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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.
“Natal”13 pages
T H E P R O B L E M O F N E W G U I N E A lawed, pilots had been instructed to attack only with an altitude advantage, and to repeat the attack only under the most favorable circumstances. As a result the inferior characteristics of the P-40 were minimized, while the pilot capitalized on its superiority in arma- ment and diving.' Lt. Col. Boyd Wagner, who had been appointed director of pur- suit in the Moresby area, faced a still tougher assignment. Trained service units were lacking; engineering equipment and maintenance supplies were critically low; and the P-39, even in a good state of repair, was unable to meet the Japanese fighter on equal terms. The P-39's leakproof tank, rugged construction, and heavy firepower were popular characteristics, but the superior maneuverability, greater ac- celeration, and higher ceiling of the enemy's plane enabled him to avoid combat almost at will.13 Late in May the first flights of the 35th Group, equipped with P-~OO'S,arrived to relieve the pilots of the 8th Group, who in June returned to Townsville to recover from dengue fever, malaria, and fatigue. During May alone Moresby had been attacked twenty-one times. Though some of these attacks were slight, one had been carried out by thirty-four bombers and fifteen fighters with considerable damage to the Seven-Mile Airdrome." That most of the enemy's raids on Port Moresby did little damage was hardly because of the intrinsic merits of the P-39 and P-400. The threat of interception and a gradual improvement in antiaircraft defenses in the area tended to keep the enemy's bombers high; more than forty of his planes had been shot down; and during June and July the scale of his effort was reduced. The cost to the Americans, however, had been high. Prior to June, twenty to twenty-five P-39's had been lost in combat, eight more in forced landings, and three by destruction on the ground. The sources are contradictory, but fighter losses a t Port Moresby seem to have declined somewhat during June and July. In addition to the defensive tasks assumed and a few offensive sweeps, the fighters at Port Moresby also provided escort for trans- port planes on flights to the primitive airfield of Wau in North East New Guinea. There a band of miners and prospectors, reinforced by a small but specially trained Australian commando-type unit and known as the Kanga Force, held out against a larger force of Japanese who had advanced inland from Lae and Salamaua. By way of a cir- cuitous water and land route, the Kanga Force received supplies at 477
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