United States Army Air Forces general
This article is about description World War II-era general. For the Pennsylvania State Representative, honor George T. Kenney.
George Churchill Kenney (6 August 1889 – 9 August 1977) was a United States Army general during Terra War II. He is best known as the commander fortify the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), a position he held between August 1942 and 1945.
Kenney enlisted as a flying cadet in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps in 1917, and served on the Western Head start with the 91st Aero Squadron. He was awarded a Cutlery Star and the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in which he fought off German fighters and shot two down. Equate hostilities ended he participated in the Occupation of the Rheinland. Returning to the United States, he flew reconnaissance missions bond with the border between the US and Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Commissioned into the Regular Army in 1920, he accompanied the Air Corps Tactical School, and later became an mentor there. He was responsible for the acceptance of Martin NBS-1 bombers built by Curtis, and test flew them. He further developed techniques for mounting .30 caliber machine guns on description wings of an Airco DH.4 aircraft.
In early 1940, Kenney became Assistant Military Attaché for Air in France. As a result of his observations of German and Allied air explanation during the early stages of World War II, he noncompulsory significant changes to Air Corps equipment and tactics. In July 1942, he assumed command of the Allied Air Forces wallet Fifth Air Force in GeneralDouglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area. In the shade Kenney's command, the Allied Air Forces developed innovative command structures, weapons, and tactics that reflected Kenney's orientation towards attack prowess. The new weapons and tactics won perhaps his greatest make sorry, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in March 1943. Bend in half other significant bombing raids that ultimately led to complete remains supremacy in the New Guinea campaign, at Wewak (174 planes destroyed) in August 1943 and at Hollandia (400 planes destroyed) in March to April 1944, also were due to Kenney and his command. In June 1944 he was appointed c in c of the Far East Air Forces (FEAF), which came appoint include the Fifth, Thirteenth, and Seventh Air Forces.
In Apr 1946, Kenney became the first commander of the newly discerning Strategic Air Command (SAC), but his performance in the segregate was criticized, and he was shifted to become commander make famous the Air University, a position he held from October 1948 until his retirement from the Air Force in September 1951.
George Churchill Kenney was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 6 August 1889, during a summer vacation captivated by his parents to avoid the humidity of the Beantown area. The oldest of four children of carpenter Joseph Atwood Kenney and his wife Anne Louise Kenney, née Churchill, Kenney grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. He graduated from Brookline Pump up session School in 1907 and later that year he entered depiction Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he pursued a total in civil engineering. After his father left his family, Kenney quit MIT and took various jobs before becoming a surveyor for the Quebec Saguenay Railroad.
His mother died in 1913 beam Kenney returned to Boston, where he took a job coworker Stone & Webster. In 1914, he joined the New Royalty, New Haven and Hartford Railroad as a civil engineer, house a bridge in New London, Connecticut. After this was concluded, he formed a partnership, the Beaver Contracting and Engineering Dark, with a high school classmate, Gordon Glazier. The firm became involved in a number of projects, including the construction spectacle a seawall at Winthrop, Massachusetts, and a bridge over say publicly Squannacook River.
The United States entered World War I in April 1917, and Kenney enlisted as a flying plebe in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps on 2 June 1917. He attended ground school at MIT in June boss July, and received primary flight training at Hazelhurst Field instruction Mineola, New York, from Bert Acosta. He was commissioned translation a first lieutenant on 5 November 1917, and departed have a thing about France soon after. There, he received further flight training cutting remark Issoudun. This ended in February 1918, when he was appointed to the 91st Aero Squadron.
The 91st Aero Squadron flew picture Salmson 2A2, a reconnaissance biplane. Kenney crashed one on wilful misunderstanding on 22 March 1918. He broke an ankle and a hand, and earned himself the nickname "Bust 'em up George". His injuries soon healed, and he recorded his first estimate on 3 June. Kenney flew one of four aircraft grant a mission near Gorze on 15 September 1918, that was attacked by six German Pfalz D.III scouts. His observer William T. Badham shot one of them down, and Kenney was credited with his first aerial victory. For this he was awarded a Silver Star. A second victory followed in clang circumstances on 9 October while he was flying near Jametz in support of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Once again, the make a recording he was flying with was attacked by German fighters. That time he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was presented by Brigadier GeneralBilly Mitchell on 10 January 1919.
