“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…
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
to withdraw the bombers to a base that would afford an opportunity
for a thorough overhaul of the already badly battered planes.”
The decision had been made none too soon. On 16 December,
mechanics began to service the bombers for the 1,500-mile flight to
Darwin. Three days later, Del Monte experienced its first serious air
attack. As dusk fell that day, three B-I 8’s had just landed, one of them
bringing General Clagett from Manila, and before they could be dis-
persed and camouflaged with coconut leaves, twelve enemy fighters
skimmed the field to destroy the bombers by strafing. Several camou-
flaged B- I 7’s, loading for their trip to Australia, were overlooked and
took off that night as scheduled to join others which had reached
Australia during the preceding two days. Within another two days
the last of the B - 1 7 ’ ~ ~making a total of fourteen, arrived at Batchelor
Field near Darwin.79
In spite of the decision to transfer all heavy bombers to Australia,
there was no intention of abandoning the defense of the Philippines.
The morale of officers and men on Luzon remained high, in part at
least because they constantly expected the arrival of reinforcements.
According to one writer, the Army at this time traveled as much on
rumors as on its stomach. One day there was news that the Navy was
coming to the rescue, “sweeping everything before it.” Again “some-
one” heard that Dewey Boulevard was lined with A-20’s. O n another
occasion, 2 7th Group headquarters was falsely informed by telephone
that its A-24’~were being unloaded at the dock. A rush to the docks
revealed nothing except, as the group historian recorded, “that there
was probably a Fifth Columnist or two on Luzon and they had our
number.”
Hope was not confined to the rank and file. General MacArthur
throughout December thought that the Philippines could be rein-
forced, mentioning in his communications to Washington the possi-
bility of early air counterattacks against Formosa. It was his feeling,
however, that first priority in allocations to his theater should consist
of pursuit planes and bombs to be brought in by aircraft carrier.
“High-flying bombardment aircraft” and ground troops were rated
by him as of secondary importance.81 General Brereton also believed
that hope need not be abandoned. On 14 December he listed for Mac-
Arthur ten squadrons of pursuit aircraft as an immediate requirement,
indicating that in addition to the 5 2 A-24’s and 18 pursuit planes
expected in Australia before the end of the month, it would be “advan-
2 2 2