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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 small population and industrial capacity of Australia forced the Allies into a heavy dependence upon seaborne supplies at the very time when a shortage of shipping stood among the most acute problems confront- ing the associated powers. Air transport was as yet insufficiently developed to provide sub- stantial relief. The Air Corps Ferrying Command assigned two LB-3o’s to a South Pacific run in April, but the principal purpose was the return of bomber ferry crews to the United Under Harold Gatty, as director of Air Transport in Australia, progress was being made in the organization of intra-theater transport services, but as yet he lacked the planes, equipment, and trained personnel required. In the development of inter-theater air transport, moreover, there were administrative and jurisdictional problems yet to be solved. The ferrying service across the Pacific, which increasingly came to be joined with an air transport service, depended upon facilities a t Wil- liamstown and Amberley which came under the control of the Di- rectorate of Air Transport; and not until September would anything like a satisfactory understanding be reached regarding the prerogatives of a field command as against the autonomy considered essential to the efficient operation of world-wide transport and ferry services.55 New forms of logistical support no less than new weapons of warfare present their peculiar problems of command, and time is usually re- quired to resolve them. Considering the brief interval that had elapsed since the debacle in the Netherlands East Indies, however, the emphasis must be placed upon the progress made. During April and May, significant steps were taken by the Australian government to adjust the economic capacities of the country to the needs of the Allied military forces. In close co- ordination with General MacArthur’s staff, the administrative ma- chinery was provided to relieve congestion in the harbors, for a more efficient direction of the production and distribution of food, and for the supply of labor and equipment required in the construction of military installations. Through these and other actions, Australia’s productive capacity would substantially reduce the burden imposed on Allied shipping.s6 At the same time, AAF units, as yet the only American forces avail- able for combat duty, were moving forward to assist the Australians in the defense of their continent, P-40’s of the 49th Group having already taken position in defense of Darwin, the P-39’s of the 8th . 424
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