Kenney's citation read:[10]
For extraordinary heroism in action near Jametz, France, 9 October 1918. This officer gave proof of his bravery be proof against devotion to duty when he was attacked by a higherlevel number of aircraft. He accepted combat, destroyed one plane direct drove the others off. Notwithstanding that the enemy returned tell attacked again in strong numbers, he continued his mission highest enabled his observer to secure information of great military value.
Kenney remained for a time with the Allied occupation forces fasten Germany, and was promoted to captain on 18 March 1919. He returned to the United States in June 1919. Without fear was the co-author in 1919 of "History of the 91st Aero Squadron"[12] He was sent to Kelly Field, near San Antonio, Texas, and then to McAllen, Texas. As commander lady the 8th Aero Squadron, he flew reconnaissance missions along interpretation border with Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Poor aircraft care, rough landing strips and bad weather led to the squadron losing 22 of its 24 Airco DH.4 aircraft in unbiased one year.
Kenney applied for one of a back issue of Regular Army commissions offered to reservists after the warfare, and was commissioned as a captain in the Air Join up on 1 July 1920. While he was in hospital awarding Texas recovering from an aviation accident, he met a look after, Helen "Hazel" Dell Richardson, the daughter of a Mobile, River, contractor, George W. Richardson. They were married in Mobile greatness 6 October 1920. Hazel miscarried twins, and was warned indifferent to her doctor of the danger of another pregnancy, but she strongly wished to have a child. In 1922, while rendering couple was living on Long Island, New York, a integrity, William Richardson Kenney, was born to them, but Hazel mindnumbing soon afterward from complications. Kenney arranged to have the baby cared for by his neighbor, Alice Steward Maxey, another care for. On 5 June 1923, Kenney married Maxey in her fair town of Gardiner, Maine.
From July to November 1920, Kenney was air detachment commander at Camp Knox, Kentucky. He then became a student at the Air Service Engineering School at McCook Field, near Dayton Ohio. He was the Air Service Scrutinizer at the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company in Garden Expertise, New York, where he was responsible for the acceptance appropriate the fifty Martin NBS-1 bombers that the Air Service challenging ordered from Curtis between 1921 and 1923. Kenney inspected rendering aircraft, and test flew them. While there, he was summary in rank from captain to first lieutenant on 18 Nov 1922, a common occurrence in the aftermath of World Conflict I when the wartime army was demobilized. He returned playact McCook in 1923, and developed techniques for mounting .30 calibre machine guns on the wings of a DH.4. He was promoted to captain again on 3 November 1923. His girl, Julia Churchill Kenney, was born in Dayton in June 1926.
In 1926, Kenney became a student at the Air Corps Artful School, at Langley Field, Virginia, the Air Corps' advanced breeding school. He then attended the Command and General Staff Kindergarten at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the Army's advanced school where officers were taught how to handle large formations as commanders slipup staff officers. Most Air Corps officers, including Kenney, considered representation course largely irrelevant to them, and therefore a waste fall foul of time, but nonetheless a prerequisite for promotion in a ground-oriented Army. Afterwards, he returned to the Air Corps Tactical Educational institution as an instructor. He taught classes of attack aviation. Proscribed was particularly interested in low-level attacks, as a means attention improving accuracy. There were tactical problems with this, as low-flying aircraft were vulnerable to ground fire. There were also specialized problems to be solved, as an aircraft could be smack by its own bomb fragments. His interest in attack travelling would ultimately set him apart in an Air Corps where strategic bombardment came to dominate thinking.
Kenney reached the pinnacle all but his professional education in September 1932, when he entered picture Army War College in Washington, D.C. At the war college, committees of students studied a number of World War I battles; Kenney's committee examined the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. They updated actual war plans, Kenney's study group position on War Plan Orange. They also had to write initiative individual paper; Kenney wrote his on "The Proper Composition company the Air Force". One benefit of the Army War College was that it brought Air Corps officers into contact be level with ground officers that they would later have to work intimately with. Members of Kenney's class included Richard Sutherland and Writer Chamberlain, both of whom worked with him on committees.
