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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.
“King”32 pages
T H E E I G H T H A I R F O R C E determination to establish a self-sufficient force. During World War I, American military forces in Europe had achieved organizational and operational independence, but they had remained (and this was particularly true of the air service) dependent upon their allies for much of the equipment and many of the services used. Leaders of the AAF at the outset in World War I1 had been determined this time to achieve as a general policy logistical as well as operational independ- ence."' Circumstances, of course, were far more favorable to such a policy than had been the case in the earlier war, for our allies now depended heavily upon American production in their own efforts. But the building of a service organization on the scale required for support of so ambitious an undertaking as had been projected for the Eighth Air Force required time, even with the advantage which cir- cumstances fortunately had provided in the opportunity for a certain amount of prewar planning. And so in June 1942, Langford Lodge and Warton would not be ready for months; the Ministry of Aircraft Production installation at Burtonwood would have to carry the main burden until the following year, and only because of this assistance and a variety of other aids provided by the British would it be pos- sible for the Eighth to make its presence felt by the Germans in advance of that time. Overseas Movment Meanwhile, the overseas movement of the Eighth, given an added impetus by the decision in favor of ROUNDUP, had begun on 2 7 April, when advance echelons of the headquarters of the Eighth Air Force and of the VIII Bomber, Fighter, and Base Commands, together with a weather detachment, the I 5th Bombardment Squadron (Separate), and the 2d Air Depot Group, comprising in all approxi- mately 1,800 officers and men, sailed from Boston for Liverpool on the transport Andes.123That same day the War Department directed that the air force and all command headquarters, the 97th Bombard- ment Group (H), the 1st and 3 1st Pursuit Groups, the 5th Photo Squadron, and the 5th Air Depot Group be prepared for movement overseas not later than I June 1942."~ Like most AAF overseas de- ployments, this first movement of the Eighth Air Force was divided into two echelons-ground and air. The bulk of the troops and equip- ment would proceed by water transport, while the aircraft with skeleton crews would fly by way of the North Atlantic 639
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