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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.
“The Wash”17 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 after dark at the now much-bombed Del Monte field, from which four of them took off again shortly after midnight for Lingayen Gulf, almost 600 miles away. Again visibility was poor and although trans- ports were bombed, no hits were observed. The Japanese put up a barrage of antiaircraft fire which did no damage, but enemy fighters pursued with such persistence that the bombers could not land at San Marcelino as had been planned. Instead, they headed for Australia. One of the planes came down for refueling at an emergency field at San Jose in Mindoro; the other three reached the Dutch base at Amboina before landing. By 24 December all nine aircraft, five pro- ceeding directly from Del Monte, had returned to Batchelor Field.85 Meanwhile, another flight from Australia, this time of three heavy bombers, had arrived at Del Monte. There on 24 December the air- craft were loaded each with 2 , 1 0 0 gallons of gasoline and 7 x 300-lb. bombs in preparation for a mission against Davao. T w o of the planes then bombed the Davao airfield from 15,000 feet, and shortly there- after the third attacked shipping in the Davao harbor. All three planes returned to Darwin, though two of them had sustained considerable damage.sa The pursuit planes in their daily reconnaissance missions continued to report the steady advance of the enemy from the north and addi- tional landings along the Luzon coast. Against one of these landings, in San Miguel Bay on the southeast coast, the Interceptor Command decided on 2 3 December to throw virtually all its remaining aircraft. Attrition had cut down the 24th Group’s striking power to a total of twelve P-40’s and six P-35’s, but they proved sufficient to create a grati- fying confusion among enemy personnel in landing barges and around supply dumps ashore. The Japanese put up a heavy screen of antiair- craft fire. One P-35 was forced into a crash landing, and an explosive bullet, shattering the windscreen of Lieutenant Wagner‘s P-40, well- nigh blinded him.’’ The American effort was in”effect a last gesture of defiance, for following this mission all aj, ‘force units received instructions to evacuate currently held Luzon bases as a part of the general withdrawal to Bataan. The evacuation began on 24 December. Typical of the confusion which naturally reached its climax in this withdrawal was the experience of the 27th Group, whose personnel had suffered the particularly galling experience of being caught in the front line of war without their planes. On 18 December the group had been deprived of its commander when Maj. John M.Davies, together 2 2 4
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