Haywood Shepherd Hansell Jr. (September 28, 1903 – November 14, 1988) was an American general officer in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II, and later the United States Air Force. He became an advocate of the doctrine of strategic bombardment, and was one of the chief architects of the concept of daylight precision bombing that governed the use of airpower by the USAAF in the war.
Hansell played a key and largely unsung role in the strategic planning of air operations by the United States. This included drafting both the strategic air war plans (AWPD-1 and AWPD-42) and the plan for the Combined Bomber Offensive in Europe; obtaining a base of operations for the B-29 Superfortress in the Mariana Islands; and devising the command structure of the Twentieth Air Force, the first global strategic air force and forerunner of the Strategic Air Command. He made precision air attack, as both the most humane and effective means of achieving military success, a lifelong personal crusade that eventually became the key tenet of American airpower employment. Unfortunately, his air bombardment campaign over Japan proved to be a failure because of various elements, such as the interference of a powerful and consistent jet stream in that nation's airspace. He was replaced by General Curtis LeMay, who reoriented his air forces' tactics in reverse of Hansell's methods for an extremely destructive nighttime area fire bombing campaign over Japan.
Hansell also held combat commands during the war, carrying out the very plans and doctrines he helped draft. He pioneered strategic bombardment of both Germany and Japan, as commander of the first B-17 Flying Fortress combat wing in Europe, and as the first commander of the B-29 force in the Marianas.
Childhood Hansell was born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, on September 28, 1903, the son of First Lieutenant (later Colonel) Haywood S. Hansell, an Army surgeon, and Susan Watts Hansell, both considered members of the "southern aristocracy" from Georgia.Griffith, The Quest, p.25. His great-great-great-grandfather John W. Hansell served in the American Revolution, his great-great-grandfather William Young Hansell was an officer in the War of 1812, and his great-grandfather Andrew Jackson Hansell was an adjutant general.Griffith, The Quest, p.24. His grandfather, William Andrew Hansell, graduated from Georgia Military Institute and also served as an officer in the Confederate Army, first in the 35th Alabama, then as a topographical engineer.According to Banning, p. 98, William Andrew Hansell was enrolled at LaGrange Military Academy when the 35th Alabama was formed from its faculty and cadets, and served as its adjutant and a lieutenant in Company B. He resigned in 1862 to become a captain of CSA Engineers.
Shortly after his birth, the family was stationed in Beijing, China, then in the Philippines, and Hansell learned both Chinese and Spanish at an early age.Benton, They Served Here, p.31.Griffith, The Quest, p.26. Captain Hansell was next stationed at Fort McPherson, Georgia, in 1913, and then at Fort Benning. His father, a firm disciplinarian, sent Hansell to live on a small, family-owned ranch in New Mexico because of a perceived lack of discipline in his schooling. There he learned horsemanship, shooting, and studied with a tutor.Griffith, The Quest, pp.26–27.
Education Hansell entered Sewanee Military Academy, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1916, where he acquired the lifelong nickname "Possum". Although his biographers offer a number of explanations behind the nickname, the most likely is that his facial features gave him the appearance of a possum.Griffith, The Quest, p.23, quoting The Atlanta Journal-Constitution June 6, 1943. At Sewanee he developed a fondness for English literature. As a senior Hansell rose to cadet captain and developed a reputation as a martinet. His harshness with the Corps of Cadets, combined with an excessive number of demerits acquired while the school was temporarily quartered in Jacksonville, Florida, following a fire, led to his reduction to cadet private.Griffith, The Quest, p.28.
Partly as a result of this humiliation, Hansell declined an appointment to the United States Military Academy to attend the Georgia School of Technology, where he was a member of Sigma Nu. Despite problems understanding differential equations,Griffith, The Quest, p.29. and twice attempting to transfer to another school, which his father would not permit, he overcame his difficulties with complex mathematics and graduated in 1924 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. While at Georgia Tech he participated in varsity football as a walk-on substitute, and boxing. Hansell was awarded Georgia Tech's highest individual recognition, membership in the ANAK Society..
From 1924 to 1928 he attempted without success to find employment as a civil engineer in California, where his father was now stationed. Instead he worked as an apprentice and journeyman boilermaker with the Steel Tank and Pipe Company in Berkeley, California. Advances in aviation in the 1920s led Hansell to undertake a career in aeronautical engineering, and to gain flying experience, he decided to join the United States Army Air Corps.Griffith, The Quest, pp.30–31.
Personality and family Short in stature and slightly built, Hansell worked at being an athlete, becoming proficient in tennis, polo, and squash. Socially, he was a noted dancer, and acquired a reputation as "the unofficial poet laureate of the Air Corps."Benton, They Served Here, p.32. He was fond of Gilbert and Sullivan, Shakespeare, and Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. General Ira C. Eaker described him as "nervous and high strung,"Griffith, The Quest, p.24 and 121. and one biographer noted several incidents of imperious temper in social situations.Griffith, The Quest, p.34. However his correspondence secretary during World War II, T/Sgt. James Cooper, described him as "pleasant and diplomatic,"Griffith, The Quest, p.91. and an aviation historian described him as "a forward-looking optimist with a sense of humor."Morrison, Point of No Return, p.194.
