The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

T H E E I G H T H A I R F O R C E
pilots had been ferrying bombers across the North Atlantic since
1940, and since the summer of 1941 the Air Corps Ferrying Com-
mand had given attention to the development of facilities along the
route; but in April 1942, these facilities were still unequal to the
demands of such a movement as was now And so while
General Eaker directed preparations in England and General Spaatz
supervised the organization of a force in the United States, the Ferry-
ing Command, under General George, redoubled its efforts to prepare
the airway along which so many of the AAF’s planes were destined
to find their way into ~ 0 m b a t . l ~ ~The route ran from Presque Isle in
Maine to Goose Bay in Labrador, then either by BLUIE WEST I
(Narsarssuak) on the southern coast of Greenland or BLUIE W E S T
8 (Sondre Stromfjord) on the west coast to Reykjavik in Iceland, and
thence to Prestwick, the British terminal of trans-Atlantic flights on
the west coast of Scotland. T h e distances involved varied from the
569 statute miles separating Presque Isle from Goose Bay to the gruel-
ing 1,002 miles from there to BLUIE W E S T 8.
It had been decided by the middle of April that the combat groups
would fly their own planes-the 97th its B-I~’s,the 1st its P-38’5 the
3 1 s its P-39’s-and that the Eighth Air Force would have responsi-
bility for the m 0 ~ e m e n t . l ~ ~T o the VIII Fighter Command, under
Brig. Gen. Frank O’D. Hunter, General Spaatz assigned control of
the entire air movement. Because of the special hazards involved in
the dispatch of fighter aircraft on long overseas hops, the B-17’s were
to be detailed to lead flights of up to six aircraft on each leg of the
journey. The pilots, who had been trained for combat rather than for
ferrying, required special training, and so it was planned to move all
units into a concentration area for the purpose about the middle of
May.135 Accordingly, on the 15th of that month the three groups
were ordered to Grenier Field in New Hampshire and Dow Field in
Maine.136During the first week of June, the 60th Transport Group
with its C-47’s was added to the movement and ordered to Westover
Field in Massachusetts, where it, too, came under the control of the
VIII Fighter Command.137
But while the combat units of the Eighthin New England studied
the problems and procedures of the projected air m ~ v e m e n t , ” ~the
Japanese fleet steamed toward Midway; and on I June, orders went
out from Washington suspending the movement of the Eighth and
directing that all planes be held on six hours’ notice for dispatch to a
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