The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

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
nature of Genera1 Lincoln’s responsibility, but by the end of May
clarification had been provided by official definition of the Air
Services as an administrative, supply, maintenance, and engineering
command operating under the commander of the Allied Air
Its internal organization reflected the current effort to achieve a
requisite mobility within the Allied Air Forces. Instead of attaching
service elements to tactical units, the plan was to make each air base
group responsible for all air service within a specified area. Thus the
35th Air Base Group, stationed in the Townsville area, was forced
with the passage of time to acquire the versatility necessary to service
and maintain A-ZO’S,A - 2 4 ’ ~ ~B-IfS, B-ZS’S,B - 2 6 ’ ~ ~P - 3 9 ’ ~ ~P-~OO’S,and
an assortment of transport planes. Four other groups, stationed at
Archerfield near Brisbane, Ballarat near Melbourne, Mascot in the
Sydney area, and Daly Waters below Darwin, developed a similar
versatility, while a sixth air base group located at Charters Towers
sharpened its mechanical and related skills by servicing all planes fer-
ried in from the United
In addition, the air base groups were forced to provide the services
of supply depots, for the Army Air Services had only one air depot
group a t its disposal. This, the 4th Air Depot Group, by dividing its
units among three widely separated points, was attempting in April to
perform functions which normally would require three such groups.
At Footscray in Victoria it operated a central supply depot, at Bris-
bane a branch supply depot, and at Wagga Wagga in New South
Wales a major repair depot, not to mention the supervision it provided
over aircraft erection facilities at Amberley and Geel~ng.~OObviously,
there was need for additional air depot groups, and on I May Brett
received authorization for activation of another group, the 8 1st; but
personnel and equipment were to be taken from that already available
in Australia. Activated on I I May under command of Col. R.L. Fry,
the new unit received responsibility for the assembly and maintenance
of aircraft and the supply of air units in the Brisbane area. The short-
age of trained and experienced personnel proved a serious handicap;
but as in other service units, improvisation and hard work made up
for some of the inadequacies. Help came, too, from civilian sources.
With the co-operation of the Australian Department of Aircraft Pro-
duction, Australians were employed for maintenance work; such local
concerns as the Ford Motor Company and the National Airways also
assisted in the provision of facilities and experienced personnel. At the
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