WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON April 4, 1942 My dear Mr. President: I acknowledge receipt of your memorandum of April 2, enclosing paraphrase of message (#507, March 31) from Louis Johnson relating to the matter of the United States Military North African Mission at Cairo and the Ferry Command activities in that district. I am glad to say that this is one of those cases in which the men in general supervisory charge of these operations have already diagnosed the difficulty and have instituted corrective measures insofar as the Ferry Command is concerned. A thorough reorganization of the Ferry Command is now under way. Colonel Harold George is now in charge of the Command. We have obtained the services of the man who is reputed to be the ablest airline operator in the country, C. R. Smith of American Airlines. He is now actively engaged in reorganization of this Command. We propose to make him a Colonel in the United States Army Air Forces and Colonel George will place him in over-all charge of operations. We are bringing into this organization outstanding operating, traffic and technical men from all scheduled airlines. In general, the program calls for dividing the South Atlantic transport and ferrying operation into five main divisions: first, from Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, to Natal; second, Natal to Coast of West Africa; third, the Transafrican operation to Cairo; fourth, Cairo to the Indian Terminal; and fifth, the Extension into China. Trained specialists will be in charge of each of these operating divisions. The reorganization plans are well advanced and will rapidly be put into effect. As a result of reports from Ferry Command officers and the information obtained from Mr. Bullitt following his recent trip to the Far Fast, difficulty seems to have arisen mainly out of the following factors: 1. Inadequacy of personnel in the Middle East. |