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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.
“Pacific Ocean”16 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 planes, useful in covering the northern approaches across the Pacific to Japan, although some time before the Midway action the plan had been altered to eliminate Adak.'13 Along with a small occupation force aboard two transports, the Japanese prepared a task force built around the two small carriers Junyo and Ryujo, which with two heavy cruisers and three destroyers would attack shipping, planes, and shore installa- tions at Dutch Harbor. There was no intention of invading the Alaskan mainland, or even Dutch Harbor; the objective was to create a diversion for Midway, then fall back to support the occupation of the western A1e~tians.I~~O n 30 May the task force sortied from Omi- nato in North Honshu; its attack upon Dutch Harbor was scheduled for 3 June, one day earlier than the date set for Midway. Meanwhile Admiral Nimitz, having dispatched all available surface craft northward from Pearl Harbor, on 2 1 May placed all Army, Navy, and Canadian forces in the Alaskan theatp under Rear Adm. Robert A. Theobald, as commander of Task Force 8.l" In the Alaskan theater, work proceeded at a feverish pace far out on Umnak Island, where the secret base was under construction. All available men were put to work constructing hardstands along the steel mat and by the 23d of May twenty-five of them were ready although they were unfloored. The work was exceedingly difficult. During the sunny days of spring, progress had been excellent, but by June the rains had come, followed by blizzards, and the construction work bogged down in deep mud."' By the end of March, a 3,000 x roo-foot strip was usable at Umnak, but it was far from satisfactory. Even in June, when it had reached 5,000 feet, it was unstable, it tossed fighters thirty feet into the air upon impact, and waves in it made its use by B-26's exceedingly risky. Yet it did permit fighters to operate."' From early April, the garrisons in Alaska had been alerted to expect attack at any moment upon one of the naval operating bases at Kodiak, Sitka, and Dutch Harbor, and Generals Butler and Buckner had pressed hard for reinforcements as they moved what planes could be spared out to Fort Greeley on Kodiak, Cold Bay on Alaska Peninsula, and Fort Glenn on Umnak, a t the expense of some of the fields in the rear area.'" On 26 May, a flight of ten B-26's of the 77th Bombardment Squadron moved to Cold Bay. By I June a naval squadron of twelve F-fl's was en route to Kodiak; the Canadian Western Air Command had dispatched one squadron of bomber reconnaissance Bolingbrokes to Yakutat, in addition to fifteen P-40's to Fort Richardson; twenty- 464
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