As discussed in an earlier article on Army Aviation, an important development of the military's first extensive use of air power in combat during the First World War was the increasing internal Army disagreement over tactical (i.e. organic) versus strategic air operations.
This divergence not only led to the creation in 1947 of the independent Air Force but also to the birth of the modern Army Aviation Branch. The organic versus strategic conflict in operational theory also caused increasingly separate visions of the type of aircraft most suitable for carrying out the tactical missions needed by the Army Ground Forces (AGF) in WW II and the heavy bombing sorties favored by the Army Air Forces (AAF). The large, high-speed, maneuverable aircraft sought by the AAF for such strategic missions provided little support to AGF Soldiers on the front lines because the planes were too quick for adequate observation and too fast for artillery fire adjustment.
A series of successful exercises with lightweight observation aircraft convinced Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to approve the establishment of an organic air observation capability for the Army's field artillery on June 6, 1942. The first combat use of organic Army Aviation, predecessor of the modern Army Aviation Branch, occurred in November 1942 on the coast of North Africa. The L-4 fixed-wing Piper Cub "Grasshopper" was the most ubiquitous of the lightweight aircraft used to adjust artillery fire, gather intelligence, support naval bombardment and direct bombing missions. Also known as the "flying jeep," doodlebug, "biscuit bomber" and "puddle jumper," the L-4 Grasshopper played a vital role in helping to win the war by operating with the Army in every campaign and on every front of WWII.
In addition to the growing AAF/AGF conflict over fixed-wing airplanes, the Army became interested in rotary-wing aircraft during WWII. Although the Marine Corps had experimented unsuccessfully with the Pitcairn OP-1 autogyro, a mixture of heavier-than-air frame with a four-blade rotor, during fighting in Nicaragua in 1932, the Army did not acquire its first helicopter -- the Vought-Sikorsky R-4 -- until Jan. 10, 1941. The aircraft consisted of a fabric-covered body built of steel tubes, topped by a fabric-covered, plywood-ribbed main rotor. It was capable of carrying a pilot, one passenger and a maximum weight of about 2500 pounds, up to a range of 220 miles, at a speed of 65 mph.
The R-4 was the only Army helicopter flown in combat during WWII, as well as the first U.S. military rotary aircraft to successfully carry out a combat rescue mission. In April 1944, Army Lt. Carter Harman used an R-4 to rescue a pilot and three British soldiers shot down in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater. Another R-4 pilot navigated a hazardous aerial route through a 10,000-foot mountain range to reach a stranded weather station in January 1945. Army pilots also used the R-4 to ferry parts between floating Aviation Repair Units in the South Pacific. Each of the six vessels had two helicopters assigned primarily to carry parts, but they also were used for medical evacuation and other mercy missions.
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