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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 Invaders”15 pages
T H E B A T T L E L I N E IN T H E PACIFIC remain in the Far East under the control of General S t i l ~ e l l . ~ ~Gep- era1 Arnold chose the leader of the expedition. H e was Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, and his 24 crews were selected from the 34th, 37th, and 95th squadrons of the 17th Bombardment Group” and from the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron. All were volunteers, and there was no effort to hand-pick the personnel; they represented average flight crews of the AAF. Execution of the plan would place a heavy burden upon the air- craft. A cruising range of 2,400 miles with a 2,ooo-lb. bomb load would be demanded of whatever plane was chosen, and after due consideration for the merits of the B-26 and the B-25, the choice fell upon North American’s B-25. At Eglin Air Depot auxiliary fuel tanks were fitted into the planes, after removal of the lower turrets, and when all additional capacity was filled, including an extra fifty gallons carried internally in five-gallon tins and a collapsible 160- gallon rubber bag in the crawlway, the planes carried 1,141 gallons, of which the pilots could count on 1.100. T o lift this weight plus the bomb load off the deck of a carrier presented a problem never before challenged by Army planes. Hence an accelerated training program was instituted at Eglin Field, Florida, where the bombers had arrived by I March, and where Lt. Henry F. Miller, USN, in- structed the pilots in the technique of short take-offs. White lines on the ground marked out the distances for the pilots, and before concluding the training period, all of them had taken off twice in a 700- to 75o-foot run with a plane loaded to 31,000 pounds; they were confident that they could take off from a carrier in their heavy planes. They were to leave behind their Norden bomb- sights so ;hat they would not fall into enemy hands. In their place Capt. C. R. Greening designed a simple substitute device which he labeled the “Mark Twain,” and this was the bombsight car- ried on the mission. For “protection” from astern, two wooden .5o-cal. machine guns were installed in the extreme tip of the tail, and, to record the flight, each plane carried either a still or a movie camera. Bombing training was conducted primarily from I ,500-foot alti- tudes, with the planes approaching at minimum level, then making a quick pull up to the desired level; but there was scarcely any time for adequate gunnery practice. Nevertheless, on 24 March the detach- * At that time assigned to the Eighth Air Force. See below, p. 614. 439
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