 Here's a call to the halls of men we all see. 1939. The United States, shocked by a peace-minute Munich, had her leaders take a closer look at military aviation. While exploring the values of small bombers like the B-18 against the more costly flying fortress, they approved experimental projects for the B-15, whose four engines proved too weak for the giant's wave-and-wing span of 149 feet, and for the lumbering B-19, which boasted a record span of 212 feet. However, both new ships did pay dividends in future bomber development. It finally took world events to give the U.S. Air Force its biggest shot in the arm. On the fateful dawn of September 1, 1939, Hitler directed the German Army and Luftwaffe in our lightning-like campaign. The map was stolen. The plan was surprised. Twenty years before, President Wilson had warned us that any future war will inevitably open with great aerial activity. Wilson was right. Without warning, 2,000 modern German combat planes took off with the first aerial blitz in the history of the world. Poland died on its air. With this earth shattering over the earth played by strafing Stuka bombers, World War II began. Ironically, the method the Germans followed in this Polish campaign was the same one by which we, on a far larger scale, would defeat Germany. As thousands of bombs demolished Polish cities, the U.S. Air Corps learned a lesson. Now Hitler's threat, today Germany, tomorrow the world, was both believed and feared. In the United States, the President proclaimed a national emergency. We immediately put a huge expansion program into operation. It took no time at all before we ran out of facilities, as we raised aircrew and other training goals. From an all-volunteer corps of 23,000 in 1939, we grew a hundred-fold as more volunteers and draftees joined up. Science helped us choose their specialties. There were physical as well as mental requirements for the hundreds of skills which we eventually taught to two and a half million men and women who became our ground and air crews. We measured a man's oxygen needs as well as his muscular and mental coordination. We devised mechanical aptitude tests and general classification tests which indicated ability to learn in the many technical categories. As General Arnold declared, the Air Corps had to become the largest single educational organization in a very short time. We were an army of specialists. In schools all over the country, we learned our trades from experts and became airplane mechanics, cooks and bakers, communications men, bombardiers, armors, meteorologists. We learned hundreds of technical jobs, and finally we were a tremendous team of skilled Americans who knew how to keep them flying. America's ability to mass-produce complex military aircraft was essentially a civilian miracle. However, in 1940, as in 1917, defense work didn't get started until late. War had stopped the wheels of industry and conversion took time, valuable time. Many factors made the miracle possible. Waking airplane designs, inexhaustible raw materials and highly adaptable industry, a variety of well-established aviation companies, willing defense workers, and a goal. I should like to see this nation geared up to the ability to turn out at least 50,000 planes a year. Many said this was impossible, but the new models were ready. V-25 Mitchell by North America. P-38 Lightning by Lockheed. V-26 Marauder by Martin. P-39 Air Cobra by Bell. V-24 Liberator by Consolidated. And P-40 Kitty Hawk by Curtis. But 50,000 aircraft meant speeding up from 2,000 planes a year to more than 4,000 planes per month. Could America do it? When German forces led by her Luftwaffe began to overrun the map of Europe early in 1940, across Denmark and Norway, then southward, speeding over Holland and Belgium toward France, I as a military observer filed my reports. The air war that everyone feared had in fact stuck. The smirking Luftwaffe was repeating its fully success as it paved the way for advancing panzers which crushed 3.5 million French soldiers. While German troops and airmen who stepped on the heart of Paris, the Luftwaffe was invincible. But the triumphs of 1939 and 40 had all been scored against weak opposition. After the French surrender June 22nd, only the RAF remained for the Luftwaffe to conquer. A test of strength soon came. The battle for Britain. The Luftwaffe set to its task of controlling all Western Europe by crossing the channels. German engines forecast a rain of death. The RAF was ready but outnumbered. Warned of the approaching attack, their fighter command sprang to the task of trying to hold off the invasion. While Britain's spotters and warning centers tracked the enemy planes, I watched the island's defenses go into action. The outnumbered few fought back with more than blood, sweat and tears. They had spitfires and hurricanes in their aircraft arsenal and a modest but well-trained force of airmen. The best that Gehring had to offer was knocked out of the sky. The Royal Air Force outnumbered two to one fought the Luftwaffe to a standstill and chased them back across the channel. Then Britain's warning centers reported that Gehring switched to night raids. London was still the main target, but the people had learned to take it. Although slowed down by ground and air defenses, the Luftwaffe's final effort was desperate. Her repeated night raids on southern ports and shipping were furious, but Britain was safe. Out of the London Blitz came new collaboration with friendly nations for U.S. air defense. The President revealed an agreement transferring 50 over-aged destroyers to Great Britain in exchange for the right to establish air and naval bases at eight key points. We received 99-year leases on sites in Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad and British Guiana. For bases such as these late in 1941, Army engineers began to practice building airfields in a hurry, a job they eventually did all around the world. At the Louisiana and Carolina maneuvers, steel carpets for airplanes were tried with excellent results. Air leaders called these landing mats the year's greatest achievement in aviation. Rivalry between Air Commanders William Kepter and Aza Duncan was key, and every effort was made to simulate actual war conditions as they existed in Europe at the moment. Except that Hitler didn't use sacks of flour. High point of the maneuver was the lesson learned from the first large-scale use of American airplanes to move armies. On November 22, the fleet of C-47s unloaded a complete battalion of airborne infantry to help capture Polk Field, North Carolina. In the sham battle it followed, all the new planes distinguished themselves. Attesting to the gains made during the years of experimental flight, technical advance, expanding man and machine power, the nation's air arm was being prepared for grueling events now only days ahead. December 6, 1941, Honolulu. Although alerted, the city went about its business in the usual way. December 6, 1941, Hamilton Field, California. We were under orders to get every available B-17 to the Philippine Islands. General Arnold personally inspected the air movement of the 13 B-17. They carried no armament because of the heavy gas load necessary for the 3,000 mile hop to Oahu. Dawn, December 7, 1941, the Pacific Ocean. A Japanese test force was also heading for Oahu. Mission, sneak attack. Primary targets, Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field. Exactly at 0600, the fateful signal was given. And the first wave, 200 fighters, horizontal bombers, torpedo bombers, and dive bombers roared off. Pearl was an ideal target because through greater fear of sabotage than air attack, ships and planes had been brought together rather than dispersed. When the B-17s from California finally approached the island, their engines were heard by some of our men at Pearl and Hickam. At the same instant, from another direction, the Japs struck. In the midst of the onslaught, the unarmed B-17s arrived. Our pilots could do no more than find a place to land. Wave after wave of enemy planes bombed American aircraft in units of the Pacific Fleet in a treacherous attack which achieved perfect tactical surprise. Other Japs went after US fighters on auxiliary fuel. In spite of the terrific pounding, our pilots and mechanics were able to get four P-40s and two P-36s in the air within the first 30 minutes and offer some resistance. In the face of overwhelming odds, Lieutenant Terry Brown, Robert Rogers, Kenneth Taylor, John Webster and George Welch, among many others, fought back as best they could. At the end of the single-air attack, the United States had suffered a crushing blow and the nation was at war. The Japs squadrons returned to their carriers with a loss of only 49 planes, a cheap price for so great a victory. Although America had paid heavily for being unprepared, the US Air Force, led by men like Cap Arnold, began to rise from the disaster. We are faced with a tough job, but I know that we can do it. And with all due reverence, I say, by God we will not.