“Nevers”44 pages
- p. 43 …cavalry mounted on gas driven flying horses” never arrived to
“sweep the Germans from the sky…
- p. 46 …Mitchell never received an American air force commensurate with
the ambitious idens of air power which…
- p. 49 …This project, like so many others, had lagged, and the Air Service was
never equipped during…
- p. 50 …the Army or the Air Corps?” but never, “Are
you in the Army or the Corps…
- p. 55 …any Air Service officers, and I have never heard
anybody yet-any Air Service officer-against…
- p. 69 …But one axiom,
with its corollaries, never varied. T o him the airplane was first and…
- p. 75 …Powerful air attacks resolutely pressed home could never be
completely stopped, but their effects could best…
- p. 94 …rate for the time being, the decision never-
theless left an open question as to how…
- p. 121 …large-scale warfare; production of combat types never exceeded 300
aircraft a month. The pattern of…
- p. 122 …the German Air Force, the
Regia Aeronautica never exhibited sufficient power to be decisive in
the…
- p. 133 …Except for a few raids against French
factories, the force had never been employed in a…
- p. 140 …into
a complete war economy production was never equal to the demands
of our own forces…
- p. 150 …Long-term needs
of the Air Corps and the sudden availability of funds in quantities
never…
- p. 181 …Actually, the Air Staff had
never approved of the method followed in RAINBOW No. 5 . l…
- p. 217 …Members of the Hawaiian Air Force, who had never flown
heavy bombers, began to receive intensive…
- p. 219 …were not then satisfactory for permanent garrisons. Never-
theless, the commander of the Hawaiian Department, Lt…
- p. 227 …T h e planes never reached their destination. Other
bombardment units were being prepared for transfer…
- p. 241 …responsible officers, a few crucial points
have never been satisfactorily explained.
T h e general pattern…
- p. 277 …motors, sole-
noids, and gun mounts-were never found. After many hours of fruit-
less search…
- p. 288 …planners and
from which AAF Headquarters was never to deviate.
The translation of the accepted grand…
- p. 303 …the principal features of the plan
were never challenged, it was subsequently revised in a draft…
- p. 309 …W a r Plans Division was
never incorporated into GHQ and remained a potential rival to…
- p. 336 …the shooting and wrote that they were never
able to make out an airplane.g6It is…
- p. 412 …As it happened, the B-24's never
returned to India, but, instead, remained in the…
- p. 457 …Meanwhile the Edsall with the remaining
pilots had headed for Java, never to be heard from…
- p. 492 …Squadron was assigned, but which it would never reach, going from
Australia to Tongatabu; ( 3 ) Christmas…
- p. 500 …deck of a carrier presented a problem never
before challenged by Army planes. Hence an accelerated…
- p. 502 …the bows and wetting the flight deck. Never before had this been
accomplished, yet now it…
- p. 509 …Island, in the
Louisiade Archipelago.” They were never needed, for on 7-8 May
the two…
- p. 513 …exist, it was at a point which never reached the
aircrews, for on the operational level…
- p. 524 …handicaps under which
AAF planes had operated. Never were more than fourteen B- I 7’s…
- p. 527 …AAF planners clung firmly to their belief that
proper observance of economy of force would never…
- p. 531 …Crews which had
previously never loaded torpedoes now for the first time fitted these
weapons into…
- p. 544 …But the Japanese never at
any time based their bombers in appreciable numbers a t either…
- p. 548 …26's in torpedo-dropping, but they never would be put into
All told, the record…
- p. 556 …until it had been thoroughly trained and never to com-
mit it piecemeal. General Magruder had…
- p. 560 …pressed into service against the Germans," and never reached the
CBI." Colonel Haynes had reached India…
- p. 606 …reason that the Antilles Air Task Force
never evolved, as did I Bomber Command, into an…
- p. 614 …that reason deserving a high
priority, could never dispose of the U-boat menace but must…
- p. 635 …In Washington the Munitions Assign-
ments Board t had never considered this schedule as more than…
- p. 670 …they bombed from 39,200 feet, and never
below 30,000. By AAF standards they had…
- p. 672 …Goering had never put enough bombers over England,
nor had he concentrated his forces on the…
- p. 690 …of co-operation and combined action probably never
before equaled by the military forces of two…
- p. 729 …shoot at aerial targets, and several
had never operated a turret in the air. This deficiency…
P E A R L H A R B O R A N D C L A R K F I E L D
It required some time to bring in all of the bombers from patrol, but
shortly after I I 30 all American aircraft in the Philippines, with the
exception of one or two planes, were on the ground. Recently recalled
B-17’s at Clark were being made ready for the Formosa mission; 3 8
planes of the 20th Pursuit Squadron a t Clark and of the 17th a t Nichols
had returned to their bases for refueling; those of the 3d a t Iba, the
21st a t Nichols, and the 34th at Del Carmen stood ready to take off
upon receipt of ~ r d e r s . ~ ~ ~ A n djust about this time the plotting board at
Nielson Field began to receive reports of a formation of enemy air-
craft coming in over northern Luzon. Unlike other flights reported
that morning, this one did not break up as it proceeded south. Warn-
ing was sent to Clark Field by normal teletype channels, and according
to Col. A.H. Campbell, then chief of Aircraft Warning Service, its
receipt there was confirmed.*’ Back at Nielson, an entry in the Sum-
mary of Activities reads: “ I I : 37 Operations Board report flight of
enemy planes, number unknown now located about 70 miles west of
Lingayen Gulf, headed south I I: 2 7 A.M.” As soon as the enemy force
was believed to be within operating range of American pursuit planes,
Colonel George of V Interceptor Command took necessary steps to
provide protection for vital points.41 For the approaches to Manila,
the 17th Squadron was ordered to cover Bataan peninsula, the 2 1st to
patrol the Manila area itself, and the 34th to provide a cover for Clark
Field, where the zoth, just in from patrol, was being refueled. T h e 3d
Squadron, at Iba, was dispatched on what proved to be a fruitless
flight over the South China Sea, where an enemy formation had been
From this point on, a confused record reflects chiefly the general
confusion and bad luck which attended the American air effort on
that first day of hostilities in the Philippines. The Summary of Activi-
ties for Headquarters, Far East Air Force, notes: “11:56 General
Brereton communicated with General Sutherland and complete report
was given General Sutherland of the air situation a t this time including
fact that it was planned to move the B-17’s now at Del Monte to San
Marcelino and to bomb Taiwan fields a t late afternoon today.” Then
the summary jumps to 1240 to record a report that “10 planes, 6,000
feet, nationality unknown, headed for Manila. This information from
the Navy.” Under 1255 appears another report that “large force of
planes, about 25, heading south reported in vicinity of Tarlac at
12:~s.”Under 1257 one reads of a Japanese propaganda mission
209