OR Forum–A Glimpse at an Operation Analyst’s World War II: ‘Report on the Combat Performance of the Remote Control Turrets of B-29 Aircraft’

Alex Green was a pioneering operations analyst/researcher for the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. His February 1945 operations analysis ‘Report on the Combat Performance of the Remote Control Turrets of B‐29 Aircraft’ was classified and buried for 70 years. Stationed in the China‐Burma‐India theatre and addressing a problem of combat losses posed by General Curtis LeMay, Green used written reports and interviews to draw conclusions regarding direction of enemy attack on the B‐29s, opposite those of a large stateside simulation study. Resulting in LeMay’s changes in B‐29 flight formations and frontal armaments, his report also addressed B‐29 gun dispersion adjustments and modifications to the analog computer in the plane’s nose. This paper examines how Green drew his conclusions under wartime conditions before digital computers. Apart from the extraordinary advances in computer technology, much of his methodology is still relevant today and a part of operations research (OR). This paper offers a window into the origins of OR and remarkable efforts of its pioneers.