While stationed at Langley Field, Virginia, Hansell met his wife, Dorothy "Dotta" Rogers, a teacher from Waco, Texas, where they were married in 1932. He fathered three children, son "Tony" (Haywood S. Hansell III, born in 1933), daughter Lucia (1940), and son Dennett (1941). While frequent absences, long working hours, and Hansell's autocratic nature severely stressed their marriage during World War II,Griffith, The Quest, pp.99–100, 131. they remained married for 56 years until his death in 1988. Hansell's eldest son continued the family military tradition, graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1955, becoming a colonel in the United States Air Force,Col. Tony Hansell was a KC-97 and KC-135 pilot, a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam, and F-4 Phantom pilot with the 80th TFS in Japan. He followed in his father's footsteps by instructing at the Air Command and Staff College, and then holding staff positions in Strategy and Doctrine, with a tour as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff-Plans, Headquarters USAF. Col. Hansell retired in 1985 and died in 2004. General Hansell's granddaughter, Lt. Col. Jennifer T. (Hansell) Perry, a USAF Security Forces officer, is the seventh generation to serve in the military, fourth generation career officer, and third generation Air Force. Per West-Point.org and obituary, San Antonio Express-News, December 6, 2004. and marrying Olivia Twining, the daughter of General Nathan F. Twining.
Early Air Corps career
Pursuit pilot
On February 23, 1928, Hansell was appointed a flying cadet. He completed primary and basic flying schools at March Field, California, then advanced flight training in pursuit flying at Kelly Field, Texas. He graduated from pilot training on February 28, 1929, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve. He received a regular commission as a second lieutenant, Air Corps, on May 2, 1929.
Hansell's first duty assignment was with the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field, testing repaired aircraft. In June 1930, he spent three months temporary duty with the 6th Field Artillery at Fort Hoyle, Maryland. In September 1930, he returned to Langley Field and was detached to the Air Corps Tactical School as armament officer. While stationed at Langley, Hansell was involved in two minor accidents in aircraft he was piloting, and in early 1931 was forced to parachute to safety when his Boeing P-12 stalled during a test flight, going into an unrecoverable spin. He was found at fault for the accident and initially charged $10,000 by the Air Corps for the expense of the aircraft, but the cost was eventually written off.Griffith, The Quest, p.32.
In August 1931, Hansell was transferred to Maxwell Field, Alabama, as assistant operations officer, with flying duties in the 54th School Squadron, to support the ACTS, which had located to Maxwell from Langley in July. During that tour of duty he met Captain Claire L. Chennault, an instructor at the Tactical School, and joined "The Men on the Flying Trapeze",Hansell, The Air Plan That Defeated Hitler, p.20.Sometimes incorrectly seen as "Three Men on a Flying Trapeze". an Air Corps aerobatic and demonstration team.Griffith, The Quest, p.35.The team in 1932 consisted of Chennault, Hansell, and Sgt. John H. "Luke" Williamson. When Hansell left the team, he was replaced by Sgt. William C. "Billy" McDonald. The two sergeants later became flight instructors in China. The team performed at the National Air Races at Cleveland, Ohio, in September 1934. Hansell also worked with Captain Harold L. George, chief of the Tactical School's bombardment section, where his military interest shifted from pursuits to bombers.Harold Lee George's reputation as a bombardment proponent was such that he was known in the service as "Bomber George" to distinguish him from Harold Huston George, a peer of nearly identical age and service experience, whose status as an ace during World War I and career in fighter units resulted in his moniker of "Pursuit George." The friendship that developed from the working relationship led to George becoming both Hansell's mentor and patron.
Disciple of strategic airpower Hansell was promoted to first lieutenant on October 1, 1934, and entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field as a student in the comprehensive 845-hour, 36-week course,Finney, History of the Air Corps Tactical School, p.8. studying not only air tactics and airpower theory, which comprised more than half of the curriculum, but also tactics of other services, combined (joint) warfare, armament and gunnery, logistics, navigation and meteorology, staff duties, photography, combat orders, and antiaircraft defenses. Among his instructors was Captain George, now director of the Department of Air Tactics and Strategy. George's classes were half lecture, half free discussion and conceptualizing, with George or his assistant Capt. Odas Moon expounding theories and having the students critically examine them for flaws and alternative ideas, debates that continued beyond the classroom as well.Finney, History of the Air Corps Tactical School, p.22.Shiner, The Coming of the GHQ Air Force, p. 111.