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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
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 four heavy bomber sorties were dispatched. But of these, four missions involving a total of seventeen bombers were abortive because of un- favorable weather, and twenty-nine sorties in six other efforts resulted only in negative reports. O n the remaining five missions, claims were entered for the sinking of two transports and two other vessels, but bomber losses were high. On 2 2 January, one B-17 was destroyed when it overshot the field at Palembang; two days later, three B-17's were badly shot up by enemy aircraft; on 24 January, two €3- I 7's of an eight-plane mission were lost in crash landings, and only three of the eight returned safely to Malang. On 2 7 January, Maj. Stanley K. Rob- inson, commander of the 7th Group, while leading his fifth mission within a week was shot down and with his entire crew was killed when thirty Japanese pursuits attacked the formation of four B-17's.~' Among the missions flown were those of 2 8 and 29 January against Kuala Lunipur and the Kuantan airfield in the Malay States by four B-17's which staged out of Palembang. Though their absence of two and a half days from Malang still further weakened the defense against the enemy above Java, the planes apparently succeeded in scoring numerous hits on runways and hangars at K ~ a n t a n . ~ ~ T h e enemy on 26 January had captured Kendari, and to that point he promptly transferred the forces of the 2 1st Air Flotilla which on 3 February opened the attack on Java 'itself by savage strikes at Soerabaja, Madioen, and Malar~g.~'O n that day near Malang the Japanese caught American bombers standing on the Singosari field loaded for take-off, and while enemy bombs tore the runway, strafers concentrated their fire on the planes. Four B- I 7's exploded or burned, and a fifth was shot down ten miles south of Malang. At Soerabaja another Japanese formation damaged Dutch naval installations; destroyed three Catalinas on the water; and in shooting down a B-18, killed in addition to its entire crew several sorely needed radar experts and Major Straubel, who had recently succeeded to the command of the 7th T h e damage at Madioen was less serious, but the out- look for a defense of Java against similar and continuing attacks was dismal indeed. In the absence of radar equipment, the Dutch air warning service depended upon ground observation stations connected by wire with a control room at Soerabaja. It had been well organized, bu; of course there could be no substitute for modern equipment. There was a great shortage also of antiaircraft guns, which for the most part were con- 383
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