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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.
“King”32 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 ized, the movement encountered a series of discouraging setbacks: the depot was so congested with “extra priority” work that prompt action on the winterization was impossible, cold-weather equipment proved to be hard to obtain, and bad weather delayed test flights and caused the loss of some of the planes. It was not until I January 1942 that the first planes left Sacramento. It was expected that the movement to Spokane and thence by an inland route through Canada to Fairbanks would be rapidly completed, but the inexperience of the pilots, to- gether with poor communications and inadequate landing fields along the route, delayed execution of the plan. By 2 5 January only thirteen of the twenty-five pursuit ships had reached Alaska in flyable condi- tion, while six were still en route, and six had crashed. Of the thirteen medium bombers, eight had arrived a t Fairbanks, but the other five had been wrecked beyond repair. It was clear that only crews experi- enced in Alaskan conditions could be used on such flights, and accord- ingly the unfinished task of forwarding the aircraft was taken over by veteran pilots of the Alaskan Air Force. This ill-fated winter project emphasized the need for special training of squadrons assigned to Alaska, and during the spring of 1942 familiarization flights between continental bases and fields in Alaska were conducted by the Fourth Air Force in preparation for such reinforcement of Alaskan bases as might be required.lTs Equally important was the effort to complete the construction of necessary bases in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. In the Joint Board decision of 2 6 November 1941 to build an air base on Umnak Island for protection of the naval base a t Dutch Harbor, it had been specified that work on the new field would not be pushed a t the expense of previously approved projects in presumably more vital areas.l 7 4 After Pearl Harbor, however, it was clear that construction of the Umnak base presented a task of the highest priority, as also did rapid comple- tion of an intermediate field which the Civil Aeronautics Adminis- tration had undertaken to build at Cold Bay.175Lying between Kodiak and Dutch Harbor, the latter base could be used in support of actions a t either of those two points. It was not only necessary to move fast but at the same time to act with the greatest possible secrecy. As an aid to concealment of con- struction efforts from the enemy, the Army operated under the cover of fictitious corporations. For the Cold Bay project “Saxton and Com- pany” was invented, and, in its name, equipment and supplies were 304
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