Haywood S. Hansell | |
|---|---|
 Hansell, c. 1951 | |
| Nickname(s) | Possum |
| Born | September 28, 1903 Fort Monroe, Virginia |
| Died | November 14, 1988 (aged 85) Hilton Head, South Carolina |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service/ |  United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1928–1946 1951–1955 |
| Rank |  Major General |
| Commands | 3rd Bombardment Wing 1st Bombardment Wing XXI Bomber Command |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Legion of Merit Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal |
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 due to 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.