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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.
“King”32 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 plete. Out of a projected 240 modern pursuit planes for the Far East Air Force, only 107 P-40’s had arrived; and instead of the planned total of I 65 modern heavy bombers, the air force had 3 5 B- I 7C’s and D’s. The 27th Bombardment Group, which had been in the Philippines since 2 0 November, was still awaiting the arrival of its 5 2 A-q’s, which were en route in a convoy of seven vessels escorted by the USS Pensmola.1‘2 The ships were loaded to capacity with materiel and troops for General MacArthur’s command. In addition to the A-zq’s, the vessels carried I 8 P-40’s and much heavy equipment, supplies, and fuel, including 340 motor vehicles, four dozen 75-mm. guns, more than 3,500,000 rounds of ammunition, over 600 tons of bombs, and 9,000 drums of aviation fuel. Approximately 2,500 officers and men of the AAF, including the ground echelon of the 7th Bombardment Group, and some 2 , 0 0 0 additional troops, including 2 regiments of field artillery, were on board the vessels. Directed by “higher au- thority” to take a southwest course instead of the normal course through the Japanese-mandated islands, the convoy had swung south from Honolulu after the last ship joined the group on 29 November. On 6 December, after crossing the equator, the convoy was still a considerable distance from its de~tination.“~Farther north, a t ap- proximately 500 miles out from San Francisco, the Garfield and John- son were en route to the Philippines with the remaining squadrons of the 35th Pursuit Group and a number of other units and stores of supplies and equipment.’‘* O n the same day, 6 December, the 557th Aircraft Warning Battalion arrived a t the San Francisco port of em- barkation for shipment to the Philippines. But the course of events did not allow any of these reinforcements to reach their original desti- nation. From Hawaii on 6 December General Short sent a message of re- assurance to General Arnold regarding preparations along the South Pacific air route, declaring that “we are striving very hard to make good our promise of having one runway a t all fields so that we can use the route by I 5 January.” Work was proceeding at an accelerated rate on Canton, Christmas, Suva in the Fiji Islands, and New Cale- donia; and inasmuch as no hop was greater than 1,250 statute miles, General Short felt that upon completion the route would be satis- factory for medium as well as heavy bombers, a point that had become a matter of concern by the first week in December. T o the problem of early completion there now had been added a new concern for the 1 9 2
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