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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.
“Cairo”26 pages
A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G was already flying this route and making an occasional trip as far as Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo. In February, Transcontinental & Western Air began operating a shuttle service from Washington to Cairo, using two of the five Stratoliners purchased by the government under terms of the contract of 24 December. Until May, the Ferry- ing Command’s B-24’s continued to fly special missions to Africa and back. Nearly all of the four-engine equipment was thus con- centrated on the southeastern route.’62 The long overwater flight from Brazil to Africa complicated the development of a sound operational plan for transport services be- tween Miami and the west African bases. T h e Pan American Clippers were able to carry a maximum load of approximately 16,000 pounds along the Miami-Natal route, but had to lighten their payload at Natal to take on a heavier load of gasoline before making the Atlantic cross- ing. For this reason they were able to lift only about 10,000 pounds of cargo on each trip from Natal to Africa. In order to avoid piling up a heavy backlog of cargo and passengers at Natal, it became neces- sary for the Clippers to make occasional extra shuttles across the Atlantic before returning to the United States. Although this assured for a time a fairly even flow of cargo along the route, the few four- engine planes available were, from the very first, incapable by them- selves of providing the necessary cargo space on the run to Africa. T h e heavy volume of supplies and the large number of personnel that began arriving at the Miami port of embarkation early in 1942 forced the adoption of a plan for using two-engine transports on the Miami- Natal leg of the route and gradually shifting the four-engine equip- ment to the transoceanic crossing.163 Pan American opened the two-engine service to Natal early in February 1942. For several weeks no fixed schedules were flown, but by the end of the month, equipped with five C-53’s, the contractor was operating a regular schedule of approximately three round trips a week. Pan American gradually increased this service as more planes became available and as the volume of air traffic grew. By the end of June, the number of planes in use had grown to fourteen and two round trips a day were being flown over the 4,000-mile route.le4 An additional two-engine service south from Miami was inaugurated on I May 1942 by Eastern Air Lines, operating under the direction of the Air Service Command. For the first month or two, Eastern flew only to Trinidad, Puerto Rico, and Nassau but extended its service to 3 5 5
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