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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
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 around the globe, there was no alternative to sending the bombers that way if the President’s orders to begin immediately the air rein- forcement of the Philippines were to be carried out.82 Project X, as the heavy bomber movement to the Far East was designated, became the first major foreign ferrying job of the war and the first overseas movement of tactical units in which the Ferry- ing Command had a part. Not until the air echelon of the Eighth Air Force began its movement to Britain in June 1942 would the Army Air Forces face an overseas ferrying job of greater size and com- plexity. Although a total of eighty four-engine bombers were origi- nally earmarked for the project, something less than that number actually left the United States and an even smaller number reached the Far East. Original orders directed all flights to proceed first to MacDill Field near Tampa, Florida, for final staging prior to take-off from the United States; 83 but a few bombers were diverted to Hamil- ton Field, California, and were dispatched over the new South Pacific route which was opened for traffic on a small scale after mid-January Project X comprised two separate echelons of heavy bombers. The first of these to be ordered to the MacDill Field staging point was made up of fifteen LB-3o’s * repossessed from the British and manned by crews of the 7th Bombardment Group, a group whose air move- ment across the Pacific had begun on 6 December.+ Only six of these planes, under the command of Maj. Austin A. Straubel, actually went through MacDill Field, the others being ultimately diverted to the Pacific route. Travel orders were issued on 19 December 1941, and within a few days aircraft and crews began to arrive at Tampa to pre- pare for the long overseas flight.85 The second and more important component was made up of a projected sixty-five B-17 bombers and crews. Most of the B-17’s were yet to come from the factory and were to move out in small groups as they became available and after they had gone to the Sacramento Air Depot to be put in combat readiness. Orders were issued on 2 3 December for the transfer of the sixty-five bombers to the Philippines.86 Crews of both groups of bombers were ordered to proceed along the route: Tampa-Trinidad- Belem-Natal-Accra-Khartoum-Cairo-Habbaniya-Karachi.At Karachi the LB-3o’s under Straubel’s command were to come under the con- I942 .84 * An export model of the B-24, modified for British use. t See above, pp. 193, 199-200. 3 32
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