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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 I1 in the North Atlantic, but the total mission was much more compre- hensive and the means of accomplishment were dangerously inade- quate. The First Air Force, with headquarters at Mitchel Field, New York, was acting as a major source of supply in the initial garrisoning and defense of North Atlantic bases. T o the normal responsibilities of the I Interceptor Command was added the task of planning for the air defense of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; detector sites were selected in co-operation with Canadian authorities, and representatives of the two nations worked toward a standardization of aircraft warn- ing procedures in the area." The first movement of U.S. troops into Newfoundland occurred in January 1941 when a garrison arrived a t St. John's to form the nucleus of the Newfoundland Base C~mmand.'~The command was ordered to defend U.S. military and naval installations in Newfound- land, to co-operate with Canadian and British forces defending New- foundland and Canadian coastal zones, to support U.S. naval forces, and within prescribed boundaries to destroy any German and Italian naval, air, and ground forces encountered.15Command difficulties aris- ing from the presence of several nationalities at first hampered Amer- ican forces in accomplishment of their mission; but unity of command for all forces on the island, which might have alleviated the difficul- ties, was obviously impossible so long as Canada was at war and the United States was not. Initial plans for Army air garrisons called for a composite group,* numbering 263 officers and 2,842 enlisted men, to be stationed at the Newfoundland Airport at Gander Lake, but only one squadron had reached the station by the end of November 1941. A pursuit squadron was scheduled to be stationed a t Argentia, site of a U.S. naval base on Placentia Bay, while Army airways detachments were planned for St. John's airport on the eastern coast and for Harmon Field, Stephen- ville, in the western part of the island. In May 1941, the First Air Force sent the zrst Reconnaissance Squadron, equipped with six B-18's, to the Newfoundland Airport, and in the following month eleven transport planes were allotted to the base command for moving supplies and men to the island. In August, when a few heavy bombers became available for transfer to Newfoundland, the 4 I st Reconnais- sance Squadron replaced the 21st Squadron, and the defending air * A composite group was made up of squadrons equipped with different types of planes. 156
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