Endearing Leadership of Enduring Organizations: General Nathan F. Twining and the Dichotomous Air Wars of the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Air Forces During World War II

Abstract : This thesis analyzes the air wars waged by the Thirteenth Air Force in the Pacific and the Fifteenth Air Force in Europe during World War II while under the successive command of Maj Gen Nathan F. Twining. By using General Twining as a common denominator to study these two theaters, the author assesses how the United States Army Air Forces, as well as air leaders like Twining, responded to an air war in one theater that was fairly well anticipated and consistent with pre-war airpower doctrine, and one in another theater that was unanticipated and inconsistent with pre-war notions of airpower. The author starts by providing biographical background on General Twining before he departed for the Pacific theater in 1942 to expose the experiences throughout his career that influenced his ideas on airpower and leadership. The author couples this with a broad-brush look at the Army Air Forces before the war to determine how they were organized, what they believed, and how they were equipped as an institution leading up to hostilities in World War II. The results of the pre-war analysis show that Twining was an acculturated Airman and his beliefs were consistent with institutional doctrine, which claimed that airpower could be decisive through the strategic bombardment of an enemy's industrial centers. In the next two sections, the author takes a case study approach to the air operations of the Thirteenth Air Force from January 1943 through December 1943 and the Fifteenth Air Force from January 1944 through May 1945. The final section of the study compares and contrasts the case studies to determine how the commander, and the organizational structure of the numbered air forces, adapted the application of airpower to the fit the requirements of the operational environment and emerge victorious in both situations one that was anticipated and one that was not.