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

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
all planes-forty-nine B-I 7's, eighty P-38's, and fifty-two C-47's-
would proceed to Presque Isle, where they would be organized for
the movement into squadrons of three flights each, each flight to
comprise two elements, and each element to consist of one B-17 and
four P-38's. The B-17's not required for escort under this arrangement
also would make the flight in small elements.14' The hardy C-47, as
befitted its mission, in addition to getting itself to England, would
carry a cargo of freight.
The first planes, eighteen B-I~'s,took off from Presque Isle on 2 3
June for Goose Bay, where before the day was over all of the big
bombers had come in.148Three days later these planes left for BLUIE
W E S T I and 8, but only nine reached their destination safely, six
having turned back to Goose Bay and the other three having been
forced down along the coast of Greenland. The crews of the wrecked
bombers were all saved, but weather and communications were fully
revealed as the major difficulties governing the use of the route. Also on
2 3 June the first flights of P-38's safely negotiated the initial leg from
Presque Isle to Goose Bay. Additional flights proceeded, as weather and
other circumstances permitted, without mishap until I 5 July, when six
P-38's and two B-17's came down on the ice cap on the eastern coast
of Greenland. For this misfortune, which all crews survived, unfavor-
able weather and misleading directional broadcasts by the enemy were
blamed."g O n I July, the first American-operated tactical aircraft to
reach the United Kingdom by air in World War 11-B-17 No. 19085-
landed a t P r e ~ t w i c k . ~ ~ ~Twenty-six days later, Col. Newton Long-
fellow brought into the British terminal the last planes of this first
BOLERO air movement.151The AAF had estimated that losses would
run as high as 10 per cent;152 yet despite extremely unfavorable
weather which seriously delayed the mo~ement,"~it had been accom-
plished with the loss of few planes and with no serious injury to any
of the personnel engaged in it.
A second movement followed hard upon the first, so close, in fact,
as already to suggest the parallel of a pipeline extending from Presque
Isle to Prestwick. The ground echelons of the 92d and 301st Bom-
bardment Groups (H), of the 14th Fighter Group, and of the 64th
Troop Carrier Group had moved to the port of embarkation in July
and left for the United Kingdom late that month and in early
Simultaneously, their air echelons moved into a north-
eastern concentration area preparatory to a take-off from Presque
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