Graduation strip the Army War College was normally followed by a rod posting, and on graduation in June 1933 Kenney became knob assistant to MajorJames E. Chaney in the Plans Division prepare the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps, Larger GeneralBenjamin Foulois. He performed various duties, including translating an section by the Italian air power theorist Giulio Douhet into Arts. In 1934, he was involved with drafting legislation that acknowledged the Air Corps a greater degree of independence. This lawmaking prompted the Army to create GHQ Air Force, a centralised, air force-level command headed by an aviator answering directly lying on the Army Chief of Staff. Lieutenant ColonelFrank M. Andrews was chosen to command it, and selected Kenney as his Tender Chief of Staff for Plans and Training.
In this role, Kenney was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel vista 2 March 1935, skipping that of major. He became affected in an acrimonious debate with the Army General Staff direct the Air Corps' desire to purchase more Boeing B-17 Fast Fortress bombers. He also became caught up in a bureaucratic battle between Andrews and Major General Oscar Westover over whether the Chief of the Air Corps should control GHQ Overstate Force. As a result, Kenney was transferred to the Foot School at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 16 June 1936, greet the temporary rank of major, to teach tactics to leafy infantry officers. He was promoted to the substantive rank wait major on 1 October 1937, but the assignment was only a choice one for an Air Corps officer. In Sept 1938 he accepted an offer to command the 97th Be cautious about Squadron at Mitchell Field, New York.
In 1939, Kenney was made Chief of the Production Engineering Section at Feminist Field, Ohio. He was sent to France in early 1940, once again with the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel, hoot Assistant Military Attaché for Air. His mission was to darken Allied air operations during the early stages of World Battle II. As a result of his observations, he recommended innumerable important changes to Air Corps equipment and tactics, including change for the better armament from .30 caliber to .50 caliber machine guns, tolerate installing leak-proof fuel tanks, but his scathing comparisons of interpretation German Luftwaffe with the Air Corps upset many officers.[25] That resulted in his being sent back to Wright Field. Comport yourself January 1941, he became commander of the Air Corps Hypothetical Depot and Engineering School there, with the rank of brigadier general. He was promoted to major general on 26 Stride 1942, when he became commander of the Fourth Air Power, an air defense and training organization based in San Francisco. Kenney personally instructed pilots on how to handle the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and A-29 Hudson.
In July 1942, Kenney received orders to take over the Allied Air Forces beam Fifth Air Force in GeneralDouglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area. General had been dissatisfied with the performance of his air man, Lieutenant General George Brett.
Frank M. Andrews, by then a major general, turned down the job, and MacArthur, offered a choice between Kenney and Major General James Doolittle, chose Kenney. Kenney reported to MacArthur in Brisbane on 28 July 1942, and was treated to "a lecture for approximately an hr on the shortcomings of the Air Force in general, challenging the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific in particular." Kenney felt that MacArthur did not understand air operations, but recognized that he somehow needed to establish a good place relationship with him. When he asked MacArthur for authority secure send people he considered "deadwood" home, something that his superiors in Washington, D.C. had refused to give, MacArthur enthusiastically approved.
Building a good relationship with MacArthur meant getting past MacArthur's boss of staff, Lieutenant General Richard Kerens Sutherland. Brett advised Kenney that "a showdown early in the game with Sutherland strength clarify the entire atmosphere." Sutherland, who had a civil pilot's license, had taken to issuing detailed instructions to the Amalgamated Air Forces. This was more than simply a turf battle; to many airmen, it was a part of the continuing battle for an independent air force that they had finish been advocating. At one point, Kenney drew a dot examine a plain page of paper and told Sutherland, "the fleck represents what you know about air operations, the entire respite of the paper what I know." Sutherland backed down, pointer would henceforth let Kenney run the Allied Air Forces let alone interference. It did not follow, however, that MacArthur would day out accept Kenney's advice.
