Publisher's Synopsis
The materials for this study were originally prepared to meet an urgent request from the Directorate of Operational Requirements, Headquarters US.AF. Because of the continuing and growing interest in airborne operations, these materials have been refined and issued in the present form as a historical study. It is intended as a useful source of information for planners and others concerned with the relationship of past operations to the present and the future. With the exception of the southern France operation in August 1944, the most important USAF airborne operations of World War II and the Korean War have been included. They represent, however, almost all of the USAF airborne effort in these wars, for such other airborne operations as occurred were of lesser size and consequence. Statistical information has been limited to the most significant aspects of the operations. The footnotes are a reliable guide to sources that will provide far more detailed information on these operations than could be included here. Deserving of special commendation to the reader who is interested in further exploration of the subject are the two USAF Historical Division studies by John C. Warren: No. 74, Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942-1945, and No. 97, Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater.
