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3/1/42 The Fifth Air Force flies its last heavy bomber mission from bases in Java.
3/2/42 5 B-17’s and 3 LB-30’s of the 5th Air Force (the last airplane taking off just before midnight) evacuate the last 260 men from Jogjakarta, the last airfield on Java in Allied hands. Enemy ground forces are within 20 miles of the field at this time. Bataan-based P-40’s attack shipping in Subic Bay. The pilots claim considerable damage to the ships, but 4 of the few P-40’s remaining on Bataan are lost.
3/3/42 Japanese airplanes attack the air field and harbor at Broome, Australia at 1000. This occurs shortly after the arrival of 8 US heavy bombers that were evacuating men from Java. The Japanese destroy 2 B-17’s, 2 B-24’s, 12 seaplanes, and 2 Hudsons, and kill at least 45 Dutch civilians and 20 US airmen.
3/4/42 A lone Japanese aircraft attempts to attack Honolulu, Hawaii but drops its bombs short of the city. Overcast conditions prevent successful pursuit by Seventh AF airplanes.
3/5/42 General Lewis Brereton who arrived in India from Netherlands East Indies (NEI) on 25 Feb, formally takes command of the Tenth AF, which at this time only has 8 tactical aircraft (B-17 bombers).
3/8/42 Headquarters (HQ) of the Tenth AF begins moving from Patterson Field, Ohio to India. Between this date and 13 Mar, the 8 B-17’s in India transport 474 troops and 29 tons of supplies from India to Magwe and on the return flights evacuate 423 civilians.
3/8/42 Colonel William O. Butler assumes command of the Eleventh Air Force with its Headquarters (HQ) at Fort Richardson.
3/9/42 A large military reorganization occurs making effective Executive Order of 28 February. The Air Corps and the US Army Air Force Combat Command, which previously had made up the Army Air Forces (AAF) under General Hap Arnold as Chief, are discontinued. The AAF is reorganized with Arnold as Commanding General (CG). Army Ground Forces under General Lesley McNair and Services of Supply (later Army Service Forces) under General Sommervell are also organized. All are under control of General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff (CoS). In the Navy, Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief (CinC) US Fleet, assumes additional responsibilities as he succeeds Admiral Stark as Chief of Naval Operations.
3/9/42 In Southeast Asia Japanese forces complete the capture of Rangoon, dealing China a great blow by cutting off supplies from Burma Road.
3/12/42 In the Tenth AF, 10 P-40’s arrive in Karachi by ship from Australia. Stateside, Zone of the Interior (ZI), the XII Bomber Command is activated at MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida.
3/15/42 In the South Pacific (SOPAC) the 67th Fighter Squadron, the first Army Air Forces (AAF) tactical unit in the theater, arrives on the Island of New Caledonia located Northeast of Brisbane, Australia on the eastern side of the Coral Sea.
3/15/42 In the 11th Air Force, the XI Fighter Command is activated at Elmendorf Field under the command of Colonel Norman D. Sillin. Its operational components are the 11th and 18th Pursuit Squadrons.
3/16/42 3 B-17’s of 435th Reconnaissance Squadron (Rcn Sq), 19th Bombardment Group of the Fifth Air Force begin evacuating General MacArthur, his family, and his staff from Del Monte Airfield in the Philippines to Australia.
3/17/42 General MacArthur arrives in Australia and on 18 April assumes command of United Nations forces in SWPA (Southwest Pacific Area).
3/20/42 Report submitted by General Ira Eaker to the Army Air Force in Britain (AAFIB) in compliance with General Chaney’s instructions of 25 Feb indicates the completion of studies of Royal Air Force Bomber Command (RAF BC) operations and of airfields, training, tactical doctrine, equipment, and methods of conducting the air offensive in cooperation with RAF. This Report also indicates a large US dependence upon British for the present time period but emphasizes the apparent compatibility of the tactical doctrines of the US’ daylight precision bombing and RAF’ night area bombing, and implies the principle of coordinating these attacks in order to complement each other.
3/25/42 Major Cecil P. Lessig becomes first Eighth Air Force (AF) pilot to fly a mission over France in World War II. Flying a Spitfire with 64 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force (RAF), Lessig participates in a 36-aircraft fighter sweep that is recalled when 50 German fighters challenge them.
3/26/42 3 B-17’s of 435th Recon Squadron, 19th Bomb Group of the Fifth Air Force, evacuate Philippine President Quezon and his family to Australia.
3/28/42 In the US Zone of the Interior (ZI), units of I Bomber Command engaged in antisubmarine operations off the northeast coast are placed under operational control of the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier.
