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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 E I G H T H A I R F O R C E and served in England for the indoctrination of newly arrived units." During the months following submission of his report to General Chaney, General Eaker and his staff also formulated detailed plans for the establishment of a training organization in the British Isles. They planned that all training at first would be conducted under direction of Bomber Command, and made arrangements for the ac- quisition from the RAF of a nearly completed installation a t Boving- don in Hertfordshire, northwest of London, and of its satellite field at Oakley. Eaker requested still another site (the choice eventually fell on Cheddington, near Bovingdon) for use in the training of fighter units. Necessary personnel and equipment were requested from the United States, and training schedules adjusted to the requirements of the initial groups expected in May were presented to USAFBI." These schedules were revised upward in May upon receipt of informa- tion that the build-up planned for the Eighth called for thirty combat groups, both bomber and fighter, to reach the United Kingdom by October 1942.'~Accordingly, the Americans now requested a total of eight airdromes for use in training, three to be used for fighter pilots and five for bomber crews. Because of the R A F s reluctance to use for training purposes badly needed operational airdromes in England, the British recommended that the Eighth consider the use of Ulster (Northern Ireland), where seven airdromes could be made available for the purpose.73 Such was the arrangement agreed upon as through May and June plans for a training establishment took shape. Since it was intended that organized tactical units on arrival would go directly to their permanent stations for familiarization and final pre-combat training, the interest in special training installations arose from concern for the problem of replacement.'* General Eaker had calculated, on the basis of British experience which admittedly was not entirely valid for daylight operations, that American bomber losses would average 5 per cent per mission on the basis of ten mis- sions a month, and 3 per cent for twelve missions per month in the case of fighter^.?^ T o assure operation of each unit a t maximum strength, the projected training establishment would serve principally to provide combat crew replacement centers (CCRC) from which fully trained crews could be supplied as combat losses occurred. At the Arnold-Portal conference in London late in May, it was agreed that the RAF would provide eight fields for CCRC's by September 1942 and a total of sixteen by the following April.76 In June 1942, 62 7
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