JARDUR WATCHES

"Those who wore Jardur"

Carl Andrew Spaatz, the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. 

Carl Andrew "Tooey" Spaatz (June 28, 1891 – July 14, 1974) was an American WW2 general and the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.

In 1946, the Jardur Aviation Company presented Gen. Spaatz a 995G Aviation Chronograph during the “Aviation Men of the Year” ceremony in Philadelphia.

As the commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe, Spaatz was under the direct command of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. In March 1944, Spaatz proposed the Oil Plan for bombing, and in June 1944 during the Operation Crossbow, priority bombing of V-1 sites aimed at the UK, Spaatz advocated, and received authorization from Eisenhower for, bombing of those targets at a lower priority. Spaatz also identified that "…the chimera of one air operation that will end the war…does not exist", and^[3]:273 advocated Tedder’s plan "which retained the oil system in first position, but more clearly placed Germany's rail system in second priority", which encouraged Eisenhower to overrule Air Ministry fears that the "thrust against the oil industry" might be weakened.^[3]:260-1 Spaatz's Oil Plan became the highest bombing priority in September 1944. After the war, Eisenhower said that Spaatz, along with General Omar Bradley, one of the two American general officers who had contributed the most to the victory in Europe.

Spaatz received a temporary promotion to the rank of general on March 11, 1945. After VE day he was transferred to the Pacific and assumed command of the U.S Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific as part of the Pacific Theatre of Operations, with headquarters on Guam, in July 1945. From this command, Spaatz directed the strategic bombing of Japan, including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Spaatz had been present at Reims when the Germans surrendered to the Americans on May 7, 1945; at Berlin when they surrendered to the Russians on May 9; and aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered on September 2. He was the only man of General rank or equivalent present at all three of these acts of surrender.