say, 'Send George Kenney out there; he is a lucky SOB. He will straighten it out.' I never was supposed to have any brains. I was just lucky."
Following the Nazi invasion of Poland in late 1939, Arnold ordered Kenney to France to study French aircraft and equipment and also to assess the Luftwaffe. Kenney returned home and reported that American military aviation was far behind what the German air force was flying.
Japanese positions at Rabaul, New Britain burn as 5th AAF B25s pound them while Japanese vessels try to get underway in Simpson Harbor.
After Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States moved to organize its forces in the Pacific and to begin preliminary planning aimed at the defeat of Japan.
To organize for victory in the Pacific, however, Arnold first needed to assign an energetic and aggressive officer to replace the air commander under Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur, commanding general of the Southwest Pacific Theater.
According to Arnold and Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, MacArthur's air commander, Lt. Gen. George H. Brett, was in wrong with MacArthur and his staff. Marshall said the situation was rife with clashes of personalities.
Brett had in fact been shut off from MacArthur and his staff.
Arnold wanted to send Lt. Gen. Frank Andrews, who was then commanding Caribbean Defense Command. However, Andrews turned him down. He was appalled that Arnold thought he would work for MacArthur, with whom he had battled in the 1930s and whom he detested.
It was Brig. Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, deputy chief of the Air Staff, who suggested to Arnold that he send Kenney to MacArthur. Arnold thought the blunt talking Kenney probably wouldn't last long out there.
Skip Bombing Wewak
Kenney, however, had two things going for him. First, he knew how to organize air forces to gain maximum combat efficiency and effectiveness. Second, he was an experienced airman with the ability to lead.
Before he left Washington, though, Kenney realized that one of the major difficulties he would face related to Allied strategy. Marshall and Arnold had made it clear to him that the European conflict was the top military priority.
Kenney noted that he was supposed to help MacArthur hold the line in the Pacific "until the European show is cleared up."
|
|
|
|
|
