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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 reins of command and assumed the responsibility for planning which theretofore had belonged chiefly to the VIII Bomber It is not surprising that the VIII Bomber Command under General Eaker was in many ways further advanced than were any of the other commands, for its staff enjoyed by far the widest experience in coping with problems peculiar to the theater. Already in mid-June the bomber command had taken a significant step toward the develop- ment of adequate machinery for the control of combat operations by establishing the Provisional I st Bombardment Wing at Brampton Grange under the command of Col. Claude E. Duncan, who had been in the theater since January. Still another step came on 27 July with the full-fledged activation of both the 1st and zd Bom- bardment Wings; the command of the latter, at Old Catton in Nor- folk, was given to Col. Newton Longfellow, who on that day landed at Prestwick to complete the first BOLERO movement.lel There would be some reshuffling of the paper over the next few weeks: the two wings were dependent upon action in the United States for pro- vision of necessary headquarters personnel, and headquarters and headquarters squadrons meanwhile having been established in the States for each of the wings, the theater organizations were redesig- nated “provisional” in August and re-established on a permanent basis in September.162But all this was for the sake of the record; a t the end of August the 97th, 301st, and 92d Groups had been assigned to the 1st Wing,lB3while the zd Wing awaited the early arrival of its headquarters squadron and additional combat groups. Arnold and Portal had agreed in May that the American fighter units would be stationed at first with RAF fighters in southern Eng- land. General Hunter’s headquarters, accordingly, was opened on 28 July, shortly after his arrival in the theater, at Bushey Hall, Wat- ford, on the outskirts of northwest London and within easy reach of the headquarters of the RAF Fighter Command.ls4 There were four American fighter groups in the theater a month later, all of them- the 1st and 14th with their P-38’s and the 31st and 52d with Spit- fires-stationed on RAJ? fields and already showing progress in the mastery of RAF procedures and techniques of contr01.l~~ T h e VIII Ground Air Support Command under Brig. Gen. Robert C. Candee did not open its headquarters at Membury in Berkshire, about fifty miles west of London, until 17 August, after close study of RAF organization for air-ground co-operation.lae Its mission being 646
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