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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 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 organization they would enjoy a very real freedom of choice. Ac- cordingly, at the request of the Generalissimo, formal action had been postponed until regular AAF units could be sent to assure continuity of operations.18 Meanwhile, a shipment of P-4oE’s had been sent to Takoradi on the west coast of Africa, where they were assembled for ferrying to China. A few of these planes reached the A V G before the fighting in Burma had ended; others followed in May and June.I9 And in the latter month, pilots of the 23d Fighter Group,* which had been selected to replace the A V G , began to arrive under a plan to use them as replacements for the Volunteers until the new unit had built up sufficient strength to take over. There would be no break in the support rendered our Chinese allies by American pilots, however inadequate that support might be. The Tenth Air Force Meanwhile, in India the newly organized Tenth Air Force strug- gled with peculiar problems of command, mission, and impotence. O n the collapse of the ABDA effort, it had seemed to Generals Brett and Brereton that Burma afforded perhaps the best opportunity for a continued resistance to the Japanese. Though Australia as well as Burma now was threatened, the latter presented the more immediate need for reinforcement. Tavoy had fallen to Japanese invaders as early as 19 January and Moulmein on 3 I January; and as the enemy paused to bring up additional forces, Rangoon was the logical objec- tive of a renewed thrust. An attack on Rangoon inevitably raised the question of continued supplies for China; and China, in addition to her own ability to engage the enemy, offered the promise of air bases within reach of sea communications upon which Japan’s victorious forces depended, and even within reach of Japan itself. As for the possibility that AAF bombers might make an immediate contribution to the defense of Burma, Brady (by then a brigadier general) had reported that heavy bomber operations against Bangkok and Saigon would be feasible from Akyab through use of Magwe and Toungoo as advanced bases.” T h e objectives thus tentatively set at the time of Brereton’s de- parture from Java received support in Washington, where there was a keen awareness of the importance of aid to China. At the ARCADIA conference in January, it had been agreed that a high- * Pursuit units were redesignated “fighter” an 15 May 1942. 492
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