The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

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
first of several Allied conferences met on 28 December at Amberley
Field to consider common problems and opportunities for mutual
assistance. It was agreed that American officers would assume actual
responsibility for the erection of their planes, but that to assure proper
co-ordination of the effort with plans for movement of the assembled
planes an Australian officer would be put in general charge. Since the
aircraft would have to be ferried overland for a distance of over 2,000
miles before they reached a jumping-off place at Darwin, it was
decided to establish refueling depots a t Charleville, Cloncurry, Daly
Waters, and Darwin. Though I oo-octane gasoline could be procured
from the Netherlands East Indies, this fuel was of so high an aromatic
content that it destroyed the leakproof lining of fuel tanks, and conse-
quently forced consideration of the problem of importing American
fuel. In addition to limited stocks built up before the war, the steam-
ship Mauna Loa was on the way to Brisbane with a load of 400,000
gallons, but even so the supply would fall far short of the prewar goal
of IO,OOO,OOO gallons.100
The Amberley conferences also gave attention to a problem of
training. Not only was the air route from Brisbane to Darwin a
difficult one for those who lacked experience in the area, but the over-
water hops from Darwin to the Philippines presented their own navi-
gational and combat hazards. On 28 December General Clagett and
Sir Charles Burnett, chief of the Australian air staff, agreed to inaugu-
rate a training program for A-24 crews at Archerfield and for P-40
pilots a t Amberley. Details of the two programs were worked out the
following day a t a meeting of American and Australian officers. The
Australians were given general oversight of the program, while Maj.
John H. Davies, commanding officer of the 27th Group, received
responsibility for the standard of training. The prescribed course con-
sisted of practice in night flying, dive bombing, and aerial pnnery.lo1
Thus was the foundation laid for a close collaboration between per-
sonnel of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the AAF that
would continue through almost four years of war.
The American command charged with these and other preparations
in Australia was not technically an air organization. But for the time
being a t least, its responsibilities called principally for support of air
operations, a consideration that probably had affected the decision to
assign General Brett to the command of United States Army Forces in
Australia. On 2 9 December, two days before Brett’s arrival in Aus-
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