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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 ment had granted permission for General MacArthur’s representatives to establish not only air ferrying routes, but also training bases, mainte- nance facilities, munitions storage, and communications in Australian territory. In mid-November, General Brereton left Manila on an inspection tour which included Darwin, Townsville, Port Moresby, Lae, and Rabaul. At Melbourne, in conference with the chief of the Australian air staff, General Brereton initiated negotiations for im- provement of Australian airfields and the development of maintenance facilities in accordance with the special needs of American planes.89 There was also a growing co-operation of American commanders with representatives of still other nations in the area. The British air chief at Singapore had gone to Manila at least twice to confer with General MacArthur. From the Governor General of the Netherlands East Indies, General MacArthur had requested permission for emer- gency use of airfields; and negotiations were furthered by conferences with Netherlands officials who visited Manila. Both British and Neth- erlands representatives had approved the American requests within the scope of their authority. Naval officials of the two governments had held conversations with the commander in chief of the US. Asiatic Fleet, while within American commands some co-ordination was achieved between the Far East Air Force and the Navy’s Patrol Wing Ten (Patwing I O ) , comprising thirty PBY’s based in the phi lip pine^.^' In the United States, Army and Navy officials with the co-operation of British representatives were working out an agreement for the co- ordination of operations in the event of war in the Far East. By 2 1 November a growing tension in relations with Japan and the prospec- tive growth of military aviation in the Philippines had resulted in a revision of the basic war plan RAINBOW No. 5. The plan had pre- viously visualized only defensive operations by Army forces and the Asiatic Fleet. Augmentation of the Army air garrison in the Philip- pines had now modified that concept so that the revised plan provided for offensive air operations in furtherance of the strategic defensive, along with operations in direct defense of the Philippine Islands as an air and naval base. In the event of hostilities, the defending air forces were to carry out “air raids against Japanese forces and installa- tions within tactical operating radius of available bases.” General MacArthur, who was given broad powers to develop the modified plan in conjunction with local British authorities, was at the same time notified that earlier plans for “British strategic direction” in joint ac- ‘84
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