In February 1942 Army Air Force Headquarters in Washington D.C. reached out to tap a veteran Army Air Corps officer long associated with America’s bomber program, Lieutenant Colonel William C. “Bid” Dolan, for a special assignment that would deliver him and his career and eventually his life into a new realm that he could not have imagined. Dolan at that time was based on the West Coast, part of the Fourth Air Force, working up a front-line squadron that was adopting itself, with some difficulties, to the first versions of the Martin B-26 Maradeiur medium bomber. These aircraft, some the first to roll off the production line at the Martin plant in Baltimore, were the infamous “short wing” or “widow maker” models which featured flight characteristics that many pilots, including some of Dolan’s most experienced, found difficult to master.
Dolon’s unit, the 76th Bombardment Squadron of the 42nd Bomb Group, Air Force Combat Command, stationed at McCord Field, Washington, had been relocated from its home base to defend the Seattle area from a possible Japanese attack. It was also preparing for deployment to either Alaska or the South Pacific where it was assumed it would soon undertake combat operations. Instead, Dolan received orders to immediately leave his unit, in company with one crew, for a temporary duty assignment in Boston, with no explanation as to the purpose of his mission. Dolan was to collect an aircraft that he assumed he had left behind, an obselessing B-18A “Bolo” bomber from a nearby unit, and proceed without delay to San Antonio, Texas, where it was to be expeditiously modified, and fly on to report to a military liaison officer assigned to MIT’s Radiation laboratory. In the coming days, five more crews would collect aircraft and join Dolan’s lead crew in Boston after following a similar route, bringing the aircraft count at Rad Lab to six and men assigned to fifty. So began a three-year journey that would see Dolan and the men he took with him to Boston emerge as true “radar pioneers” for the US Army Air Force in World War II.
These documents and photos include the following:
1 Colonel Bid Dolan, General Barney Giles and Colonel Edwin Aldrin
2 A FSSAG Douglas B-18B “on the beach” after a nighttime forced landing
3 Colonel William C. “Bid” Dolan
4 Douglas B-18B of FSSAG based in Langley Field, Virginia in early 1943
5 Douglas B-18A prior to conversion to B-18B ASV configuration
1
Colonel Bid Dolan (right), General Barney Giles (center) and Colonel Edwin Aldrin (left) at First Sea Search Attack Group “Air Review” event on 23 June 1943. At this point Dolan has begun organizing, drawing from his 3d Sea Search Attack Squadron, a dedicated operational unit, soon to be designed the “Wright Project”. Dolan was then assembling ten select aircrews of ten men each, by reequipping this unit with Low Altitude Bombing (LAB) B-24 Liberator bombers for deployment in the South Pacific. In the coming months Dolan would create two additional LAB units for dispatch to the Pacific Theater and see them off from Langley Field.
2
A FSSAG Douglas B-18B “on the beach” after a nighttime forced landing during a severe Atlantic storm in September 1942. The aircraft was slightly damaged, repaired in place and flown off the beach to return within a week to Langley Field for continuing service in the unit’s U-boat nightly ASV-enabled hunting activity.
3
Colonel William C. “Bid” Dolan, Commanding Officer of FSSAG, 1943.
4
Douglas B-18B of FSSAG based in Langley Field, Virginia in early 1943, here in test sequence deploying a sono-bouy device then being developed by US Army Air Force working with MIT Rad Lab and civilian engineers. Note Magnetic Airborne Detector (MAD) installed in the tail of the B-18B ASV aircraft.
5
Douglas B-18A prior to conversion to B-18B ASV configuration, date and location unknown.
6
A first generation Douglas B-18 Bolo, unit and date and location unknown.
7
FSSAG B-18B ASV aircraft at Langley Field, Virginia in early 1943, here rigged with an unknown device being tested by that group and MIT Rad Lab engineers. (Photo 16)
8
Radar Magazine obituary salute to Col. Bid Dolan
9
A FSSAG B-18B Bolo bomber taxiing on Langley Field, Virginia in June 1943, viewed under the wing of a visiting B-17 bomber, the latter present for development testing of a new radar system.
10
Special Orders Number 22, 16 February 1942, instructs Lt Colonel Dolan and five others to proceed to Sacramento to collect one B-18 aircraft, proceed to San Antonio for aircraft modification and onward to Boston, reporting there to the liaison officer stationed at MIT’s Radiation laboratory. This is the special orders that set in motion Dolan’s entire program, his work Boston, the subsequent establishment of the First Sea Search Attack Group at Langley Field, Virginia and the dispatch in August 1943 of the LAB-equipped Wright Project to the South Pacific.
11
Operations Order Number 16, 17 February 1942, instructs seven officers and men of the 30th Bombardment Group to proceed in parallel with Lt Colonel Dolan’s crew with aircraft to Boston via San Antonio Air Depot.
12
Special Orders 96, 13 April 1942, Fourth Air Force instruction identifying 42 officers and men from that command for assignment to Dolan’s group then at Boston’s Rad Lab. This roster comprises almost all of the individuals associated with the initial air-to-surface vessel (ASV) radar development project which mated an early model of centimeter airborne radar to the B-18 Bolo aircraft, tested and refined that first version in flights from Boston’s airport.
13
Special Orders 51, 4 May 1942, Headquarters 2nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), Langley Field Virginia, identifies 40-odd officers and men who have been assigned to that group’s 20th Squadron during April 1942 by name, rank, previous unit (namely West Coast-based components of the Fourth Air Force), thereby creating the core group of MIT Rad Lab-trained officers and men who would soon transition into Dolan’s quasi-independent command, the First Sea Search Attack Group.
14
Special Orders Number 78, 23 June 1942, Headquarters 2nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), Langley Field, Virginia, identifies six crews or six men each for assignment to the newly-created 1st Sea Search Attack Group commanded by Lt Colonel Dolan.
15
Special Orders Number 22, 26 July 1942, on the letterhead of the newly-formed Headquarters, First Sea Search Attack Group, identifying 48 officer and men assigned by that group to its just created 2d Sea Search Attack Squadron (Medium), as the recently-promoted Colonel Dolan forms his B-18B ASV operational unit. (As described in “Nightstalkers”, at this point the Dolan FSSAG B-18 ASV aircraft and crews are flying nightly missions into the Atlantic to hunt German U-boats, typically three aircraft out each evening at sunset to fly 4 to 6 hours radar-enabled sea search patrols.
16
Special Orders Number 28, 1 February 1943, instructing Colonel Dolan and six of his FSSAG team to travel to Washington DC. This is representative of Dolan’s monthly trips to US Army Air Force Headquarters to brief the staff there, including General Hap Arnold and his special advisory group, including Colonels Edwin Aldrin, Stuart Wright, and Major General Barney Giles, on the progress of Dolan’s unit and its associated radar technology developments.
17
US ARMY Air force HQ note on Col. William C. Dolan soon after his aircraft went missing on Feb 14, 1945.
