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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.
“Independence Day”9 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 flown by crews of the 7th Bombardment Group had arrived at Malang. This was the group that was originally scheduled, and which in fact had actually begun its movement at the time of Pearl Harbor, for rein- forcement of the Philippines. Its ground echelon had reached Brisbane in the convoy arriving there on 2 2 December. The advance element of its air echelon had flown into Hawaii in the midst of the Japanese attack of 7 December. Caught thus in movement, its personnel and planes were put to work as the occasion demanded on the western coast of the United States, in Hawaii, in Australia, and in Java, and the unit itself with some of its original personnel finally wound up in India and China. T w o of the B-17’s arriving at Malang, piloted by Maj. Kenneth B. Hobson and Lt. Jack W. Hughes, had participated in the first flight from Hawaii to Australia over the newly opened South Pacific air route. The other planes had come from the United States by way of the South Atlantic, Africa, the Middle East, and India. Five of the newly arrived planes-three LB-3o’s and two B-17’s- were put immediately into operation. American commanders were especially concerned over the enemy’s progress north of Java. With the capture of Manado and Tarakan, Japanese land-based aviation could operate from fields lying within 350 miles of both Kendari and Samarinda and thus, not to mention other obvious dangers, could impose still further limitations on our own air operations. And so on the morning of 16 January, the day of Combs’ return from Sumatra, the five recently arrived planes took off from Malang for a mission against shipping in Manado Bay and against the Langoan airfield, twenty miles south. Having staged through Kendari, the LB-3o’s were led by Maj. Austin A. Straubel in an attack on the airfield, while the B - I ~ smade their runs over the bay. Enemy pursuits reacted vigor- ously, and subjected the inexperienced American crews to continuing attacks. Lt. John E. Dougherty crash-landed his badly damaged LB-30 on a tiny island off southern Borneo where the crew, three of whom had been wounded, was stranded until rescued eight days later by a Navy PBY. Another LB-30, piloted by Lt. W.E. Bayse, had also received serious hits and was damaged beyond repair in a forced land- ing a t Makassar in southern Celebes.37Only one LB-30 and one B-17 returned to Malang. The other B-17 had managed to reach Kendari on the way back, but Japanese pursuits repeatedly attacked the field and the American crew, unable to effect necessary repairs, finally destroyed the plane.38 3 80
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