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The AAF Antisubmarine Command was activated on October 13, 1942, at Mitchel Field, New York, formalizing a mission the Army Air Forces had already been carrying out on an improvised basis since the early months of the war. In the first half of 1942, German U-boats had inflicted devastating losses on merchant shipping along the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean during what German submariners themselves called the "Second Happy Time," and I Bomber Command had been pressed into flying antisubmarine patrols with whatever aircraft could be spared. The creation of a dedicated Antisubmarine Command reflected the Army Air Forces' recognition that defeating the U-boat threat required specialized aircraft, dedicated crews, and purpose-built tactics rather than an ad hoc diversion of bomber assets.
Under the command of Brigadier General Westside T. Larson, the Antisubmarine Command organized squadrons flying a mix of aircraft adapted for the maritime patrol role, including B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, older B-18 Bolos, and Lockheed A-29 Hudsons. These aircraft were increasingly equipped with search radar to detect surfaced submarines at night or in poor visibility, retractable Leigh Lights to illuminate targets during night attacks, and depth charges for the final attack run once a submarine was located. Squadrons operated along the Atlantic seaboard, over the Gulf of Mexico, and throughout the Caribbean, providing convoy escort and independent hunter-killer patrols against a U-boat threat that, while diminishing from its early 1942 peak, remained a serious danger to Allied shipping throughout 1942 and into 1943.
The command's most notable overseas deployment came through the 480th Antisubmarine Group, which took its aircraft and crews to Morocco and later England to operate over the Bay of Biscay, the critical transit corridor U-boats had to cross when moving between their French Atlantic coast bases and their Atlantic hunting grounds. Working in cooperation with RAF Coastal Command, which had pioneered many of the tactics and technology the AAF squadrons employed, American antisubmarine crews contributed to the intensifying Allied campaign to interdict U-boats during this vulnerable transit phase.
The command's existence, however, was ultimately shaped by an interservice resource dispute as much as by combat operations. Throughout 1942 and 1943, the Army and Navy contested which service should bear primary responsibility for antisubmarine warfare, a debate resolved by a mid-1943 agreement that assigned the mission exclusively to the Navy, which was rapidly expanding its own long-range patrol aircraft and escort carrier capabilities. As a direct result, the AAF Antisubmarine Command was disbanded on August 24, 1943, with its aircraft, personnel, and expertise largely absorbed into the Eighth Air Force's growing heavy bomber force, redirecting experienced crews toward the strategic bombing campaign against Germany for the remainder of the war.
Q1: When was the AAF Antisubmarine Command established?
A1: The AAF Antisubmarine Command was activated October 13, 1942, growing out of I Bomber Command's earlier antisubmarine patrol mission along the US East Coast.
Q2: What aircraft did the Antisubmarine Command fly?
A2: The command flew B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, B-18 Bolos, and A-29 Hudsons, many equipped with search radar, Leigh Lights, and depth charges for hunting submerged and surfaced U-boats.
Q3: Where did the Antisubmarine Command operate?
A3: Squadrons patrolled the US East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean, while the 480th Antisubmarine Group deployed overseas to hunt U-boats transiting the Bay of Biscay from French Atlantic ports.
Q4: Who commanded the AAF Antisubmarine Command?
A4: Brigadier General Westside T. Larson commanded the AAF Antisubmarine Command throughout its existence.
Q5: Why was the AAF Antisubmarine Command disbanded?
A5: A mid-1943 Army-Navy agreement assigned sole responsibility for antisubmarine warfare to the Navy, and the AAF Antisubmarine Command was disbanded on August 24, 1943, with its aircraft and crews largely transferred to the Eighth Air Force.
a. Status, readiness, and supply of US armed forces
The AAF Antisubmarine Command's very creation in October 1942 was itself a readiness admission: the Army Air Forces had entered the war without a dedicated antisubmarine warfare capability, and the heavy merchant shipping losses of early 1942 exposed a genuine gap in coastal and convoy defense. The command's equipment mix, adapted bombers rather than purpose-built maritime patrol aircraft, reflects the improvisational nature of American antisubmarine capability even after formal organization; unlike the Navy's later purpose-fitted PB4Y Privateers and escort carrier task groups, the AAF's antisubmarine squadrons largely made do with modified variants of aircraft designed for other missions. The rapid adoption of radar and Leigh Lights nonetheless shows a genuine, technology-driven readiness improvement over the course of the command's short existence, mirroring the broader Allied technological race against the U-boat threat.
b. Development of fighting men and command structures
The Antisubmarine Command's roughly ten-month existence makes it one of the shorter-lived major AAF commands of the war, but its personnel and lessons did not disappear when it disbanded; they were folded directly into the expanding Eighth Air Force bomber force, meaning crews who had trained in the demanding, highly technical discipline of maritime search-and-attack tactics brought that same disciplined, sensor-and-technology-driven approach into the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. This command's dissolution is itself an instructive case study in wartime command structure: rather than persisting as redundant capability once the Army-Navy agreement clarified mission ownership, the AAF disbanded the organization and reallocated its assets to where they were most needed, a sign of a mature institution willing to make hard resource-allocation decisions in the interest of the broader war effort.
c. Prominent personnel and their role with the organization
Brigadier General Westside T. Larson commanded the AAF Antisubmarine Command throughout its brief existence, overseeing both the buildup of its domestic patrol squadrons and the deployment of the 480th Antisubmarine Group overseas. Larson's command bridged two very different operational environments, coastal and Gulf patrol work defending American shipping close to home, and the more specialized Bay of Biscay interdiction mission conducted in direct cooperation with RAF Coastal Command, whose expertise in maritime patrol tactics and technology significantly influenced how the American squadrons operated. The command stands as a relatively brief but historically significant chapter in AAF history, illustrating both the improvisational urgency of America's early wartime response to the U-boat threat and the institutional flexibility that allowed the Army Air Forces to stand down a command once its mission had been reassigned, redirecting its people and hard-won expertise to where the strategic bombing campaign needed them most.
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