10th USAAF Army Aircorps patch

10th USAAF Army Aircorps patch

Tenth Air Force was constituted on 4 February 1942 and activated on 12 February, built up around a nucleus of air force personnel newly arrived from Java and the Philippines, under the command of Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton. It had its headquarters at New Delhi. Components of the air force moved to India over a three-month period from March to May 1942. It was responsible for creating, operating and safeguarding the India-China Ferry, more commonly known as the Hump airlift, between 8 April and 1 December 1942, first with its Assam-Burma-China Command until 16 July, then the India-China Ferry Command until 1 December, when jurisdiction for the airlift passed to the Air Transport Command.

The Tenth Air Force initially provided control of all USAAF combat operations in the China Burma India Theater under theater commander Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell.

Under General Clayton Bissell’s re-organization of the Tenth Air Force, five commanders reported to him: Brigadier General Caleb V. Haynes ran the India Air Task Force, created 8 October 1942, Brig. Gen. Claire Chennault ran the China Air Task Force, created 4 July 1942 to replace the American Volunteer Group, Robert F. Tate ran the India–China Ferry Command, Robert C. Oliver ran the Tenth’s service arm and Francis M. Brady operated the large air base at Karachi.  Haynes’s task force assembled three bomber groups: the 7th Bombardment Group, the 51st Fighter Group and the 341st Bombardment Group (Medium). On paper were more squadrons not yet prepared for war—some had no aircraft, some had too little training and some were bare cadres.

In March 1943 the China Air Task Force was dissolved and its components made part of the new Fourteenth Air Force, activated in China under Chennault. The Tenth operated in India and Burma as part of the Allied Eastern Air Command until it moved to China late in July 1945.

The Tenth Air Force conducted offensive strategic bombing operations in Burma and Thailand and supported Allied ground efforts with close air support and operations against Japanese communications and supply installations. After the end of the war in China, the command headquarters departed from Shanghai on 15 December 1945, being attached to Army Service Forces at Fort Lawton, Washington, where the last personnel were demobilized and the command inactivated, being returned to HQ USAAF on 6 January 1946.