Carl Andrew Spaatz

For more information on Carl Andrews Spaatz, visit Britannica.com.

A 1914 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, one of the earliest U.S. military aviators, commanded a pilot training center in France during World War I. He also managed one tour at the front and shot down three aircraft. After the war he showed his moral and physical courage by testifying at the Mitchell courts‐martial and in pioneering in‐flight refueling. As a special observer in England, in 1940, his optimistic reports helped ensure continued U.S. aid. After participating in World War II planning, he took the Eighth Air Force to England in 1942 and established a cordial working relationship with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called him to North Africa in late 1942 as Allied Air Forces commander. Again Spaatz established a sound relationship with the RAF and also helped correct U.S. air‐ground cooperation difficulties. Upon returning to England in 1944 he became the senior U.S. air officer in Europe. At his insistence the United States began the highly successful bombing of the German synthetic oil industry. After the victory in Europe, he transferred to the Pacific and was the senior operational officer in the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1946, as Gen. “Hap” Arnold's successor, he played a leading role in the creation of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as a separate military service and in the division of roles and missions between the services. He became USAF Chief of Staff in 1947 and retired the next year.

Bibliography

• David R. Mets, Master of Airpower, General Carl A. Spaatz, 1988.
• Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, 1940–1945, 1993

Spaatz, Carl Andrew (1891-1974) Air Force Chief of Staff. A Pennsylvanian, Spaatz was among the first twenty-five officers to qualify for the aviation branch of the Army Signal Corps. In World War I he conducted an army flying school in France. After the war, Spaatz continued to advocate for a prominent role for aviation in the military. In 1929 he and others set a record for the longest time in continuous flight—150 hours, forty minutes, and fifteen seconds. During the Battle of Britain, he observed German aerial tactics and British defenses. Spaatz was air commander for both the Allied invasion of North Africa and the D-Day Landing. After the German surrender, Spaatz commanded the U.S. strategic air offensive in the Pacific, including the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. In 1946, he was named commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Force. He argued successfully for the establishment of an independent air force and became, in 1947, the first chief of staff of the newly formed U.S. Air Force.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Carl Spaatz (1891-1974) was an early advocate of the military applications of air power. He directed U.S. strategic bombing campaigns in both Europeand the Pacific during World War II.

The career of Carl Spaatz paralleled the development of military air power during the twentieth century. He entered the military in the early days of aviation and ended his career in the era of jet engines, rocketry, and nuclear weapons. Spaatz played several roles in this development, first as a proponent of aircraft as a weapon, and finally in refining the techniques and objectives of strategic aerial operations.

Carl Andrew Spaatz was born into a German immigrant family in Boyerstown, Pennsylvania on June 28, 1891. His father was a printer who also participated in local politics, once holding the position of state senator. Spaatz graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1914, where he acquired the nickname, "Tooey," which was to remain with him for the rest of his life. After leaving the Academy, Spaatz was assigned to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Spaatz's second posting was to San Diego, where he learned to fly.

Birth of Military Aviation

During the U.S. pursuit of the forces of Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916, Spaatz served as one of America's first military aviators. At the time, the Army did not view aircraft as a means for delivering weapons to a target, but instead used them strictly for reconnaissance purposes. In fact, the Army Air Service was a part of the Signal Corps prior to World War I.

Spaatz was transferred to France following the U.S. entry into World War I in 1917. He was assigned to a training program to learn about the more aggressive uses of military aviation being made by both Allied and German forces. Bored by his training, Spaatz flew unauthorized missions with a British combat air unit and managed to shoot down two German aircraft during one of his flights. Despite his insubordination, Spaatz was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for this exploit. By war's end, he had been promoted to the rank of colonel.

In the years following World War I, military leaders debated the role of aircraft in future conflicts. Technological limitations restricted aircraft to relatively low speeds, altitudes, and payloads. It was extremely difficult to hit targets with bombs dropped from a plane. In such an atmosphere, many experts felt that aircraft would never be capable of playing a major military role, while others thought that technological advances would make aircraft the decisive factor in future conflicts.

