Successful war is waged in three elements. There is no more mystery concerning the part played by the Air Forces in achieving the victories of the Allied Expeditionary Force than there is concerning the Navies that escorted us to the beaches and sustained our sea communications throughout many months of fighting, or of the ground armies that swept forward from Normandy to the heart of the Reich. The whole invasion plan was based upon an unshakeable faith that the Air Forces could and would do their part, which involved the defeat of the enemy’s air forces, the wearing away of his industrial capacity, the damaging of his communication systems, the practical immobilization of enemy reserves in selected tactical areas, and the softening of prepared defenses whenever the enemy was encountered in fortified lines, both on the beaches and later in the campaign. All the Air Forces, American and Allied, more than justified the faith of the high command and so brilliantly performed alongside and with the ground and Naval members of the victorious team, as to deserve every tribute that a grateful world can heap upon them.