The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

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
Sweden, be diverted to the Philippines. Late in November the 17th
and 20th Pursuit Squadrons arrived from the United States and took
up their station at Nichols Field on the outskirts of Manila.” In
March 1941 the Hawaiian Department was ordered to ship eighteen
B- I 8’s by transport to the Philippines, and the following month a mer-
chant ship sailed from the United States for Manila bearing thirty-one
P-4oB’s. T h e arrival of reinforcements and the prospect of receivirig
additional aircraft necessitated the creation of a more modern air or-
ganization in the Philippines. T h e Army air garrison, which had hith-
erto been organized into the 4th Composite Group, consisted of the
Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, the 3d Pursuit Squadron,
and the two new pursuit squadrons at Nichols Field, and the 28th
Bombardment and zd Observation Squadrons at Clark Field, approxi-
mately sixty miles north of Manila. On 6 May 1941 these units, along
with the 20th Air Base Group and supporting units, were organized
into the Philippine Department Air Force. This change proved to be
only the first of a series of steps designed to bring about a more effec-
tive air force structure in the Philippines.’*
T h e German attack on Russia in June 1941, together with mounting
evidence of Japan’s intention to take advantage of the greater freedom
of action resulting therefrom for the purpose of a conquest of south-
east Asia, lent a new sense of urgency to all defensive preparations in
the Pacific and particularly to those in the Philippines.” Gen. Douglas
MacArthur, military adviser to the Philippine government and former
chief of staff of the U.S. Army, was recalled to active duty effective
26 July 1941 and placed in command of United States Army Forces
in the Far East. T h e Philippine Department Air Force, which became
a part of the new command, was given a more flexible organization
and a new designation on 4 August, when it became the Air Force,
United States Army Forces in the Far East. T h e force by this time
was able to put into the air one squadron of P-~oB’s,two squadrons of
P - ~ ~ A ’ s ,one squadron of P-z6A’s, and two squadrons of B-18’s, but
against even a mildly determined and ill-equipped foe, this show of
air strength would have been sadly deficient. Japanese capabilities
argued therefore for a radical upward revision in the apportionment
of aircraft to the Philippines; moreover, the geographical position of
the islands afforded the United States an opportunity, while providing
for their greater security, to emphasize its opposition to further Japa-
* See maps, pp. 202, ZZI.
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