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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.
“Pacific Ocean”16 pages
D E P L O Y M E N T O N T H E E V E O F H O S T I L I T I E S at Bellows Field, a road distance of some twenty-eight miles from Hickam. T h e 15th and 18th Pursuit Groups, components of the pur- suit wing, were stationed a t Wheeler, although one squadron was in training at Haleiwa, a small field in the northern section of the island. Two air base groups, a transport squadron, maintenance companies, and service detachments made up the remainder of the air force.” In addition to the major airfields on Oahu, emergency and auxil- iary fields had been prepared on other islands of the Hawaiian group, including Kauai, Lanai, Hawaii, Maui, and M010kai.~~Of the 2 3 1 military aircraft assigned to the air force on 7 December, approxi- mately half the number could be considered up-to-date models. Twelve B-I ~D’s,twelve A-ZOA’S,twelve P-~oC’S,and eighty-seven P-4oB’s comprised the more modern aircraft, while thirty-three B-I 8A’s, thirty-nine P - ~ ~ A ’ s ,fourteen P - 2 6 ’ ~ ~and an assortment of observation, training, and attack planes made up the remainder of the T h e Hawaiian Air Force had existed as an integrated command only slightly more than one year. From the time of the arrival of the first tactical squadron in 1917 to 1931, when the military air com- ponent in the territory comprised some seven tactical squadrons and two service squadrons, the air units had been loosely attached to the Army’s Hawaiian Department without benefit of an air commander. In 1931 an important administrative step was taken in formation of the I 8th Composite Wing, which provided the separate squadrons with an air headquarters. Expansion of the Air Corps brought about a need for further reorganization in Hawaii, and on I November I 940 the Hawaiian Air Force was activated and its bombardment and pursuit units were organized into separate wings. Although the air force remained under the command of the Hawaiian Department, it had acquired the integrated structure necessary for efficient opera- t i ~ n . ~ ’ Since 1935 the W a r Department had given first priority to the Hawaiian Islands in the distribution of troops and munitions among overseas garrisons. But, upon the outbreak of war in Europe, the necessity for giving attention to bases in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean, together with the urgent demands of a vast program of expansion, had altered peacetime priorities; and not until early 1941 was it possible to send modem planes and additional antiaircraft artil- * See map, p. 196. ‘ 7 ’
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