Air Ministry: Combined Operational Planning Committee: Papers

The papers in this series relate mainly to the planning of action against specified targets by a Committee staffed by RAF and USAAF personnel.

The Combined Operational Planning Committee was appointed in June 1943. It was first suggested by the Air Ministry at the prompting of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory who considered it desirable to have an agency to coordinate daylight operations and prepare plans well in advance so that proper dispositions could be made. The proposal was approved by the Commanders-in-Chief of Bomber and Fighter Commands and the Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force. The Committee's task was the preparation of tactical plans for strategic daylight operations by American and British bomber and fighter forces in fulfilment of existing directives governing the conduct of bomber operations from the U.K.

The Committee, which was staffed by R.A.F. and U.S.A.A.F. personnel, was organised into two sections: the Planning Section, which prepared the tactical plans, and the Intelligence Section, which studied the German Air Force with particular reference to the capability, dispositions, armaments and productive capacity of its fighter forces.

The Committee was disbanded in June 1945.