T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
in support of the naval forces of the Caribbean Sea Frontier, from
which headquarters they received their operational d i r e ~ t i o n . ~ ~
The U-boats had made their presence felt in the Caribbean on 16
February. Attacking with impunity, they sank several tankers off
Aruba on that date and even shelled an oil refinery on the island
itself.45By the end of September 1942, they had sunk 173 merchant
vessels in the western area of the Caribbean Sea Frontier. Shipping
losses reached their peak in August, with a total of thirty-three sinkings
in that area.46 The Caribbean, which offered an especially valu-
able opportunity in the oil and bauxite traffic between the CuraGao-
Aruba-Trinidad area and the continental United States, had thus
become a favorite hunting ground for the enemy raiders.
The forces available to the commander of the Caribbean Sea Fron-
tier, including those of the Antilles Air Task Force, were admittedly
insufficient during the early months of 1942 to provide effective
defense. Army bombardment forces available in February 1942 in-
cluded not more than forty operational B-18's in the medium bomber
class, plus about seven light bombers of the A-20 type. They in-
cluded no long-range planes a t all. These meager bombardment
forces, together with a few pursuit squadrons, were scattered about
the Caribbean in Trinidad, CuraGao, Aruba, St. Lucia, Surinam, British
Guiana, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, and Antigua. By the end of the
summer, the task force could count on few if any more bombers than
it had reported in February, although its strength in fighters had
more than d~ubled.~'The U.S. Navy meantime, however, had ma-
terially increased the scope and effectiveness of its effort in the
Caribbean, and although the Antilles Air Task Force had remained
in strength substantially as before, its units had acquired valuable
experience since February. Whereas prior to July they had executed
very few attacks, in July and August they reported more than a
score.48 During the fall of 1942, the U-boat command sharply re-
duced its activity in the Caribbean to concentrate its attention on
the North Atlantic convoy area and the approaches to Northwest
Africa.
Despite its almost exclusive preoccupation theretofore with sub-
marine warfare, the Antilles Air Task Force remained at the end of
1942 officially a striking force whose primary function was to guard
against possible attack on the Panama Canal. The prolonged presence
5 36