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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 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 1943 and of twenty-one others which by the same date would become available for other Eighth Air Force commands.93This estimate was subsequently proved to have been somewhat optimistic, but it served as a useful indication for planning purposes of what could be counted upon in advance of ROUNDUP-the plan for the invasion of France in the spring of 1943. It already had been agreed that construction costs in the develop- ment of bases for American occupancy would not be charged to the United States. Ownership of all installations in the United Kingdom would remain with the British, AAF units being considered as tenants, and the financial considerations involved were handled under the reciprocal aid provisions of the lend-lease agreement^.^^ Under the arrangement, the Americans accepted RAF standards of accommo- dation, though as time passed, modification in individual instances would be made. During April, an air section of the office of the chief engineer, USAFBI, had been set up with responsibility for dealing with the Air Ministry in all matters pertaining to construction for the Eighth Air Force. The new section established liaison with the Air Ministry and with the Ministry of Aircraft Production, which had been made responsible for the Construction of base air When the European Theater of Operations under Maj, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower succeeded USAFBI in June, responsibility for problems of construction for American units passed to the chief engineer, ETO, where it remained throughout the war. Conversion of Great Britain into a gigantic aircraft carrier had been undertaken by the RAF as early as 1940, but American partici- pation in the war required an upward revision in its building program that ultimately added almost a hundred large airfields to the total already built and projected. It was a difficult task. The pinch of in- adequate space, labor, and construction equipment made necessary the most careful and precise planning, and since this in turn depended upon exact information concerning the size and composition of the air forces to be disposed in the United Kingdom, the task became the more difficult because of frequent changes during the first two years of plans for the commitment of U.S. units to the United K i n g d ~ m . ' ~ Yet, though the building program repeatedly fell behind schedule, there would be no instance of a combat group kept out of operation for the lack of an operating base. 63 2
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