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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.
A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G agreements reached. Pan American Air Ferries, Inc., was set up to operate the ferrying service all the way from Miami to Khartoum in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. T h e Pan American Airways Co. came into being to establish a flying boat transport service from the United States to West Africa. Pan American Airways-Africa, Ltd., was organized to take over the existing British trans-African transport service.4sOn I 2 August 1941five contracts were signed by represen- tatives of Pan American and its subsidiaries, the United States govern- ment, and the British government. Three of the contracts, those between the United States and units of the Pan American organiza- tion, provided for the ferrying and transport services.44The British signed agreements with Pan American Airways-Africa and Pan American Air Ferries, by which full operational rights were assured along the trans-Africa route.45 In considering the Pan American agreements, it should be borne in mind t h a t the United States and Britain were interested primarily in the ferrying service. T h e transport services were of secondary importance and existed primarily for support of the ferrying opera- tion. Thus, when the President announced publicly on 1 8 August 1941 that the agreements with Pan American had been concluded, stress was placed on the importance of speeding delivery of aircraft to the British. The transport services, the President stated, were to “supplement the ferry system by returning ferry personnel and carry- ing spare plane parts and items essential to effective delivery of air- craft to the Middle East.” 4 G Not until after the United States entered the war, and acquired thereby heavy military commitments of its own that went far beyond the prewar lend-lease obligations, did the South Atlantic transport service assume outstanding importance as a support to combat operations. At its inception, it was considered merely an adjunct to ferrying. Before Pan American Air Ferries (PAAF) could begin operations on an extensive scale, a greatly enlarged organization had to be developed from the limited personnel and meager facilities inherited from Atlantic Airways. For the first four or five months, the efforts of the company were expended principally in setting up a training program at Miami. Some former commercial and airline pilots were recruited, but for the most part the trainees were recent graduates of the civilian pilot training program, who had at best several hundred hours of flying time. Because of the shortage or nonexistence of air- 3 2 3
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