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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
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 February-made it possible to send some of the B - I ~ D ' sof the 19th Group down to Australia for a depot overhaul. The imminent arrival of ground crews of the 7th Group also helped to make possible the occupation of a new base at Jogjakarta, 150 miles west of Malang. Preparations at the field, occupation of which would eliminate a dan- gerous concentration of all American bombers a t one base, were near enough completion to permit reception of the first of the 7 t h ' ~ground crews there on z I January.42Thereafter, the 7th Group officially was based at Jogjakarta while the 19th remained a t Malang. But as the Japanese pressed forward the Americans were given no opportunity to get set. The main body of the enemy's Second Fleet had moved out from Formosa en route to Palau, where it joined ele- ments of the carrier force which struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December. The z 1st Air Flotilla was moving forward to bases in Celebes, and the increasing tempo of enemy air attack carried its warning of an intended advance through Makassar Strait and the At the same time, the Japanese sought an eastern anchor for their advancing lines a t Rabaul in New Britain. On 2 0 January more than I O O carrier-based planes struck at Rabaul, and others promptly hit Kavieng in New Ireland. The attacks were repeated the following day. T o oppose these assaults the Australians had scarcely a half-dozen virtually unarmed Wirraways, an observation plane of slow speed and thin armor. In actions which testified chiefly to the valor of the Aus- tralian airman, these Wirraways were quickly destroyed. A few Hud- son bombers escaped from the Vunakanau airfield, a t Rabaul, in advance of a Japanese landing on 2 3 January which promptly overran the weak defenses of the town. Most of the Australians standing guard there were captured or killed, and those who escaped did so by taking to the jungle. Simultaneously, Kavieng was also occupied. By the end of the month, enemy land-based bombers and fighters, along with a unit of float planes, had taken up their base in the Bismarck Archi- pelago."" Above Java the Japanese met stronger, though hardly effective, resistance. O n 24 January four American destroyers created momen- tary havoc among transports landing enemy troops off Balikpapan, sinking at least four of them, but the Japanese had won the place by 2 5 AAF bombers struck at enemy shipping, too, and a t widely separated points. Between z z January and 3 February, exclud- ing reconnaissance flights, a t least fifteen missions representing eighty- 3 8 2
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