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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.
“United Press”36 pages
T H E D E F E N S E O F A U S T R A L I A arate problems of defense at either extremity of the so-called Malay barrier. Moreover, in the organization of defensive efforts in the Pacific, as with those to be mounted in the China-Burma-India area, the double threat of a Japanese advance from Rabaul by way of New Guinea to Australia and from the same point by way of the Solomons against the South Pacific line of communications presented its own peculiar problems of organization and co-ordination. The Combined Chiefs of Staff were in agreement that the Pacific should be primarily an area of American responsibility, but among the Joint Chiefs the question of Army and Navy responsibilities within this theater oc- casioned some debate. A workable agreement was soon reached, how- ever, on the basis of a proposal by President Roosevelt: there would be a separate Southwest Pacific Area under the command of General MacArthur; the remainder of the Pacific would be divided into the Southeast Pacific and the Pacific Ocean areas, the latter to be sub- divided under naval command into the North, Central, and South Pacific. Forces in the adjoining South Pacific Area, which included New Zealand and New Caledonia, thus would operate under the com- mand of Adm. Chester W. Nimitz as commander in chief of the Pacific Ocean Area, whose responsibilities included the maintenance of a line of communications between the United States and the South- west Pacific, the support of operations in that area, and preparation for offensive action that might be separately or jointly ~ n d e r t a k e n . ~ ~ By the end of March, a directive for General MacArthur had been drafted and submitted to the Allied governments concerned. Under its provisions, the responsibilities of the new command were to check the enemy's advance toward Australia; to exert all possible pressure on the enemy; to protect land, sea, and air communications within the theater; to support friendly forces of the Pacific Ocean Area; and to make suitable preparations for a later assumption of the offensive." In accordance with this directive, which meantime had undergone only slight modification, General MacArthur assumed command of the Southwest Pacific Area on 1 8 April 1942. The immediate prob- lem in the direction of operations was to provide for a co-ordination of effort between Australian and American forces and the few Dutch units which had escaped from the Netherlands East Indies. Accord- ingly, the staff of the new command was announced as follows: Gen. Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander of Allied Land Forces; Lt. Gen. George H. Brett, Commander of Allied Air Forces; Vice Adm. 4'9
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