The major early advocate of air power in the U.S. Army was the controversial Billy Mitchell, who staged a dramatic demonstration of offensive capabilities of aircraft by bombing captured German battleships in the early 1920s. Mitchell's activities angered the military establishment, and he was subjected to a court martial. Spaatz appeared as a witness on his behalf. Mitchell's eventual conviction represented a victory for opponents of expanded use of air power. Spaatz's identification with Mitchell ensured that promotions would be rare until the Army's overall attitude changed.

Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Army aviators staged a series of publicity flights to set aviation records and demonstrate to the public, and to their own superior officers, the expanding capabilities of aircraft. Spaatz participated in several such flights, including a 1929 endurance flight that featured 151 consecutive hours in the air and several in-flight refuelings. This sort of practical demonstration, combined with the continued development of military aircraft by other world powers, eventually led to the adoption of many of Mitchell's concepts and ensured the continuing development of U.S. military aviation.

As the U.S. military gradually accepted a broader role for aircraft, Spaatz was appointed to the Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935. This represented an opportunity to advance his career, but was considered a less desirable appointment than command of a field unit or a posting to the Tactical School at Maxwell Field. Spaatz completed his course and was recognized as one of the Army's leading experts on the uses of airpower on the eve of World War II.

Strategic Bombing

Although the use of aircraft to bomb targets on the land and sea was generally accepted by military authorities in the 1930s, debate still raged on the question of the strategic uses of air power. Advocates of strategic bombing, which targets the enemy's economic infrastructure, argued that such bombing could win a war on its own. Opponents, however, doubted the ability of aircraft to create enough damage to appreciably affect the military capabilities of a large nation. The debate regarding the efficacy of strategic bombing continues to the present day.

Battle of Britain

Advocates of strategic bombing had been successful enough to ensure that all belligerent nations possessed at least some strategic bombing capabilities at the outset of World War II. Furthermore, the Spanish Civil War and the Sino-Japanese conflict during the 1930s had shown yet another use for strategic aircraft: terror bombing against civilian targets to lessen a nation's will to resist. This form of bombing was also practiced in the early stages of World War II by the German Luftwaffe, which conducted terror operations against Rotterdam in the Netherlands and London, England. Given his interest in, and advocacy of, strategic bombing, Spaatz was assigned to London at the height of the Battle of Britain during the spring and summer of 1940. His assignment was to observe the tactics and affects of the German bombing campaign, and the countermeasures employed by the British to stop it.

The eventual German defeat in the Battle of Britain demonstrated the limitations of terror bombing as a means of defeating a belligerent nation. Furthermore, German attacks on British economic and military infrastructure, while somewhat more successful, also failed to produce a decisive result. Analysis of the battle by British military aviation expert Sir Solly Zuckerman revealed that increased use of aerial photography to both identify targets for strategic bombing and analyze the extent of damage caused by such bombing could have increased the effectiveness of the German aerial offensive. Spaatz became a proponent of systematic analysis as proposed by Zuckerman, and following his tenure in England, he was promoted to the position of chief of the Army Air Forces Materiel Division. He served in this capacity until the U.S. entry into the war in December 1941.

World War II-Europe

Spaatz was promoted to the rank of major general in January 1942, and was placed in command of the Eighth U.S. Army Air Force, operating out of England, in July of that year. The Eighth Air Force commenced bombing raids on targets in continental Europe the following month. With his new command scarcely up-and-running, Spaatz was transferred to the position of Allied Air Forces Commander, to support the amphibious landing of U.S. troops in North Africa in November 1942. This command was reorganized in February 1943, and Spaatz became subordinate to British Air Marshall Tedder. However, he nonetheless received a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general in March 1943. In December of that year, Spaatz was transferred back to England and named commander-in-chief of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe.

Spaatz's experiences in the Mediterranean, which had included the suffering of heavier-than-expected losses in the attempt to bomb the German oil production facilities at Ploesti, Romania, had led him to demand the development of a long-range fighter aircraft capable of protecting bombers throughout their missions. Such an aircraft, the P-51 Mustang, became available in 1944, and the Allied strategic bombing program against Germany accelerated.

