However, it was Britain's Royal Air Force which needed massive reinforcement, especially after the losses it incurred on the continent during the German invasion of the Low Countries and France during May 1940. The French ordered Douglas DB-7 (A-20) two-engine light bombers Curtiss P-36 Hawks, and some Curtiss P-40D Warhawks, although the P-40s were never delivered. They needed immediate help for the battles they might very soon have to fight on their own soil against invading German armies. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, several European governments approached the United States for military equipment. The group, redesignated the 10th Transport Group in 1937, also transported supplies from one depot to another. The Materiel Division in 1932 established a provisional 1st Air Transport Group with four transport squadrons, each of them equipped with Bellanca Aircruisers and Douglas DC-2s, intended to serve one of the four major air depots in the distribution of spare parts to Army airbases. In the early 1930s, the Air Corps began formally experimenting with the systematic use of air transport for the distribution of aviation supplies.
From 1926 until 1942, the Air Corps’ logistical responsibilities were vested in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps Materiel Division, with headquarters at Wright Field, Ohio and with four major depots (at Sacramento, California San Antonio, Texas Fairfield, Ohio and Middletown, Pennsylvania) distributed over the United States. It wasn't until the 1920s that the development of cargo and personnel transport aircraft began with aircraft such as the Boeing Model 40. Railroads were used to move the equipment and aircraft from one base to another and to the Ports of Embarkation along the East Coast for subsequent sea shipment to the battlefields of France. That system, and its functions, soon became synonymous with the organization which controlled it, the Air Transport Command.ĪTC's origins begin during World War I with the need to transport aircraft supplies and materiel from the aircraft manufacturers to the maintenance facilities supporting the training bases in the United States. The development of transport aircraft in the 1920s and 1930s added a new dimension to the art of warfare, and around its varied capacities the AAF built an air transportation system such as had never before been envisaged.