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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.
“Churchill”21 pages
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 five P-38’s were due in at Elmendorf Field at Anchorage; and a P-39 fighter squadron was en route to Alaska, destined for Kodiak. Seven new B - I ~ E ’ swere coming in for the 36th Bombardment Squadron (H), and upon their arrival the squadron strength would number eleven bombers, including one at Ladd Field, Fairbanks. However, four of these (three radar-equipped) were assigned to the Air Search Group with the PBY-5A’s of Panving 4. One-half squadron of B-26’s (six planes) was ordered out to dismal Umnak, and one-half to Cold Bay.”” Already, on 2 3 May, ten P-40’s of the I Ith Fighter Squadron had landed on the spongy runway on Umnak, and, when reinforce- ments followed, on this westernmost field there were by 3 June twelve P-~o’s,six B-26’s of the 77th Squadron, six PBY’s, and two B-18’s, with half the 77th and I Ith squadrons back a t Cold Bay (Fort Randall).”’ Here, too, came the six B-I~E’sand one LB-30 of the 36th Squadron, ordered out from Kodiak to Cold Bay on 2 June, where they arrived on 4 June.121These were the dispositions and the Jap did not know them-he was completely unaware of the field on Umnak. Out along the Aleutians the weather had turned bad; beginning on 29 May and for a week thereafter it was practically prohibitive for flying. Ceilings ranged from zero to 500 feet with visibility seldom exceeding five miles, and there was almost continual rain and fog. T o reach this area, a B-17E of the 36th Bombardment Squadron was ordered to Umnak to conduct a daily reconnaissance of the Aleutian chain. T h e pilot, Capt. Russell A. Cone, reported that the mat laid on the porous volcanic soil gave the effect of landing on an inner-spring mattress. Heavy planes took off with difficulty from the springy strip, but on 28 May the B-17 ran its first search mission, covering the area between Umnak and Tanaga, the first island west of Adak. T h e crew sighted nothing, although the plane covered every inlet and bay along the island chain.’ 2 2 At Umnak, conditions were extremely primitive. Bomber revetments and hardstands had been built, but they had not been floored and in wet weather the heavy plane would have mired in; the B-17 stood in the only available parking space, leaving the fighters ranged along the shoulders of the runway.lZ3 Combat crews set up their own tents and until 5 June cooked their own meals. Their bivouac area was a sea of mud; water covered the ground inside many of their tents and all crews were on alert from dawn to dark, which at that time of the year extended from 0400 to 2300.’24 They went with little or no sleep for @-hour periods, and 465
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