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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 Invaders”15 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 Air Force through its subordinate interceptor and bomber commands. The air force provided planes to defend vital targets and to conduct offshore patrols, supplied an aircraft warning service to alert both military and civilian agencies, and through regional commanders inte- grated all elements of the air defense. In accordance with the require- ments of this last function, units of the 4th Antiaircraft Command-an Army Ground Forces unit-were placed under operational control of the IV Interceptor Command. On the East Coast a similar pattern established the First Air Force as the air arm of the Eastern Defense Command. But much of the attention of the I Bomber Command was directed to antisubmarine operations, and, in order to assure closer co-operation with the Navy, control of the bomber units was trans- ferred on 26 March 1942 to the Eastern Sea Frontier." It was accordingly within the Eastern and Western Defense Com- mands that the specific measures required to correct the deficiencies noted in the Watson-Watt report were undertaken. At no time prior to the Battle of Midway in June 1942 were the air defenses of either coast really adequate to repel a major attack, but significant progress was made in improving the aircraft warning nets and in perfecting plans by which the small forces of aircraft assigned to coastal defense duties could be quickly reinforced from inland stations. The record within the Western Defense Command will illustrate the achievements of the first half of 1942. The radar net, which had consisted of ten stations on 7 December 1941, was expanded by the addition of fifteen new Many of the original sites having proved unsuitable, extensive resiting work was carried out. The process was difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Rugged terrain often made the work difficult even for experts-and there were few men of experience avail- able. Good radar sites often were relatively inaccessible, far removed from roads, communications, power, and water; it was frequently necessary to build pioneer trails or roads for considerable distances before preliminary tests of radar equipment could be made, and the eflort might be wasted then by the discovery of unpredictable oper- ational difficulties. When the Western Defense Command desired an expansion of radar coverage to protect California's southern flank, delicate diplomacy was required to assure Mexico that no infringement of her national sovereignty was ~ontemp1ated.l~~Late in May 1942 the negotiations resulted in an agreement by which three radar sets * See below, Chap. 15. 296
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