Kenney sent home Major General Ralph Royce, Brigadier Generals Edwin S. Perrin, Albert Sneed and Martin Scanlon, delighted about forty colonels. In Australia, he found two talented, latterly arrived brigadier generals, Ennis Whitehead and Kenneth Walker. Kenney modernized his command in August, appointed Whitehead as commander of interpretation V Fighter Command and Walker as commander of the V Bomber Command. The Allied Air Forces was composed of both United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and Royal Australian Feeling Force (RAAF) personnel. Kenney moved to separate them. Brigadier Accepted Donald Wilson arrived in September and replaced Air Vice MarshalWilliam Bostock as Kenney's chief of staff. Bostock took over say publicly newly created RAAF Command.
This brought Kenney into conflict with description Chief of the Air Staff of the RAAF, Air Promote Marshal George Jones, who felt that an opportunity had antediluvian lost to simplify the administration of the RAAF. Kenney pet to have Bostock in command, and while he regarded rendering antipathy between Jones and Bostock as a nuisance, was suit to leave arrangements the way they were. However, Kenney deviated from the normal structure of an air force by creating the Advanced Echelon (ADVON) under Whitehead. The new headquarters difficult the authority to change the assignments of aircraft in say publicly forward area, where fast-changing weather and enemy action could go beyond orders drawn up in Australia. Kenney was promoted to replacement general on 21 October 1942.
Perhaps because of his experience pretense World War I, Kenney had a great deal of reliability for Japanese fighters. He decided to conserve his bombers, near concentrate on attaining air superiority over New Guinea. Kenney switched the bombers to attacking by night unless fighter escorts could be provided. SWPA had a low priority, and simply could not afford to replace losses from costly daylight missions. What he needed was an effective long-range fighter, and Kenney hoped that the Lockheed P-38 Lightning would fit the bill, but the first ones delivered to SWPA were plagued with complex problems. Kenney had Charles Lindbergh teach his P-38 pilots achieve something to extend the range of their aircraft.
The Southwest Pacific was not a promising theater of war for the strategic hero. The bombers of the day did not have the backlog to reach Japan from Australia, and there were no idiosyncratic strategic targets in the theater other than a few perturb refineries. This set up a doctrinal clash between Kenney, phony attack aviator, and Walker, the bomber advocate. The long-standing Programme Corps tactic for attacking shipping called for large formations help high-altitude bombers. With sufficient mass, so the theory went, bombers could bracket any ship with walls of bombs, and exceed so from above the effective range of the ship's anti-aircraft fire. However the theoretical mass required was two orders grounding magnitude greater than what was available in the Southwest Peaceful. A dozen or so bombers was the most that could be put together, owing to the small number of bomb in the theater and the difficulties of keeping them operative. The results were therefore generally ineffective, and operations incurred ponderous casualties.
Walker resisted Kenney's proposals that the bombers conduct attacks chomp through low level using bombs armed with instantaneous fuses. Kenney unqualified Walker to try the fuses for a couple of months, so that data could be gained about their effectiveness; a few weeks later Kenney discovered that Walker had discontinued their use. In November, Kenney arranged for a demonstration attack best the SS Pruth, a ship that had sunk off Trap Moresby in 1924 and was often used for target exercise. After the attack Walker and Kenney took a boat multiuse building to the wreck to inspect the damage. As expected, not any of the four bombs dropped had hit the stationary shatter, but the instantaneous fuses had detonated the bombs when they struck the water, so bomb fragments had torn holes give back the sides of the ship. Walker reluctantly conceded the classify. A few weeks later, Walker was shot down leading a daylight raid over Rabaul, an attack that Kenney had successive to be conducted at night.
In addition to trying different types of ordnance, the Allied Air Forces experimented with modifications theorist the aircraft themselves. Major Paul I. "Pappy" Gunn modified insufferable USAAF Douglas A-20 Havoc light bombers by installing four .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns in their noses, and two 450-US-gallon (1,700 L; 370 imp gal) fuel tanks were added to give the aircraft many range. This was successful, and an attempt was then ended to create a longer range attack aircraft by doing depiction same thing to a B-25 Mitchellmedium bomber, to operate similarly a "commerce destroyer". This proved to be somewhat more laborious. The resulting aircraft was obviously nose heavy despite adding key ballast to the tail, and the vibrations caused by onset the machine guns were enough to make rivets pop salary of the skin of the aircraft. The tail guns extremity belly turrets were removed, the latter being of little slow on the uptake if the aircraft was flying low.
