RE: USS Ranger P-40 deliveries
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09/03/2008 07:46:41 AM
In a review of the posts I re examined one by :
Leendert http://funsite.unc.edu/hyperwar/AAF/II/AAF-II-4.html The fighter replacement problem first became critical with the P-38's, which because of their versatility and endurance were used in a variety of roles during the early Tunisian fighting. (In November 1942 no other available Allied fighter, RAF or USAAF, had the tactical radius to operate from Youks against the front at Djedeida.) Doolittle had been forced to take planes from the 1st Group to keep the 14th at strength and use the 82d to make up attrition in the 1st and 14th.
116 Nevertheless, at times the bomber command could not find a dozen P-38's for escort, and Cannon's pleas for fighters became progressively more desperate during January.
117 The total strength of the three P-38 groups (minus one squadron) was down to ninety when Arnold came to the Casablanca conference. He initiated drastic action,
118 ordering all P-38's in from England. The Twelfth had already scoured the United Kingdom for P-38's, and this
--130--
order brought down the last of the Eighth's P-38 units, the 78th Group, which had been held in "strategic reserve" (
Appoximately 54 planes, note by Rob)for Doolittle.
119 Eisenhower having assigned the necessary priority, Arnold sent instructions that additional P-38's were to be sent from the United States as deck loads on cargo vessels--a novel method of carrying them on specially constructed stands on tanker decks had also been devised
120--and still others were to be flown over the South Atlantic via Ascension.
By the time of the conference, a shortage had also developed in P-40's. The 33d Group had brought with it two months' replacements (Spaatz recommended that all groups committed to an operation such as TORCH carry along at least the first month's replacements),
121 but it had donated twenty-five planes to re-equip a French squadron, the Lafayette Escadrille,
122 and its losses at Thelepte began to be heavy. Here the
Ranger proved invaluable. Admiral King made the carrier available as a result of a plea from Eisenhower to the War Department in December: it
ferried the air echelon of the 325th Group--seventy-five P-40's and pilots diverted from the Ninth Air Force--in mid-January, the planes landing at Cazes;
123 at the Casablanca conference Arnold asked for its continued good offices, and it brought seventy-five P-40L replacements in February.
124 However, out at Thelepte, the 33d Group, short of new pilots and down to thirteen aircraft by the 1st of February, had to be relieved in the midst of intensive operations.
125 116. Ltr., Doolittle to Arnold, 30 Nov. 1942.
117. Montgomery Rpt.; msgs., Cannon to CG 12th AF, 1926, 2637, 2873, on 17, 24, 31 Jan. 1943.
118. Msg., Allied AF to AGWAR, 7038, 24 Jan. 1943
119. Memo for AC/S, OPD from Brig. Gen. O.A. Anderson, 3 Nov. 1942; ltrs., Eaker to Spaatz, 29 Jan. 1943, and Stratemeyer to Eaker, 8 Mar. 943.
120. Memo for AFAEP from Traffic Div., AC/AS, MM&D, 21 Apr. 1943; CM-IN-11794 (1-26-43), 12th AF to ASCPFO, 2038, 25 Jan. 1943.
121. Msg., Allied AF to AGWAR, 7158, 25 Jan. 1943.
122. CM-IN-10052 (12-23-42), Algiers to AGWAR, 2784, 22 Dec. 1942.
123. CM-OUT-9078 (12-27-42), OPD to Freedom, Algiers, 513, 26 Dec. 1942; CM-IN-1976 (12-28-42), Algiers to WAR, 3359, 28 Dec. 1942; memo for CG AAF and CG SOS from OPD, 28 Dec. 1942.
124. Msg., Allied AF to AGWAR, 7038, 24 Jan. 1943; msg. AGWAR to AFHQ, 1748, 2 Feb. 1943.
125. McCormick Rpt. as in n. 113; History, 33d Fighter Gp.