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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
A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G surface vessel to British forces in the United Kingdom or in the Middle East between the passage of the Lend-Lease Act and the end of 1941, less than I O O were sent under lend-lease.z2Aircraft purchased during the cash-and-carry period and scheduled for delivery in 1941 were earmarked chiefly for service in the British Isles, and thus the earliest ferrying activity of the AAF, like its initial overseas transport service, was marked by a focus on the North Atlantic route. At the same time, important steps had been taken during 1941 to- ward the development of a South Atlantic air route joining the United States to Africa and the Middle East. Compared with the 2,700 miles that lay between northern Maine and Great Britain along a direct route through Newfoundland, I 0,000 miles separated Miami from Cairo.23An airplane leaving southern Florida traveled 4,000 miles in a southeasterly direction before reaching Natal on the Brazilian bulge. Pivoting at Natal, it had to traverse an additional 6,000 miles in order to reach Cairo. But compensating in part for the great length of the southern route were certain favorable geographical factors. It had the advantage of year-around flying weather, while over the North Atlantic route ferrying and transport operations were seriously ham- pered or even shut down altogether by bad weather conditions during the winter. Most of the southern route lay over two great land masses, the South American and African continents. Through the Carib- bean the Antilles chain formed convenient steppingstones from Florida to the Guianas. For a time the Atlantic-approximately 1,800 miles at the narrowest-presented a formidable barrier to the movement of two-engine aircraft from continent to continent. But with the open- ing of an air base on Ascension Island in July 1942, the ocean cross- ing was divided into two fairly easy stages and ceased to be a serious operational p r ~ b l e m . ' ~ The major part of the route to the Middle East passed over either Brazilian territory or that controlled by Great Britain. Brazil was com- pletely co-operative in permitting American aircraft of all types, whether manned by military or civilian crews, to fly over her territory or land at bases on her Here was a case of the Good Neighbor policy paying practical dividends. Britain, the chief recipient of lend- lease aid in the form of supplies sent by air to Africa, was able to contribute a number of sites for bases all along the southeastern route. In the Caribbean the United States secured, through the destroyer-base lease agreement, sites for air bases on the islands of Trinidad, Jamaica, 3 ' 9
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