The Tenth Air Force was activated at Patterson Field, Dayton, Ohio, on 12 February 1942. It was assigned to the newly created China-Burma-India theater. In early March, just at the close of Allied resistance in the Netherlands East Indies, General Brereton flew to India with instructions to organize an American air force in the India-Burma area. He had been preceded by Col. Francis M. Brady and was accompanied by a handful of AAF personnel who would form a nucleus for the new air force. Six heavy bombers were flown up from Java, and orders were issued for all planes and crews en route to the Netherlands East Indies by the African ferry route to hold in India. Three transport vessels had departed Fremantle, Australia on 22 February on their way across the Indian Ocean with the ground echelon of two squadrons of the 7th Bombardment Group (H), the 51st Air Base Group, personnel of the 51st Pursuit Group, and ten P-40's. General Brereton formally assumed command on 5 March. Such were the meager beginnings of an organization forced to operate at the end of a longer supply line than that of any other existing American air force, over distances within its theater that exceeded considerably those embraced by the bounds of the United States, and in an area possessed of few of the industrial facilities upon which air power is directly dependent.

"The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume I "Plans & Early Operations January 1939 to August 1942",Chapter 14: Commitments to China", pgs 484-513.
--484--

It was the third extraordinarily difficult assignment which had fallen to the lot of General Brereton in the initial stages of the war with Japan. Formerly commander of the Far East Air Force in the Philippines and more recently of American air units operating in the Netherlands East Indies, he was now to command an air force based in India with a mission for the support of China. Key decisions would involve consideration of the interests, not always identical, of two major allies. Once again he had to improvise an organization in the face of a rapidly advancing enemy whose conquest of Burma, which held the key to any plan for the immediate assistance of China, would be completed before the Tenth could be given the means to fight. Lacking personnel, planes, and other equipment that make up an air force, Brereton would not even command the major American air unit operating within the theater. For ere the famed American Volunteer Group (AVG) had been inducted into the AAF in July, General Brereton was transferred, with such striking force as the Tenth possessed, to the Middle East.

AVG

Tenth
("The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume IV "The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944", Section IV: CHINA-BURMA-INDIA, Chapter 12: The Tenth Air Force", pgs 405-434.)

Tenth AF 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.

Aerial Ferry flights over the Himalyas mountains began in April 1942 when the Army flew gasoline and oil to air bases in Eastern China for planned use by Gen. Doolittle's Raiders following America's first offensive on to the Japanese homeland.

The Tenth's initial combat resources consisted of only a small segment of 7th Bombardment Group (H), six B-17s on which Brereton and his staff arrived from Australia. More components for the Tenth arrived in India over a three-month period from March to May 1942. During which time 10th AF gained ground personnel of the 188th Reconnaissance Squadron (H) (soon to be redesignated 436th Bombardment Squadron), the air cadre of the 23rd Fighter Group , the 51st Fighter Group with a handful of P-40 Warhawk fighters, 9th Photo Reconnaissance Group with eight F-5 recon planes, and air echelons of the 11th and 22nd Bombardment Squadrons (M) with less than two dozen B-25 Mitchell bombers, as well as another handful of P-40 Warhawk fighters which had been slated to replace the American Volunteer Group's war weary planes.

Tenth Air Force units, comprised of 23rd Fighter Group and 11th Bomb Squadron (M) on Detached Service, were based in China under control of the China Air Task Force of the Tenth Air Force, created 4 July 1942, and commanded by Brig. Gen. Claire Chennault. Later, combat units based in India, 51st Fighter Group and 341st Bombardment Group (M) were controlled by the India Air Task Force, created 8 October 1942, commanded by Brigadier General Caleb V. Haynes who had commanded the CATF Bomber Command prior to then.

Major General Clayton Bissell had been promoted to brigadier general with one day's seniority to Chennault in order to command all American air units in CBI as Stillwell's Air Commander. When Tenth Air Force commanding general Lewis Brereton was transferred to Egypt on 26 June, Bissell became Commander of the 10th, and Stillwell used the occasion to issue an announcement that Chennault would continue to command all air operations in China.

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.

Following successful completion of the Central Burma Offensive campaign, in late spring 1944, Tenth Air Force moved to Kunming, China.

reference: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/IV/AAF-IV-12.html

  • Commanders:

    • Col Harry Halverson, 17 Feb 1942;
    • Maj Gen Lewis H Breeton, 5 Mar 1942;
    • Brig Gen Earl L. Naiden, 26 Jun 1942;
    • Maj Gen Clayton L. Bissel, 18 Aug 1942;
    • Maj Gen Howard C. Davidson, 19 Aug 1943,
    • Maj Gen Albert F Hegenberger, 1 Aug 1945-unk.
  • Stations:
    • Patterson Field, Ohio; 12 Feb-8 Mar 1942
    • New Delhi, India; 16 May 1942
    • Barrackpore, Calcutta, India; 16 Oct 1943
    • Belvedere Park, Calcutta; 8 Jan 1944
    • Kanjikoah, Assam, India; 20 Jun 1944
    • Mytikyina, Burma; 2 Nov 1944;
    • Bhamo, Burma; 7 Feb 1945
    • Piardoba, India; 15 May 1945;
    • Kunming, China; 23 Jul 1945;
    • Liuchow, China; 9 Aug 1945
    • Shanghai, China; 18 0ct-15 Dec 1945
    • Ft Lawson, Wash., 5-6 Jan 1945.