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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.
“The Wash”17 pages
T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1 devolved wholly upon units deployed in its immediate zone. Now agreements with Great Britain made possible the construction of a string of airfields in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trini- dad, and British Guiana, as well as on Puerto Rico. These promised effective control of the approaches to the Caribbean, and hence to the canal. The AAF was able also to expand existing facilities in the Canal Zone and to prepare auxiliary fields in Central American republics. Agreements with those countries brought about a progressive liberali- zation of flight restrictions, which greatly simplified air operations in defense of the Zone. Farther south, comparable arrangements were made. In November 1941, U.S. forces occupied Surinam (Dutch Guiana) . The move, made in co-operation with the Netherlands and Brazilian governments, was designed to protect the invaluable bauxite mines of Surinam, and here as in Greenland and Iceland, the United States was pledged to withdraw at the termination of the international cri~is.'~Now, with bases in both British and Dutch Guiana, the United States was in position to move forces, spearheaded by heavy bom- bardment units, to thwart any threatened Axis invasion of the exposed angle of Brazil. All told, the new bases would constitute, when garri- soned by fully equipped air units, an effective defense in depth of the most vital positions toward our south. Reinforcement of hemisphere defenses on the Pacific side reflected both our comparatively late appreciation of the Japanese threat and the immediate concern with the European Axis. Hence, in magnitude and number, the measures taken to strengthen the Alaska-Hawaii- Panama triangle were less impressive than like activities in the Atlantic- Caribbean areas. As relations with Japan sharply deteriorated in 1941, means were readily authorized for improving Pacific defenses. But time was running out; few of the measures were complete when Japan attacked and some were only on paper. Almost without exception, the several specific improvements made in the area had long been urged by the Air Corps. By 1940 valuable aid had been obtained from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, but in many instances action was incited only by the advent of war. Thus in view of the vulnerability of the western approaches to the Panama Canal, the Air Corps throughout the re- armament period had wished to secure rights to establish air bases on COCOSIsland and the Galapagos Islands, from which long-range aircraft could patrol far beyond the striking range of a carrier task force. It was the current policy of the government, however, not to 124
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