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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 B A T T L E O F T H E A T L A N T I C servation Group of the I Air Support Command with a few B-18's was placed under the operational control of this office in order to reinforce naval patrol in that area.2o It soon became evident that successful warfare against U-boats demanded improved methods of joint control so that both air and surface forces might proceed to the scene of a U-boat sighting with the least possible delay. Here the British were able to offer valuable advice based on the already considerable experience gained by R A F Coastal Command in joint operations with the Royal Navy. With the help of R A F officers sent to America at the request of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence for the purpose of giving aid and counsel to the new antisubmarine force, steps were taken to make the joint control room in N e w York City truly a nerve center for joint action.'l Naturally enough, this extreme activity on shore was not at once reflected in correspondingly improved operations at sea. Handicaps involving training and equipment could not be overcome immedi- ately. In fact, the German submarines ran little risk from aerial attack during January and February of I 942. Although operational hours flown by Army planes in the Eastern Sea Frontier amounted to almost 8,000, only four attacks were made, none of which appears to have resulted in damage to the target. By the end of March the situa- tion had improved perceptibly. T h e U-boats, it is true, continued in steadily increasing numbers to exact a mounting toll of merchant shipping. But they also were meeting rapidly stiffening opposition. I Bomber Command planes flew almost as many hours in March as they had in the previous two months put together." They still made relatively few attacks, and those they made left much to be desired. Yet this expanded air patrol, by forcing the enemy craft to remain submerged for increasing lengths of time, curtailed the freedom with which they had operated hitherto. It is also worth noticing that a few Army planes (four to be exact) had begun to carry radar equipment. More rapid increase in the use of this critically important equipment was prevented by a shortage both of new sets and of spare parts for the few old ones available. And much work remained to be done before the potentialities of radar for antisubmarine purposes could be reali~ed.'~ In March, too, the Civil Air Patrol began offshore flights with the aircraft of its newly created Coastal Patrol. These civilian aircraft, 5 2 7
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