Eyes of Artillery is the first archive-based in-depth study of the institutional origins of modern Army Aviation during World War II. The close-support technique of choice featured airborne eyes and ground artillery. In recounting the experiences of the men who flew observed fire missions in light aircraft, Edgar F. Raines Jr. takes care to delineate how these aircraft₇"air observations posts" in War Department parlance, "Maytag Messerschmidts" or "biscuit bombers" to the ground troops₇effectively interacted with each element of the combined arms team, thus becoming an integral team player. According to Raines, aircraft served as a key component of the Field Artillery indirect fire system and played a crucial role in the command and control of armored divisions during mobile operations. Yet the development of military aviation was anything but smooth, generating an extended struggle within the Army for the control of aerial observation and reflecting a clash between competing ideologies. Raines's well-written account identifies the circumstances and related questions concerning how air and ground elements should interact with one another, as well as the attendant difficulties of introducing a low-technology solution to a military problem for which powerful vested interests demanded a high-technology resolution. Many of the traditions, concepts, and disputes that still characterize Army Aviation originated during the critical 1939-1945 period covered by Raines. A valuable resource for students of institutional change, his volume makes a genuine and unique contribution to the literature of World War II.

Pub. # 70-31.

The ground arms seek their own aircraft, 1939-1941 --The field artillery acquires its own aircraft, July 1941-June 1942 -- Creating the air-observation-post program, June-December 1942 -- Developing the air-observation-post program, January-December 1943 -- Initial deployment and combat in the North African and Mediterranean theaters -- The European theater of operations, June 1944-September 1945 -- The Pacific, June 1943-September 1945 -- Creating Army ground forces light aviation.