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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 T h e pilots and crew members who took part in the operation had a rough time. Many of them were inexperienced in arctic flying, and the tension of prolonged instrument flight and the knowledge that maps were inaccurate, that facilities were minimal, and that no search and rescue system existed produced a mental stress that served to in- tensify the physical exhaustion caused by long hours in the air. T h e assumption by the Alaska Defense Command of the right to com- mandeer any aircraft that crossed the border resulted in pilots being kept in Alaska until their maximum flight time was reached and in some cases exceeded; half a month’s flight time would be performed in three days or less, and when the crews returned to Edmonton they were an exhausted, unshaven, red-eyed lot. By the end of July the operation tapered off and planes were being returned to normal com- mercial operation, but several of the airlines continued to make emer- gency flights to and through Edmonton until September.178 Following the failure of the early attempt to open an emergency air supply service into the Southwest Pacific by way of Africa, no further effort was made by the AAF to establish regular air communi- cations with the area until April 1942. By that time, construction of bases and facilities along the new South Pacific route between Hawaii and Australia was far enough advanced to permit a scheduled trans- Pacific operation on a small scale. While the initial service was under- taken chiefly for the purpose of returning ferrying crews from Australia to the United States, it also provided a means of getting a limited quantity of badly needed supplies to the Southwest Pacific.”’ Pursuant to a directive from General Arnold to secure two of the LB-3o’s repossessed from the British and open the service, the Ferrying Command selected Consolidated Aircraft Corporation as the logical operating agency.lS0Though Consolidated was an aircraft rnanufac- turer rather than an airline, its own crews had been ferrying aircraft to the Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies, and the company had, as a consequence, a pool of pilots experienced in trans-Pacific flying.l8’ Regular operations began on 2 3 April 1942 when one of the LB-3o’s was dispatched from San Diego to Australia carrying 1,900 pounds of airplane parts, radio parts, and mail. It returned eleven days later with twenty-two Ferrying Command pilots and other ferrying crew mem- bers aboard. T h e regular route ran from Hamilton Field, California, to Hickam Field, Oahu, and thence by way of Christmas Island, Canton Island, the Fiji Islands, and New Caledonia to Australia. In 3 59
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