“Nevers”44 pages
- 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 B A T T L E L I N E I N T H E P A C I F I C
donia, the planners greatly exceeded their former estimates. For Fiji
it was now proposed that the AAF base twenty-six medium bombers
on Viti Levu and no less than fifty-five fighters, while New Cale-
donia would carry the very considerable force of thirty-one medium
bombers and eighty fighter aircraft.31 Even these substantial incre-
ments appeared inadequate to some of the joint staff planners, who
believed that a far heavier increase than that recommended was
necessary to prevent an early collapse of the entire situation in the
Pacific area.32
As the discussion progressed, it was apparent that the line of islands
was not yet secured throughout its length, but in those cases where
air strength was lacking it either was projected or en route. By
1 7 March, Fiji, Christmas, and New Caledonia had one squadron
each of twenty-five fighter aircraft, and twenty-five additional fight-
ers of the 68th Squadron were in Australia scheduled for movement
to Tongatabu. Efate still lacked air strength, but twenty-one Marine
fighters currently in Hawaii were scheduled to arrive at that island
as soon as the landing field became operable, estimated between I and
1 5 June, and these were to be supplemented by a pursuit squadron
with its necessary ground services, all of which were to come from
By April, construction of the bases was well along and some meas-
ure of protection had been provided for most of them, but it was
questionable that any of them alone would be able to resist a de-
termined and powerful Japanese attack. Accordingly, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff directed that joint staff planners should summarize and inte-
grate all previous studies concerning defense of the South Pacific.
Specifically, they desired an assessment of the number of bombers
of all types required to provide a mobile defense for all the island
bases along the line of communications, the time required for con-
centrations of a bomber force, the available landing fields, and the
minimum fighter, ground, and antiaircraft facilities necessary for
effective o p p o s i t i ~ n . ~ ~
It was quite apparent that the question of garrisoning the islands
involved two conflicting theories." One doctrine, that of the Army
Air Forces, emphasized the concept of mobility. General Arnold and
the other AAF spokesmen were fully cognizant of the strain which
the European and Pacific theaters were throwing upon AAF re-
* A subject to be discussed at greater length in Vol. IV.
437