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

Air Force Historical Studies Office · 863 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 43 …cavalry mounted on gas driven flying horses” never arrived to “sweep the Germans from the sky…
  • p. 46 …Mitchell never received an American air force commensurate with the ambitious idens of air power which…
  • p. 49 …This project, like so many others, had lagged, and the Air Service was never equipped during…
  • p. 50 …the Army or the Air Corps?” but never, “Are you in the Army or the Corps…
  • p. 55 …any Air Service officers, and I have never heard anybody yet-any Air Service officer-against…
  • p. 69 …But one axiom, with its corollaries, never varied. T o him the airplane was first and…
  • p. 75 …Powerful air attacks resolutely pressed home could never be completely stopped, but their effects could best…
  • p. 94 …rate for the time being, the decision never- theless left an open question as to how…
  • p. 121 …large-scale warfare; production of combat types never exceeded 300 aircraft a month. The pattern of…
  • p. 122 …the German Air Force, the Regia Aeronautica never exhibited sufficient power to be decisive in the…
  • p. 133 …Except for a few raids against French factories, the force had never been employed in a…
  • p. 140 …into a complete war economy production was never equal to the demands of our own forces…
  • p. 150 …Long-term needs of the Air Corps and the sudden availability of funds in quantities never…
  • p. 181 …Actually, the Air Staff had never approved of the method followed in RAINBOW No. 5 . l…
  • p. 217 …Members of the Hawaiian Air Force, who had never flown heavy bombers, began to receive intensive…
  • p. 219 …were not then satisfactory for permanent garrisons. Never- theless, the commander of the Hawaiian Department, Lt…
  • p. 227 …T h e planes never reached their destination. Other bombardment units were being prepared for transfer…
  • p. 241 …responsible officers, a few crucial points have never been satisfactorily explained. T h e general pattern…
  • p. 277 …motors, sole- noids, and gun mounts-were never found. After many hours of fruit- less search…
  • p. 288 …planners and from which AAF Headquarters was never to deviate. The translation of the accepted grand…
  • p. 303 …the principal features of the plan were never challenged, it was subsequently revised in a draft…
  • p. 309 …W a r Plans Division was never incorporated into GHQ and remained a potential rival to…
  • p. 336 …the shooting and wrote that they were never able to make out an airplane.g6It is…
  • p. 412 …As it happened, the B-24's never returned to India, but, instead, remained in the…
  • p. 457 …Meanwhile the Edsall with the remaining pilots had headed for Java, never to be heard from…
  • p. 492 …Squadron was assigned, but which it would never reach, going from Australia to Tongatabu; ( 3 ) Christmas…
  • p. 500 …deck of a carrier presented a problem never before challenged by Army planes. Hence an accelerated…
  • p. 502 …the bows and wetting the flight deck. Never before had this been accomplished, yet now it…
  • p. 509 …Island, in the Louisiade Archipelago.” They were never needed, for on 7-8 May the two…
  • p. 513 …exist, it was at a point which never reached the aircrews, for on the operational level…
  • p. 524 …handicaps under which AAF planes had operated. Never were more than fourteen B- I 7’s…
  • p. 527 …AAF planners clung firmly to their belief that proper observance of economy of force would never…
  • p. 531 …Crews which had previously never loaded torpedoes now for the first time fitted these weapons into…
  • p. 544 …But the Japanese never at any time based their bombers in appreciable numbers a t either…
  • p. 548 …26's in torpedo-dropping, but they never would be put into All told, the record…
  • p. 556 …until it had been thoroughly trained and never to com- mit it piecemeal. General Magruder had…
  • p. 560 …pressed into service against the Germans," and never reached the CBI." Colonel Haynes had reached India…
  • p. 606 …reason that the Antilles Air Task Force never evolved, as did I Bomber Command, into an…
  • p. 614 …that reason deserving a high priority, could never dispose of the U-boat menace but must…
  • p. 635 …In Washington the Munitions Assign- ments Board t had never considered this schedule as more than…
  • p. 670 …they bombed from 39,200 feet, and never below 30,000. By AAF standards they had…
  • p. 672 …Goering had never put enough bombers over England, nor had he concentrated his forces on the…
  • p. 690 …of co-operation and combined action probably never before equaled by the military forces of two…
  • p. 729 …shoot at aerial targets, and several had never operated a turret in the air. This deficiency…
T H E D E F E N S E O F A U S T R A L I A
Group had moved into Port Moresby by 30 April and that afternoon
thirteen of the twenty-six Cobras which had come in carried out their
first mission. Under the leadership of Lt. Col. Boyd D. Wagner, they
accomplished a thorough strafing of grounded planes and fuel dumps
at Lae and Salamaua, an action which was followed by a brisk en-
gagement with enemy fighter^.'^ Six A-24’s of the 8th Bombardment
Squadron had led a movement of AAF dive bombers into Port
Moresby a month earlier on 31 March. The B-25’~of the 3d Group
had begun operations against New Guinea targets early in April, as
also had the B-26’s of the 22d Group.58
Important patrol and reconnaissance duties assumed both by
mediums and heavies cut down substantially the scale of bombing
operations, for the AAF planes had become a principal reliance for
intelligence of the enemy’s movements and intentions. All bomber
units equipped with planes shared in the effort, but special notice is
due the 8th Photographic Squadron and the 435th Bombardment
Squadron. AAF Headquarters had been prompt to recognize the need
for properly equipped photographic squadrons, and shortly after the
outbreak of war roo P-38’s had been set aside for necessary modifica-
tion. A training program had been inaugurated at Colorado Springs,
and the first unit ready for operation was assigned to Australia. Flight
“A’ of the 8th Photographic Squadron arrived there on 7 April, and
nine days later had gone into operation with its four F-4’s (P-38E’s
modified by the installation of cameras and two additional 75-gallon
tanks) under command of Capt. Karl P01ifka.~’The most conspicuous
services were provided, however, by the 43 5th, which formerly had
been the 40th Reconnaissance Squadron of the 19th Bombardment
Group. Anticipating the assignment of photographic groups to all
theaters, the AAF on 9 April directed the redesignation of all existing
reconnaissance squadrons as bombardment units, and under this pro-
vision the 40th became the 435th Bombardment Squadron.60 But it
continued to serve, with assistance from other units, for reconnais-
sance of the New Guinea, New Britain, and Solomons areas. And
when the Japanese moved out in early May for an attack by sea on
Port Moresby, AAF units contributed to the frustration of their pur-
pose perhaps chiefly through the reconnaissance they provided.
By that time, the final entry had been made in the long record of
AAF flights from Australia to the Philippines. The last successful
flight for the evacuation of personnel had been made in a B-24 piloted
425

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