Zuckerman and Spaatz, drawing on their experiences early in the war, advocated precision daylight bombing of carefully selected targets designed to cripple Germany's fuel production and transportation capabilities. This approach was in direct contrast to that used by the British earlier in the war. The British had used nighttime bombing of entire areas of German cities, a method which combined elements of both strategic and terror bombing, while minimizing British losses. Furthermore, the British had focused on destroying military manufacturing facilities. The development of long-range fighter aircraft greatly reduced the risk of daylight bombing and made Spaatz's approach more viable as the war progressed. Nevertheless, the British continued their night area bombing campaign throughout the war with Spaatz's approval, since this, in conjunction with the U.S. daylight campaign, made the bombing of Germany continuous. Unfortunate byproducts of strategic bombing, even the "precision" bombing done by Spaatz's command during the daylight hours, were the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian properties.

To facilitate the amphibious invasion of France, all Allied air forces were placed under the direct command of Dwight Eisenhower from April to October 1944, thus putting Spaatz's strategic bombing campaign on hold for a time. During the Normandy battles, airpower scored one its most significant victories over ground troops during the reduction of the Falaise Pocket. Shortly after the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, Allied air superiority over the battlefield was so complete that Spaatz's forces were authorized to continue their attacks on German fuel production facilities and transportation hubs. These attacks continued until the war's end in May 1945, with a level of success that is debated to this day. In June 1945, Spaatz was transferred to oversee U.S. strategic bombing operations in the Pacific.

World War II-Pacific

Strategic bombing of Japan had proven a difficult prospect. Although Japanese defenses against U.S. bombers were nearly nonexistent, the fragmentation of Japanese industry into small facilities and the sheer size of Japanese cities made targeting nearly impossible. General Curtis Lemay, who commanded the strategic bombing effort in the Pacific until Spaatz's arrival, devised a macabre solution to the problem. By test bombing a replica of a Japanese village constructed in the Nevada desert, Lemay discovered that typical Japanese houses, which were constructed of wood and paper, were particularly vulnerable to a combination of fragmentation bombs followed by incendiaries. Lemay's methods took area bombing to its most devastating form, destroying Japanese industry by burning huge portions of Japanese cities. Civilian losses caused by this type of bombing were catastrophic, exceeding 80,000 killed in one raid on Tokyo alone. Spaatz approved Lemay's methods upon taking command. He also presided over the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Significantly, the Japanese did not surrender immediately upon realizing that Hiroshima had been attacked with a nuclear device, since fewer people had been killed than in many of the earlier, conventional firebombing raids.

Postwar

In the years following World War II, Spaatz continued to advocate strategic bombing as a method of warfare. Although postwar analyses revealed that German and Japanese military production had continued to increase nearly until war's end, despite the visible destruction of their national infrastructures, the advent of nuclear weapons made strategic bombing a more potent weapon than ever before. Spaatz was made commander of the U.S. Army Air Force in 1946. He became the first chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force following its establishment as a separate service in 1947. Spaatz retired from the Air Force in 1948 and became a national security affairs correspondent for Newsweekmagazine. He also served as chairman of the Civil Air Patrol and the International Reserve Committee following his retirement. Spaatz died in Washington, DC on July 13, 1974.

Further Reading

A Biographical Dictionary of World War II, edited by Chrsitopher Tunney, St. Martin's Press, 1972.

Boyne, Walter J., Clash of Wings, Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Roger J. Spiller, Greenwood Press, 1984.

Illustrated World War II Encyclopedia, edited by Peter Young, H.S. Stuttman Inc., 1978.

The Oxford Companion to World War II, edited by I.C.B. Dear, Oxford University Press, 1995.

Who Was Who in World War II, edited by John Keegan, Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers, 1978.

Carl Andrew Spaatz
June 28, 1891(1891-06-28) – July 14, 1974 (aged 83)
Gen. Spaatz
Nickname	Tooey
Place of birth	Boyertown, Pennsylvania, USA
Place of death	Washington, D.C., USA
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force United States Army Air Corps
Years of service	1914 - 1948
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Mexican Expedition World War I World War II
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Army Distinguished Service Medal (3) Legion of Merit Distinguished Flying Cross Bronze Star Air Medal Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire GBE Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Croix de guerre

Carl Andrew "Tooey" Spaatz (June 28, 1891 – July 14, 1974) GBE was an American World War II general and the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.

Contents 1 Early life 2 World War I 3 Inter-war years 4 World War II 5 Later life 6 Other information 7 See also 8 References

Early life

Born as Carl Andrew Spatz, he added the second "a" in 1937 at the request of his wife and daughters to clarify the pronunciation of the name, as many pronounced it "spats". He added the second "a" to draw it out to sound like "ah", like the "a" in "father". (The name is thus correctly pronounced "Spahtz".)^[1]

Spaatz received his nickname at West Point because of his resemblance to another red headed cadet named F.J. Toohey. He graduated in 1914, served briefly in the infantry, and was assigned to the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps in October 1915.

