The Quest; Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II

Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1999. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good. xiii, [1], 226 pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Cover and edges have slight wear and soiling. The Charles Griffith received a bachelor's and master's degree in history from East Tennessee State University and earned his doctorate in military history from the University of Tennessee. He has served on the faculty of East Tennessee State University. Haywood Shepherd Hansell Jr. (September 28, 1903 - November 14, 1988) was a general officer in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II, and later the United States Air Force. He became an advocate of the doctrine of strategic bombardment, and was one of the chief architects of the concept of daylight precision bombing that governed the use of airpower by the USAAF in the war. Hansell played a key role in drafting both the strategic air war plans (AWPD-1 and AWPD-42) and the plan for the Combined Bomber Offensive in Europe; obtaining a base of operations for the B-29 Superfortress in the Mariana Islands; and devising the command structure of the Twentieth Air Force, the first global strategic air force and forerunner of the Strategic Air Command. He made precision air attack, as both the most humane and effective means of achieving military success, that became the key tenet of American airpower employment. Hansell also held combat commands during the war.