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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.
“United Press”36 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 treme shortage of shipping made it uncertain as to when ground crews and maintenance facilities could be sent, but it was hoped that the resources of Australia and personnel evacuated from the Philippines would make it possible to operate the planes “pending the arrival of necessary maintenance units.” l 8 By early January the plan had been revised to provide only four pursuit groups in addition to one light, two medium, and two heavy bombardment groups.19 But such a revision in the over-all objective was by no means so significant as a general policy of throwing into the battle for the Netherlands East Indies every available tactical plane and crew in the hope that, despite the obvious disadvantages under which they would be required to operate, they would serve to slow up if not to stop the main Japanese drive. T h e British and American staffs in Washington remained unshaken in their decision to regard Ger- many as the first and most dangerous enemy, but as the US. chiefs pointed out, the continuing advance of the Japanese argued “for sub- ordinating everything in the immediate future to the necessity for getting reinforcements into the ABDA Area.” ‘O It proved impossible to keep the schedule for the ferrying of bombers; but by 6 January, 2 0 B-17’s and 6 LB-3o’s were en route, an additional 45 B-17’s and 9 LB-jo’s were making ready for the take-off, and arrangements were being made to forward a total of 160 B-17’s and LB-3o’s as rapidly as they came off the production line.” Hopes for expediting their move- ment were raised when 3 B-17’s piloted by Maj. Kenneth B. Hobson and Lts. Jack W. Hughes and Clarence E. McPherson completed the first flight from Hawaii to Australia by way of the as yet unfinished South Pacific route by 1 2 January, though until the fall of Java the Atlantic and African air routes would remain the chief reliance for reinforcement of the Far East.22T h e total number of p-40’~reaching Australia from the United States had been raised by 2 5 January to I I t, and 160 more arrived within the next ten days.23 Meanwhile, the staffs in Washington struggled with the problem of shipping. T h e heavy bomber could be flown to its battle station half- way around the world, even though the air routes it followed were imperfectly charted and prepared and losses in transit up to 2 5 per cent were a t times sustained, but other planes must be carried by water. Water transport was required, too, for the ground crews and other maintenance personnel, for the men and materials required to construct and maintain bases, for antiaircraft and other ground forces 3 74
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