Spaatz served in the First Aero Squadron which was attached to General John J. Pershing during his expedition to Mexico in 1916. Spaatz was promoted to First Lieutenant in July 1916 and to Captain in May 1917.

Bust of General Spaatz at the Imperial War Museum Duxford

World War I

Following America's entry into World War I, Spaatz was sent with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in command of the 31st Aero Squadron. Spaatz spent most of the war commanding the American Aviation School at Issoudun, France but he saw three weeks of action during the final months of the war. In this brief period, Spaatz shot down three enemy planes and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC); during the time he was with the 13th Aero Squadron.^[2] Spaatz was given a temporary promotion to major in the Air Service in June 1918.

Inter-war years

In 1919 he served in California and Texas and became assistant department air service officer for the Western Department in July 1919. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain February 27, 1920, but was promoted to major July 1, 1920.

As a major, he commanded Kelly Field, Texas, from October 5, 1920, to February 1921, served at Fort Sam Houston as air officer of the Eighth Corps Area until November 1921, and was commanding officer of the 1st Pursuit Group, first at Ellington Field, Texas, and later at Selfridge Field, Michigan, until September 24, 1924. He graduated from the Air Corps Tactical School, Langley Field, Virginia, in June 1925, and then served in the Office of the Chief of Air Corps at Washington, D.C.

From January 1 to January 7, 1929, Spaatz along with fellow Air Corps officers, Captain Ira Eaker and Lieutenant Elwood Quesada, both of whom would later become senior United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) generals, established an aviation record by keeping the airplane Question Mark in the air over the Los Angeles vicinity for over 150 hours.

From May 8, 1929, to October 29, 1931, General Spaatz commanded the 7th Bombardment Group at Rockwell Field, California, and the 1st Bombardment Wing at March Field, California, until June 10, 1933. He then served in the Office of the Chief of Air Corps and became chief of the Training and Operations Division. In August 1935, he enrolled in the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and while there was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He graduated in June 1936, and then served at Langley Field on the staff of Maj. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, commander of General Headquarters Air Force, until January 1939, when he returned to the Office of the Chief of Air Corps at Washington as assistant executive officer.

General Spaatz in November 1939, received a temporary promotion to colonel, and during the Battle of Britain in 1940, spent several weeks in England as a special military observer. In August 1940, he was assigned in the Office of the Chief of Air Corps, and two months later was appointed assistant to the chief of Air Corps, with the temporary rank of brigadier general. He became chief of the Plans Division of the Air Corps in November 1940, and the following July was named chief of the air staff at Army Air Forces Headquarters.

The Question Mark being refueled by a Douglas C-1

World War II

General Spaatz was named commander of Air Forces Combat Command in January 1942 and promoted to the temporary rank of Major General. In May 1942 Spaatz became commander of the Eighth Air Force and transferred its headquarters to England in July. Spaatz was placed in overall command of the USAAF in the European Theater of Operations, while retaining his Eighth Air Force command. He was promoted to the permanent rank of Colonel in September 1942 and subsequently assigned command of the Twelfth Air Force in North Africa in December 1942. He was named commander the Allied Northwest African Air Force in February 1943, the Fifteenth Air Force and Royal Air Forces in Italy in November 1943, and the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe in January 1944. Spaatz received a temporary promotion to Lieutenant General in March 1943.

As commander of Strategic Air Forces, Spaatz directed the United States portion of the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, directing the Eighth Air Force, which was now commanded by Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle, based in England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, which was now commanded by Lt. General Nathan Twining, based in Italy.

"It is hard to think of another commander in the USAAF who had enough influence with General Eisenhower to hold off, as well as Spaatz did, the diversions proposed by Leigh-Mallory. Neither is it easy to think of any other who had both the perception to identify oil targets as decisive and the strength to conserve a part of the U.S. strategic air striking power for them.[3]:340

biographer David R. Mets

As the commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe, Spaatz was under the command of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and the supervision of Gen. Hap Arnold, the USAAF Chief of Staff, and he continued under Gen. Arnold's command in the Pacific.