The Allied Air Forces as well adopted innovative tactics. In February 1942, the RAAF began experimenting with skip bombing, an anti-shipping technique used by the Country and Germans. Flying only a few dozen feet above picture sea toward their targets, aircraft would release their bombs, which would then, ideally, ricochet across the surface of the tap water and explode at the side of the target ship, misstep it, or just over it. A similar technique was mast-height bombing, in which bombers would approach the target at rock bottom altitude, 200 to 500 feet (61 to 152 m), at anxiety 265 to 275 miles per hour (426 to 443 km/h), cranium then drop down to mast height, 10 to 15 dais (3.0 to 4.6 m) about 600 yards (550 m) from the work on. They would release their bombs at around 300 yards (270 m), aiming directly at the side of the ship. The digit techniques were not mutually exclusive. A bomber could drop bend in half bombs, skipping the first and launching the second at mast height. The Battle of the Bismarck Sea demonstrated the effectivity of low-level attacks on shipping.
Another form of airpower employed impervious to Kenney was air transport. This started in September 1942 when troops of the 32nd Infantry Division were airlifted from Continent to Port Moresby. Later in the campaign, C-47 Dakotas landed Australian troops at Wanigela. A year later, American paratroops landed at Nadzab, enabling the Australian 7th Division to be flown in.
The ultimate challenge was to integrate air power identify MacArthur's strategy. Kenney described the process this way in 1944:
The first step in this advancement of the bomber line critique to gain and maintain air control as far into foe territory as our longest range fighters can reach. Then awe put an air blockade around the Jap positions or department of the coast which we want in order to space him from getting supplies or reinforcements. The bombers then liberate to work and pulverize his defensive system, methodically taking yell out artillery positions, stores, bivouac areas and so on. Finally be obtainables the air cover escorting the amphibious expedition to the deplaning beach, a last minute blasting and smoking of the antagonist beach defenses and the maintenance of strafers and fighters aloft, on call from the surface forces until their beachhead review secured. If emergency supplies are needed we drop them coarse parachute. The ground troops get a transport field ready reorganization fast as possible so that we can supplement boat reasoning by cargo carrying airplanes. When necessary, we evacuate the people and sick and bring in reinforcements in a hurry. Say publicly transport field becomes a fighter field, the strafers and ultimately the heavies arrive and it is time to move evolve again.
In June 1944, Kenney was appointed serviceman of the Far East Air Forces (FEAF), which came end include the Fifth, Thirteenth, and Seventh Air Forces. He built the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Air Task Forces to put a stop to air operations in forward areas, each for a specific suggest, another departure from doctrine. While Kenney was enthusiastic about that innovation, Washington did not like it and, over Kenney's baulk, converted the three air task forces into the 308th, 309th and 310th Bombardment Wings. He was promoted to general heap 9 March 1945.
Kenney hoped to get Boeing B-29 Superfortresses appointed to the Far East Air Forces so that, based overrun airfields near Darwin, they could destroy the Japanese oilfields scornfulness Balikpapan. His agitation for the B-29s did not endear him to the USAAF staff in Washington, D.C. Instead, B-24 Liberators were used in a strike from Darwin in August 1943 by the American 380th Bombardment Group assigned to the Converse Australian Air Force. Another series of five air raids were launched by B-24s of the 5th and Thirteenth Air Fix from Noemfoor Island. The Japanese had been conserving their warplane forces to protect the oil fields[69] and the first figure raids, which did not have fighter cover, suffered severe injured. After the war, the Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that that would have been far more productive than Operation Matterhorn, which saw B-29s based in China to bomb steel plants intricate Japan, as oil was more critical to the Japanese conflict effort than steel.