3/31/42 General Carl Spaatz suggests that the current “task-less Eighth” Air Force be made the nucleus for Army Air Forces in Britain (AAFIB).
Q1: When did the Fifth Air Force evacuate its last men from Java?
A1: On March 2, 1942, B-17s and LB-30s evacuated the final 260 men from Jogjakarta airfield, the last Allied-held airfield on Java, as enemy forces closed within 20 miles.
Q2: How did General MacArthur leave the Philippines?
A2: B-17s of the 435th Reconnaissance Squadron evacuated General MacArthur, his family, and staff from Del Monte Airfield to Australia on March 16, 1942.
Q3: What major reorganization of the Army Air Forces occurred in March 1942?
A3: On March 9, 1942, an Executive Order dissolved the previous Air Corps and Combat Command structure, reorganizing the AAF under General Hap Arnold as Commanding General, alongside new Army Ground Forces and Services of Supply commands.
Q4: What happened at Broome, Australia on March 3, 1942?
A4: Japanese aircraft attacked Broome's airfield and harbor, destroying multiple US bombers and seaplanes evacuating personnel from Java and killing at least 45 Dutch civilians and 20 US airmen.
Q5: When did the first Eighth Air Force pilot fly a combat mission over France?
A5: Major Cecil P. Lessig became the first Eighth Air Force pilot to fly over France on March 25, 1942, flying a Spitfire with the RAF's 64 Squadron.
March 1942: The Nadir in the Pacific and the Institutional Rebuilding of the AAF
a. The mood of the country
March 1942 represents something close to the emotional low point of the Pacific War's opening phase for American public morale. The chronology's opening entries, the final evacuation from Java, the loss of the last airfield on the island, and General MacArthur's dramatic escape from the Philippines to Australia on March 16, closed out a three-month string of defeats stretching back to Pearl Harbor. MacArthur's evacuation, ordered directly by President Roosevelt over MacArthur's own objections, was handled carefully in public messaging (his famous "I shall return" pledge, delivered shortly after arriving in Australia, became one of the war's defining lines) precisely because the administration understood the psychological stakes of losing the Philippines entirely without some assurance of eventual return. The public mood by month's end was one of having absorbed the worst of the early setbacks and beginning, tentatively, to look toward reorganization and counteroffensive rather than further retreat.
b. Economic situation and manufacturing capability
The March 9 Executive Order reorganizing the Army Air Forces under General Arnold as Commanding General, alongside the creation of Army Ground Forces and Services of Supply, was fundamentally an administrative response to the strain that rapid wartime expansion was placing on an organizational structure designed for a much smaller peacetime force. This reorganization mattered for production and logistics as much as combat command: a clearer chain of command and clearer separation between combat forces, ground forces, and supply services was a prerequisite for efficiently absorbing the surge in aircraft, personnel, and materiel that expanding war production would soon deliver. The entry noting the Tenth Air Force possessed only 8 tactical B-17s upon General Brereton's arrival in India illustrates just how thinly stretched American airpower still was outside the continental United States at this stage; production increases were coming, but March 1942 still reflects the lean, under-resourced early-war condition.
c. Status, readiness, and supply of US armed forces
This chronology documents the literal end of organized American air resistance in the Netherlands East Indies, the last heavy bomber mission from Java on March 1, followed by the final evacuation on March 2 under direct enemy pressure, with ground forces within 20 miles of the departing aircraft. The March 3 attack on Broome, Australia, which destroyed multiple evacuating aircraft and killed dozens of Dutch civilians and American airmen, underscores how vulnerable retreating forces remained even after abandoning forward positions. Meanwhile, entries describing only 8 B-17s available to the newly forming Tenth Air Force in India, and 10 P-40s arriving by ship in Karachi, reflect an army still building its China-Burma-India theater presence essentially from scratch, with minimal aircraft and infrastructure on hand.
d. Development of fighting men and command structures
March 1942 stands out for the sheer density of new command structures and personnel milestones it records: the activation of XII Bomber Command, the arrival of the first AAF tactical unit in the South Pacific theater (the 67th Fighter Squadron on New Caledonia), General Eaker's detailed report on RAF Bomber Command doctrine informing future US-British coordination, and Major Cecil Lessig's first Eighth Air Force combat sortie over France on March 25, flying with the RAF rather than in an American unit, itself a marker of how dependent early US airpower in Europe still was on British infrastructure and operational experience. General Spaatz's March 31 suggestion that the "task-less Eighth" Air Force become the nucleus of AAFIB closes the month by foreshadowing the massive buildup to come; the organizational and personnel foundations being laid this month, often by officers commanding forces that existed more on paper than in aircraft on hand, would within eighteen months support one of history's largest air campaigns.
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