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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.
“King”32 pages
T H E D E F E N S E O F A U S T R A L I A same time, civilian factory representatives of the several American aircraft producers became well-nigh indispensable in the training of service personnel, particularly by guiding them to an understanding of the peculiar features of the several types of a i r ~ r a f t . ' ~ Work on a permanent supply and maintenance depot a t Tocumwal in New South Wales, between Melbourne and Canberra, was in progress by May. In selection of the site, the authorities had been in- fluenced by previous RAAF plans for a similar use of the place, by its convenient situation with reference to Melbourne and Sydney, and by the fact that it lay a t a terminal point for different-gauge rail lines; but the decision also reflected the great current concern for security from enemy attacks on Australia. With plans for four all-weather runways, for satellite fields, for the garrisoning there of 4,600 military personnel, and for depot facilities requiring a staff of 2,000 workers, the project was indeed an ambitious undertaking5' Yet, with an early improvement in the tactical situation, it became necessary before the Tocumwal depot had even reached its operational capacity to transfer the main center of such activity northward to Townsville, which was considerably nearer the area of combat in New Guinea." On the eve of the Battle of the Coral Sea, which would determine the immediate fate of Australia, many problems remained unsolved. Of these, logistical problems were among the most difficult. Distances in Australia were comparable to those of the United States, but trans- portation and communication facilities were much less adequate. Rail- way lines, like the population, were centered in the southeastern part of the country, and there was no railroad connection with such northern outposts as Darwin. Moreover, where connections existed for any great distance there were special difficulties arising from the fact that the Australian railways were not of uniform gauge. Particu- larly serious was the problem of storing and transporting high-octane gasoline. Stocks at the outset were relatively small and were not stra- tegically located. Most of the storage capacity being in the southern part of the continent, it was necessary to unload there bulk shipments from the United States. Rail shipment thence to operating units in the north was almost out of question, for every change in railroad gauge required the pumping of fuel from one tank car to another. Transshipment, therefore, had to be made largely by water roiltes exposed to enemy attack, and this arrangement called for a large sup- ply of fuel drums to be sent from the United States. The relatively 423
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