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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.
“Cairo”26 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 extreme east of India to bases in Burma for transfer to Chungking by land transport. General Naiden’s survey indicated that the normal run should be between the RAF base a t Dinjan and Myitkyina, with occasional runs as far as Yunnanyi after the monsoon was spent. There was only one airdrome suitable for the purpose a t Dinjan, where three would be required, and the unusually heavy rainfall of the region left little prospect that the additional fields could be made ready before fall. A field at Myitkyina could be put in satisfactory state by 1 5 May, and two others could probably be completed by November. With these limitations, he doubted that more than twenty- five planes could be operated, and he anticipated that the service would be uncertain during the approaching rainy season.39 Though the Americans had not yet had time to explore thoroughly the idiosyncrasies of the Indian transportation systems, it was already evident that they must depend upon air transport between Karachi and Dinjan hardly less than from Assam to Burma. Accordingly, by the end of March, General Naiden had drafted plans for two trans- port commands: the Trans-India would operate between Karachi and Dinjan, and the Assam-Burma-China would run from Dinjan to Myitkyina and occasionally to Loiwing under a plan to extend the service in time to Kunming and Chungking. Col. Robert Tate even- tually assumed command of the Trans-India operations. Colonel Haynes, then en route to India with a flight of transports and bombers, was chosen for the other command.40Pending Haynes’ ar- rival, Col. William D. Old proceeded to Dinjan during the first week of April on assignment as executive officer and to take charge of preliminary arrangements. His first immediate task, aside from the routine of providing quar- ters and supplies for personnel, was to assist in the delivery of 30,000 gallons of aviation gasoline and 500 gallons of lubricants to China for the use of Colonel Doolittle’s Tokyo raiders, then already at sea aboard the Hornet.” Ten Pan American DC-3’s from the trans- African contract services had been made available to haul the gasoline, of which 8,000 gallons were in Calcutta, where the tactical situation demanded that it be moved immediately. There was not enough storage space a t Dinjan, and so two of the transports on 6 and 7 April hauled the fuel from Calcutta to Asansol in western Bengal, whence it was subsequently transferred via Dinjan to China.41 * See above, pp. 438-44. 498
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