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This is Volume One of The Army Air Forces in World War II, titled Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate. The University of Chicago Press first published it in 1948, and the Office of Air Force History reprinted it in 1983. The front matter explains how the AAF historical program was set up during the war. The index covers Pacific, Atlantic and European operations, and nothing in the text concerns unidentified aerial phenomena.
“Natal”13 pages
T H E A I R C O R P S P R E P A R E S F O R W A R , 1 9 3 9 - 4 1 and better protection against fire hazards. Hence in February 1940the Air Corps completed plans for the installation of leak-proof tanks, protective armor, and greater armament, even at the expense of speed and useful load. A few months later Air Corps observers were sent to France and England to study the air war at first hand, and their recommendations led to further modernization of equipment.' ' In May 1941, the W a r Department established the Special Observer Group in London," and through its reports and those of occasional special missions the Air Corps was kept constantly informed of the latest materiel developments in England.'3 As a result of this informa- tion as well as of the work of American scientists and engineers, there was continued improvement in armament, signal communications, safety devices, and other equipment. When the United States entered the war, the Air Corps had in pro- duction, in addition to other aircraft that would play no major part in operations, the following tactical planes: 2 4 Air Corps In Designa- Flight Produc- T y p e tion Name Manufacturer Designed Test tion Heavy Bomber B-17 Flying Boeing I934 '935 '936 B-24 Liberator Consolidated '937 '939 '940 Medium Bomber B-z5 Mitchell North American 1939 194' '94' Light Bomber A-20 Havoc Douglas I939 '939 I940 66 " A-24 Dauntless Douglas (Navy SBD-3) 1941 1941 Pursuit P-38 Lightning Lockheed I937 '939 '940 P-39 Airacobra Bell '937 '939 1940 P-47 Thunderbolt Republic '940 '94' '94' T h e term "in production" is misleading if taken in any but its tech- nical sense. It has no necessary connotation of mass manufacture, but means only that the plane had passed beyond the experimental and test phases, and that the first number acceptable for tactical use had rolled off the line. Thus whereas all the models mentioned above were "in production," they represented various stages in combat readiness. Some of them, notably the A-20 and P-40, had been tested in combat by British crews.25 T h e B-26 was still an unknown quantity, but experience indicated that in the B-17, B-24, and B-25 the AAF had three bombers on which it could base its plans with confidence. T h e Fortress '6 ' I " B-26 Marauder Martin '939 194' I941 ' L " P-40 Kittyhawk Curtiss '937 I938 I940 * See below, pp. 577-99. ' 0 9
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