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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 Invaders”15 pages
L O S S O F N E T H E R L A N D S E A S T I N D I E S which had participated in the attacks on Britain’s ill-fated Repulse and Prince of Wales, was standing by at Saigon with IOO or more planes. According to one postwar Japanese account, the remainder of the I I th Air Fleet-presumably the 2 I st Air Flotilla and headquarters detach- ments-moved to Davao during the first week in January. T h e major portion of the Second Fleet, having participated in early operations off both Malaya and the Philippines, was at Formosa from 2 5 Decem- ber to 15 January. The enemy’s strategy called for the simultaneous advance of two task forces: an eastern invasion force would move down through the Molucca Sea to occupy Manado, Kendari, and Makassar in Celebes and points on Amboina and Timor; a western force supported by the 23d Air Flotilla would advance through Makassar Strait to effect, initially, the occupation of Tarakan, Balik- papan, and Bandjermasin on the eastern coast of Borneo.28While land and air forces based on Thailand moved forward to the conquest of Singapore, a third amphibious task force, supported by carrier-borne aviation, would establish a strategic outpost to the east at Rabaul in New Britain. T o get within closer striking distance of the enemy’s ominous con- centrations, ten of the fourteen B-17’s which had been withdrawn to Australia-all that were then in commission-had by I January moved their base of operations to Java. It had been contemplated at the time of their withdrawal from the Philippines that they might eventually operate from Java, and General Brereton on his way to Darwin had consulted with Dutch officials on this and other questions. The choice of an American bomber base in Java had fallen on the Singosari air- field, located approximately five miles northwest of Malang. The field lacked paved runways, radar defenses, and antiaircraft equipment, but its sod, which extended some 5,000 feet in length, apparently was firm enough and quarters were adequate.” Headquarters of the Far East Air Force remained in Darwin under Col. Francis M. Brady during days devoted by General Brereton chiefly to consultation with Aus- tralian, British, and Dutch officials; not until 14 January would Brady move the headquarters to Java, and another week would elapse before the final selection of Bandoeng as its l o ~ a t i o n . ~ ’But throughout the N E I operations, and indeed for many months thereafter in the South- west Pacific, it would not be uncommon for the tactical commander at the lower echelon to operate his planes with an extraordinary degree of independence of higher headquarters; problems of distance and 3 7 7
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