inactivating wings, and would initially control only observation squadrons, which would be transferred from the control of the corps and divisions, although they would remain attached to these ground units. GHQ AF organized 5th Air Support Command at Bowman Field, Kentucky in September 1941, drawing its personnel and equipment from the 16th Bombardment Wing, which was simultaneously inactivated. New observation groups were formed, with a cadre drawn from National Guard squadrons that had been mobilized in 1940 and 1941. 5th Air Support Command was redesignated as 9th Air Force in April 1942. It moved to Bolling Field, DC on 22 July and transferred without personnel or equipment to Cairo, Egypt on 12 November 1942. Operations in Western Desert Campaign, 1942–1943 In June 1942, the German Afrika Korps advance in North Africa forced the British Eighth Army to retreat towards Egypt putting British Middle East Command at risk. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) had already planned for a buildup of American air power in the Middle East in January 1942 in response to a request from the British Chief of the Air Staff, but the first units arrived unexpectedly on 12 June 1942 as Col. Harry A. Halverson, commanding twenty-three B-24D Liberator heavy bombers and a hand-picked crews (a group called HALPRO – from "Halverson Project"), decided to move to Egypt. They had initially been assigned to the China Burma India Theater to attack Japan from airfields in China, but after the fall of Rangoon the Burma Road was cut, so the detachment could not be logistically supported in China. HALPRO was quickly diverted from its original mission to a new one—interdictory raids from airfields in Egypt against shipping and North African ports supporting Axis operations. On 28 June 1942, Major General Lewis H. Brereton arrived at Cairo to command the U.S. Army Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF), which was activated immediately. USAMEAF comprised the Halverson Project, Brereton's detachment (9th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) and other personnel which Brereton brought from India), and the Air Section of the U.S. Military North African Mission. Several USAAF units were sent to join USAMEAF during next weeks in the destruction of Rommel's Afrika Korps by support to ground troops and secure sea and air communications in the Mediterranean. In September 1942, RAF Middle East Command's Senior Air Staff Officer, Air Commodore H. E. P. Wigglesworth was authorized by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur