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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.
“Churchill”21 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 lery to the Hawaiian Department." The aircraft strength at the beginning of 1941consisted of I I 7 planes, all of them obsolescent or antiquated." In mid-February, thirty-one P-36's, with pilots and crew chiefs, were placed aboard the carrier Enterprise at San Diego, Cali- fornia, and sent to the Hawaiian Islands. Modern pursuit planes were made available within the next two months, and by mid-April a total of fifty-five p-40'~had been transferred via carrier from the West Coast to Oahu, where they were flown off the deck to Army air- fields.6* A decision to allocate B-17's to the Hawaiian Air Force provoked a considerably greater amount of discussion and entailed far more intricate planning than did the transfer of the P-40's. Heavy bombers could reach their destination only by flying, and no mass flight of heavy bombers had ever been made over the 2,400-mile stretch be- tween the West Coast and Hawaii. In official quarters there was at first some hesitation to undertake such an operation for fear of public reaction in the event of failure." The need for an air striking force in Hawaii, however, seemed to justify the risks involved, and early in April the Fourth Air Force began to make preparations for ferry- ing twenty-one B-17'~to the Hawaiian Islands. The 19th Bombard- ment Group, under the command of Lt. Col. Eugene L. Eubank, was selected to fly the planes, and service tests were conducted on the aircraft before they were certified for the operation. Weather data and navigational problems were studied, while arrangements were made for assistance by the Navy Department, Pan American Airways, and commercial radio stations in San Francisco and Hono- lulu. The Navy stationed four guard vessels at 500-mile intervals along the path of the flight, and all naval vessels in the vicinity were asked to transmit weather information. The Navy also assisted in establishing communication facilities to insure the proper ground-air liaison in San Francisco and Honolulu; commercial airline officials in the same locations agreed to transmit weather forecasts and map sig- nals; and commercial radio stations in the two cities arranged to pro- vide homing signals by broadcasting continuously during the flight. As a result of thorough preparations, the flight was accomplished without undue incident. O n 1 3 May twenty-one B - I ~ D ' stook off from Hamilton Field, California, and on the next morning, after an average elapsed time of thirteen hours and ten minutes, the planes landed a t Hickam Field within five minutes of the estimated time of 1 7 2
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