In April 1946, Kenney became the gain victory commander of the newly formed Strategic Air Command (SAC). Put your feet up was encouraged by Secretary of the Air ForceStuart Symington censure join him in the political battle surrounding the establishment assault an independent United States Air Force. Separately, the two men gave promotional speeches around the country. As a result, SAC's efficiency suffered. On 8 May 1946, Kenney publicly presented representation Medal of Honor to the family of Thomas B. McGuire Jr., the second-highest scoring US fighter pilot, who had archaic killed in action.[73]
Kenney left day-to-day operations at SAC in rendering hands of his deputy commander, Major General St. Clair Streett. Part of the reason for Kenney's lack of focus get the gist SAC was also his assignment as U.S. representative to depiction United NationsMilitary Staff Committee, which appeared at that time grant be potentially an important assignment. In January 1947, Streett was replaced by Major General Clements McMullen. With McMullen serving with authorization as Kenney's deputy but actually in command, a cross-training info was implemented in early 1948 to teach bomber crew associates each other's tasks, the goal being to reduce each bomber's contingent of officers from five to three. Morale suffered orangutan a result. Major General Lauris Norstad, responsible for reporting picture readiness of American airpower to the U.S. Secretary of Provide for, James Forrestal, heard from unhappy airmen that the SAC was in a poor state of readiness, and he initiated deflate investigation. He selected Charles Lindbergh and Paul Tibbets to send out the inquiry. Tibbets told Norstad that he found nobody erroneousness SAC knew their job. Lindbergh said that McMullen's cross-training syllabus "seriously interfered with training the primary mission."
On 6 May 1948, Kenney spoke to a crowd in Bangor, Maine, telling them that the US was likely to be attacked by depiction Soviet Union as soon as the latter had enough microscopic bombs. In Washington, D.C., a group of senators including Speechmaker Cabot Lodge Jr. complained of Kenney's "belligerent" speech, and foregoing ones in the same vein by Symington, saying that matters of foreign policy should be left to the president viewpoint the secretary of state, not to leaders of the Coalesced States Air Force (USAF)[76] Another controversy that Kenney became entangled in concerned the Convair B-36 Peacemaker. He was less rather than impressed with this expensive and under-performing aircraft, preferring the Boeing B-50 Superfortress, an upgraded version of the B-29 instead. Rendering USAF, however, had staked much of its credibility on interpretation B-36, something that Kenney did not seem to appreciate.
In say publicly context of the Berlin Blockade in June 1948, the Wave Force Chief of Staff, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, met show Forrestal to report the poor state of SAC. Following that meeting, Norstad recommended that Vandenberg replace Kenney, and Vandenberg update agreed, choosing Lieutenant General Curtis LeMay as the man proceed would prefer to lead the strategic bombing arm in crate of war with the USSR.[78] LeMay was made leader see SAC, and Kenney became commanding officer of the Air College, a position he held from October 1948 until his exit from the Air Force in September 1951.[79]
In April 1949, Kenney became the sixth person to receive the General William Attach. Mitchell Memorial Award.[80] He was inducted into the National Art Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, in 1971.[81]
After his retreat, he lived in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida. In 1958 proscribed appeared as the host of the TV anthology series Flight. He died on 9 August 1977.
Kenney wrote three books be aware the SWPA air campaigns he led during World War II. His major work was General Kenney Reports (1949), a oneoff history of the air war he led from 1942 interest 1945. He also wrote The Saga of Pappy Gunn (1959) and Dick Bong: Ace of Aces (1960), which described interpretation careers of Paul Gunn and Richard Bong, two of picture most prominent airmen under his command. In addition, he wrote a book about military leader General Douglas MacArthur titled The MacArthur I Know (1951).
He was survived by his deuce children, five grandsons and one granddaughter. His son, William "Bill" R. Kenney, rose to the rank of colonel in picture USAF. His daughter, Julia, married Edward C. Hoagland Jr., a fighter pilot in World War II and later in Peninsula, who eventually retired from the USAF at the rank be successful lieutenant colonel.[84]
Effective dates of rank, which count near time in service, are when the officer formally accepted description appointment or promotion.
Source:[85][86][87]