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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 B A T T L E O F T H E A T L A N T I C radar had opened up an entirely new field for investigation in anti- submarine tactics, though as yet little had been done in this coun- try along that line and only a few Army aircraft were specially equipped.34 Generally speaking, Army antisubmarine operations fell into three broad categories: routine patrol of areas in which the threat of enemy action existed, special patrol of an area in which a particular U-boat was known to be lurking (a process known sometimes as a “killer hunt” and carried out often in conjunction with naval air and surface forces), and cover for convoys sailing within range of land-based aircraft. The first two of these activities, involving as they did an attempt to search out and attack the enemy, constituted the offensive phase of the campaign. The last, consisting of the direct protection of shipping, was primarily defensive in character, although it was recog- nized that the vicinity of a convoy was a likely place for U-boats to be It was not, however, until after 15 May 1942 that the Army units were called upon for regular convoy cover, for it was not until that date that the Navy felt able, in terms of escort vessels and aircraft, to inaugurate a convoy system for coastal shipping.36 Beginning in May, I Bomber Command aircraft were requested by the sea frontier commanders to take part in the protection of convoys from Key West to the Chesapeake Bay, and during the summer steps were taken to extend protection to the oil and bauxite shipping in the Caribbean. The Navy was able to assume a large share of this convoy air cover. By the end of May, it was employing long-range PBY- type aircraft with an endurance of fifteen hours over the most distant convoy route~.~’Nevertheless, convoy protection was already com- peting strongly for the services of AAF antisubmarine units. Six months of experience in U-boat hunting began to bear fruit during July, August, and September in a noticeably higher level of success in the attacks made by units operating under I Bomber Com- mand control. Although the number of attacks fell off rapidly after the high record of June, the proportion of those considered damaging to the submarine increased remarkably. Whereas during the previous three months only seven of the fifty-four attacks were thus assessed, during July, August, and September eight out of twenty-four attacks were believed to have damaged the enemy craft, and one, executed on 7 July, resulted in a sure “kill.” 3 8 Still more interesting is the fact that the frequency of attacks made 533
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