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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.
“Hamilton”9 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 nese aggression in Asia. AAF Headquarters felt that a striking force of heavy bombers would be a necessary part of any attempt to guarantee the security of the Philippines, and there was a feeling among War Department officials that the presence of such a force would act “as a threat to keep Japan in line.” Consequently, and as a part of the over-all plan for maintaining a strategic defensive in the Pacific, the AAF now allocated to the Far East four heavy bombardment groups, to consist of 2 7 2 aircraft with 68 in reserve, and an additional two pursuit groupd\of 130 planes.80 Although the supply of aircraft in the United States did not permit immediate implementation of these plans, the necessary authority was received early in August when the Secretary of War approved a pro- gram for sending modern planes to the Philippines as soon as they be- came available. Arrangements were made for fifty P-qoE’s to be sent directly from the factories and for twenty-eight P - ~ o B s ,taken from operating units, to be shipped to the Philippines in September. Pro- curement of heavy bombers was more difficult, for in the summer of 1941 not a single group in the AAF was completely equipped with such planes. The 19th Bombardment Group, which had ferried the first B-17’s to Hawaii in May, was selected for permanent transfer to the Philippines, and the group was given priority in the assignment of B-17’s. So urgent was the need for heavy bombers in the Far East, however, that the AAF did not wait for the 19th Group to pioneer an air route to the Philippines. By the end of July it had been decided that a provisional squadron from the Hawaiian Air Force would make the first flight of land-based bombers across the Pacific. Preparations for the flight were made with utmost secrecy. Since information was lacking on airfields in Australian territory, two Army officers were flown by Navy plane from Honolulu in order to survey facilities at Rabaul in New Britain, a t Port Moresby in New Guinea, and a t Darwin in Australia. Runway construction on Midway and Wake islands was pushed by naval authorities, while picked crews from the Hawaiian Air Force underwent intensive training for the unprecedented flight. On the morning of 5 September the 14th Bom- bardment Squadron ( H ) , consisting of nine B- I 7D’s and seventy-five crew members under the command of Maj. Emmett O’Donnell, Jr., took off from Hickam Field and headed for the first stop a t Midway, I, I 3 2 nautical miles distant. T h e first leg of the flight was completed after seven hours and ten minutes. The crews refueled and serviced 178
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