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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
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 reorganization. Col. John Davies and the few members of the 27th Group who had escaped from the Philippines were flying some twenty-nine A-24’~on patrol of the Darwin area. The 3d Bombard- ment Group (L) having arrived both with crews and ground echelon, it had been decided that this unit would absorb the personnel of the 27th Group. The experienced flyers of the latter organization, ac- cordingly, were assigned to key positions in the other unit, and all available A-24’s were used to equip its 8th Squadron. The 13th and 90th squadrons of the 3d Group began to receive at about the same time B-zs’s, medium bombers originally intended for use by the Dutch. The 89th Squadron, whose personnel was engaged in the per- formance of service and maintenance for the 19th Group a t Charters Towers, still awaited its allotted A-20kZ7Thus, the 3d Group had one light bombardment squadron, two squadrons partially equipped with medium bombers, and a fourth squadron whose knowledge of the structure of a heavy bomber probably exceeded that of any other light bombardment unit in the Army. The two medium bombardment groups assigned were the 38th and the z2d. The ground echelon of the former having arrived on 25 February, it had since then been engaged in a study of infantry tactics and in the erecting of planes for other organizations. It would be many months before its own planes were received. O n the other hand, several B-26’s belonging to the 2zd Group flew the Pacific to land at Archerfield on 25 March, and within a month a total of forty-eight of the Marauders had come in from the United States.’* While the American flyers were being regrouped and prepared, the RAAF continued its efforts to gain intelligence of the enemy’s move- ments and wherever possible to harass him. During March, for ex- ample, Darwin-based Hudsons, in addition to maintaining a regular patrol of the Arafura Sea, flew more than twenty sorties against Dili and Koepang in Timor. Other Hudsons and similarly slow and inade- quately armed Catalinas wore themselves out on reconnaissance flights and approximately thirty combat sorties against Rabaul, Gasmata, and Salamaua. Total RAAF losses from combat during March were only three Hudsons; more serious was the steady wear and tear on men and machines.” Though the first Japanese attack of 19 February on Darwin had been its most destructive, the port since then had been under repeated attack, as also had been Port Moresby after its first air raid on the night of 2/3 F e b r ~ a r y . ~ ’ 4’4
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