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    Operation Thursday: Birth Of The Air Commandos [Illustrated Edition]
    Operation Thursday: Birth Of The Air Commandos [Illustrated Edition]
    Operation Thursday: Birth Of The Air Commandos [Illustrated Edition]
    Ebook68 pages51 minutes

    Operation Thursday: Birth Of The Air Commandos [Illustrated Edition]

    By Herbert A. Mason Jr. and SSgt. Randy G. Bergeron

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    Includes 20 Illustrations

    OPERATION THURSDAY — A bold, unconventional use of American air power to support British ground troops in Burma, Operation THURSDAY marked a critical development in the history of modern warfare. On March 5-6, 1944, the Allies conducted an air invasion of Burma, in an attempt to push back the Japanese in the China-Burma-India Theater and re-establish the land route between India and China. U.S. airmen formed a special operations unit—the 1st Air Commando Group—to transport troops to jungle locations and resupply them, often in the line of fire. The remarkable success of this operation lives on, fifty years later, among the elite 1st Air Commando Group—a force committed to meeting the challenge of unconventional warfare any time, any place, anywhere.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTannenberg Publishing
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786252494
    Operation Thursday: Birth Of The Air Commandos [Illustrated Edition]

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      Book preview

      Operation Thursday - Herbert A. Mason Jr.

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1994 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II

      OPERATION THURSDAY — Birth of the Air Commandos

      Herbert A. Mason, Jr.

      SSgt. Randy G. Bergeron

      TSgt. James A. Renfrow, Jr., USAFR

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      OPERATION THURSDAY 5

      A Continent at War 5

      A Hell of a Beating 6

      The Allies Take the Initiative 7

      The Chindits in Operation LONGCLOTH 8

      Support from Churchill and Roosevelt 9

      The First Aerial Invasion 10

      The Birth of Project 9 11

      Assembling a Volunteer Force 12

      The Best Aircraft for the Mission 13

      Specialized Training and Equipment 15

      Airmen Bound for India 16

      THURSDAY. 16

      Final Preparations 18

      Operation THURSDAY Dawns 22

      The Gliders Lift Off 25

      Ongoing Support 30

      Aerial Invasion: A Proven Concept 34

      Lessons Learned 35

      A New Dimension for Air Power 36

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 38

      OPERATION THURSDAY

      A bold, unconventional use of American air power to support British ground troops in Burma, Operation THURSDAY marked a critical development in the history of modern warfare. On March 5-6, 1944, the Allies conducted an air invasion of Burma, in an attempt to push back the Japanese in the China-Burma-India Theater and reestablish the land route between India and China. U.S. airmen formed a special operations unit—the 1st Air Commando Group—to transport troops to jungle locations and resupply them, often in the line of fire. The remarkable success of this operation lives on, fifty years later, among the elite 1st Air Commando Group—a force committed to meeting the challenge of unconventional warfare any time, any place, anywhere.

      A Continent at War

      After Pearl Harbor—the devastating blow against the U.S. Fleet in Hawaii—Imperial Japanese forces quickly overran much of the Far East. Guam, Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines, Thailand, Wake Island, French Indochina, and the Dutch East Indies all succumbed to the Japanese onslaught. Meanwhile, American forces were busy preparing for a protracted war on two fronts, and the British were struggling against Hitler's aggressive air campaign. With the Allies thus diverted, Japan's rapid conquests gave the resource-poor nation access to the rubber, oil, tin, rice and other raw materials needed to fuel the Imperial war machine.

      Allied hopes for stopping the enemy advance in Asia were pinned on Burma, a country of jungles and mountain ranges strategically located between India and China. By 1941 the Japanese had nearly cut China off from the rest of the world. The meager Chinese resistance was being supplied via the Burma Road that extended from India through Burma to the town of Kunming, China. If

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