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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 Middle East. Water shipment of the fifty P-40E Kittyhawks con- signed to the American Volunteer Group began in February. Arrange- ments were made for use of the British assembly plant a t Takoradi, where the planes were prepared for the overland movement. Losses were suffered en route, but by June most of the original fifty had crossed into China.lo7A larger movement of sixty-eight P-4oE’s for India and China began as the AVG deliveries were being com- pleted. Comprising one element of a general reinforcement of the Tenth Air Force, the P-40’s were flown to Quonset Point, Rhode Island, in late April and there aircraft and crews were loaded on the carrier Ranger. As the Ranger approached the west coast of Africa, the fighters were launched at distances of 1 2 5 to 2 5 miles from the landing field a t Accra. Although only a few of the pilots had pre- viously flown from the deck of a carrier, all took off safely and landed without mishap. But they were less fortunate in crossing central Africa. T w o of the eight-plane convoys into which the P-40’S were organized became lost over the African desert because of navigational errors. As a result, nine of the fighters cracked up. Other difficulties were encountered and numerous delays experienced; perhaps no more than fifty-eight of the planes eventually reached India.’ Karachi had become, generally speaking, the terminal point for Ferrying Com- mand operations to the East, and until December 1942 the responsi- bility for development of the trans-India service into China fell to the 1st Ferrying Group and thus came under the jurisdiction of the Tenth Air Force.* Twin-engine transport planes were the only aircraft to be ferried to British forces in Africa during the first six months of 1942. In June, when Rommel’s offensive reached its most threatening stage, the first tactical aircraft began to arrive. They were not in sufficient number to be of much help in stopping Rommel at El Alamein, but during the late summer and fall an increasing flow of twin-engine bombers departed from Florida to become a part of the great movement of supplies into Africa in preparation for Montgomery’s offensive in October. Between June and the end of the year, 398 Lockheed and Martin medium bombers-including I 2 0 B-34’s, I 53 A-28’~,45 B-26’s, and 80 A-3o’s-were ferried to British forces in Africa by crews of Pan American Air Ferries or by American and British military crews.loQ At the same time, the forces gathering under the leadership of General * See below, Chap. 14. 340
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