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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.
“R.G.”33 pages
T H E E I G H T H A I R F O R C E general of the AFCC and commanding general-designate of the con- templated Army Air Force in Great Britain (AAFIB), had previously sought to have the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron of the AFCC transferred intact to the AAFIB, in the hope of providing at least a head for that heretofore incorporeal organization." A decision to assign the AFCC personnel to AAF Headquarters precluded this move, but General Spaatz was quick to seize the opportunity presented by the release of the Eighth Air Force from GYMNAST. On 3 1 March, he suggested that the now "task-less" force be made available as a nucleus for the AAFIB, and within the next few days the Eighth Air Force was committed to the United Kingdom." Already in England since February on a mission to prepare the way for the AAFIB were Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker and a small bomber command staff, who by this new commitment were rewarded with the definite knowledge that their plans and preparations would soon have practical application. T h e assignment to the AAFIB involved a drastic change in the na- ture of the Eighth. SUPER-GYMNAST had called for a mobile tactical air force, whereas the principal air task in the United King- dom had long been conceived as strategic bombardment of Germany. T o adapt the Eighth Air Force to its new mission required a con- siderable reshuffling of its combat organizations. It was this need which had brought about the release to the Third Air Force at the end of March of all Air Corps and service units save the headquarters of the Eighth Air Force and the VIII Bomber and Interceptor Com- mands.I8 In April, the VIII Air Force Base Command, the 12th Re- placement Control Depot, and the 7th Photo Squadron were reassigned from the Third Air Force.lg The Eighth got, also, others of its original units, of which the most important was the 2d Air Depot Group, and in April a large number of combat units assigned to operational training units were earmarked for eventual assignment to the Eighth Air Force and shipment to the United Kingdom. These units comprised twenty-three heavy bombardment groups, four medium bombardment groups, five light bombardment groups, four dive bomber groups, and thirteen pursuit groups.2o Actually com- mitted to the Eighth Air Force for the initial movement to the United Kingdom were only the 1st and 3 1st Pursuit Groups, the 97th Bom- bardment Group ( H ) , and the 5th Photo Squadronz1 Before the Eighth Air Force could reach the combat strength envisaged for it 61 5
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