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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 Wash”17 pages
T H E P R O B L E M O F N E W G U I N E A Between 24 April and 4 July, seventy B-25 sorties were flown against Lae and Salamaua, to which number there were added eighty- four B-26 sorties, forty-five by B - I ~ ’ s ,and twenty by RAAF Cata- linas, Beauforts, and Hudsons. Insofar as was possible, the bombing efforts of the several units were co-ordinated, as when, on 16 May, fourteen B - 2 5 ’ ~and four B-26’s destroyed buildings, set fire to fuel dumps, and damaged grounded aircraft at Lae. On 9 June, five B-25’s, eleven B-26’s, and two B-17’s bombed the same target through an overcast; and on 16 June, nine B-25’~,ten B-26’~,and three B-17’s scored hits on runways and buildings. It was difficult to ascertain the damage done. The weather was frequently unfavorable, and the Japanese skillful at camouflage. Photographic reconnaissance indicated that bombs often fell wide of the target, and the enemy continued to add new taxiways and dispersal areas. But the Japanese never at any time based their bombers in appreciable numbers a t either Lae or Salamaua, and that was what counted. Indeed, Allied estimates, based in part on information supplied by an RAAF officer who spent months within sighting distance of Lae, indicated that enemy fighters based on New Guinea rarely numbered more than forty.l9 These were enough, however, to maintain a stubborn defense. Between 24 April and 4 July, three B-26’s and eleven B-25’s were lost in combat. Especially heavy were the losses to an interception of 24 May. Eight B-25’s of the 13th Squadron led by its commander, Capt. Herman F. Lowery, and flying as usual without escort, cut through a pass in the mountains, swept wide of Salamaua, and turned in toward Lae from the east to be met head-on by a strong force of enemy fighters. Six or seven of them were shot down, but Captain Lowery’s plane burst into flames and dove into the ocean, and one by one four other B-25’~went down. A sixth bomber crash-landed on its return to Moresby.‘O As with the heavy bombers, Moresby served the mediums only as a staging point. More of the B-26’s would have been available for strikes at Lae and Salamaua had it not been for the fact that during April and May the 22d Group assumed a major responsibility for the run to Rabaul. This, of course, was a job for the heavies, but on z April the 19th Group had but six aircraft in commission, and through May and June would average no more than seventeen B-17’s ready for combat, or less than half its assigned strength. Moreover, one of its four squad- rons, the 435th’ was reserved for reconnaissance duties, and repeatedly 479
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