In March 1944, Spaatz proposed the Oil Plan for bombing, and in June 1944 during the Operation Crossbow priority bombing of V-1 sites aimed at the UK, Spaatz advocated, and received authorization from Eisenhower for, bombing of those targets at a lower priority. Spaatz also identified that "…the chimera of one air operation that will end the war…does not exist", and ^[3]:273 advocated Tedder's plan "which retained the oil system in first position, but more clearly placed Germany's rail system in second priority", which encouraged Eisenhower to overrule Air Ministry fears that the "thrust against the oil industry" might be weakened.^[3]:260-1 Spaatz's Oil Plan became the highest bombing priority in September 1944. After the war, Eisenhower said that Spaatz, along with General Omar Bradley, was one of the two American general officers who had contributed the most to the victory in Europe.

Carl Spaatz received a temporary promotion to General on March 11, 1945. He was transferred to the Pacific and assumed command of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific as part of the Pacific Theatre of Operations, with headquarters on Guam, in July 1945. From this command, Spaatz directed the strategic bombing of Japan, including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Spaatz had been present at Reims when the Germans surrendered to the Americans on May 7, 1945; at Berlin when they surrendered to the Russians on May 9; and aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered on September 2. He was the only man of General rank or equivalent present at all three of these surrenders.

Later life

In July 1945, President Truman nominated Spaatz for promotion to the permanent rank of Major General. Spaatz was appointed commanding general of the Army Air Forces in February 1946 following the retirement of his friend General Henry H. Arnold. After the creation of the independent Air Force by the National Security Act of 1947 and Truman's Executive Order No. 9877, Spaatz was appointed as the first Chief of Staff of the new United States Air Force in September 1947.

Spaatz retired from the military at the rank of General on June 30, 1948^[4] and worked for Newsweek magazine as military affairs editor until 1961. He also served on the Committee of Senior Advisors to the Air Force Chief of Staff, from 1952 until his death. From 1948 until 1959, he served as National Commander of the Civil Air Patrol. In 1954, Spaatz was appointed to the congressional advisory board set up to determine the site for the new United States Air Force Academy. Spaatz died on July 14, 1974 and is buried at the Academy's cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Other information

• The Civil Air Patrol's highest cadet award is the General Carl A. Spaatz Award.
• Carl A. Spaatz Field is the regional airport serving Reading, Pennsylvania. It is also home to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.
• Spaatz is the exemplar for the United States Air Force Academy's Class of 2006.
• National Museum of the United States Air Force is located at 1100 Spaatz Street on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
• General Spaatz Boulevard is located adjacent to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) intersecting Tamiami Trail / US 41
• The Outstanding Air Refueling Squadron in the USAF is annually awarded the Gen Carl A. Spaatz trophy

See also

United States Air Force portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carl Andrew Spaatz

References

1. ^ Spaatz was a neighbor and close associate of Lt. Col. Robert Olds at Langley Field, Virginia in the 1930's. Olds had similarly changed the spelling of his name (from Oldys) in 1931 because of common mispronunciation.
2. ^ "Full Text Citations For Award of The Distinguished Service Cross World War I". http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/1_Citations/01_wwi_dsc/dsc_05wwi_AirService2.html. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Mets, David R. (1997 - paperback) [1988]. Master of Airpower: General Carl A. Spaatz. pp. 260-1,265. 
4. ^ "Public domain biography from U.S. Air Force General Carl A. Spaatz" (html). Biographies. Air Force Link. http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7210 Public domain biography from U.S. Air Force. Retrieved 2009-03-06. 

Military offices
Preceded by Gen. Henry H. Arnold as Chief of the United States Army Air Forces	Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force 1947 — 1948	Succeeded by Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg

v • d • e Chiefs of Staff of the United States Air Force Spaatz • Vandenberg • Twining • White • LeMay • McConnell • Ryan • Brown • Jones • Allen • Gabriel • Welch • Dugan • Loh (acting) • McPeak • Fogleman • Ryan • Jumper • Moseley • Schwartz

Persondata
NAME	Spaatz, Carl Andrew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	United States Army general
DATE OF BIRTH	June 28, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Boyertown, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH	July 14, 1974
PLACE OF DEATH	Washington, D.C.

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