The Fourteenth

Getting enough supplies to the U.S. air army in China is not simple: it calls for opening of a land supply route, and a bloody campaign will have to be fought first. But freeing the China Air Task Force from at least a part of an unhappy command situation was easy enough. All it required was an order.

Last week that order was made public by the War Department. It made Brigadier General Claire Lee Chennault's task force a full-fledged air force. Its designation: the Fourteenth.* The order took the China Air Task Force from under the control of Brigadier General Bissell, commander of the Tenth (India). Thus ended a jarring relationship between him and Chennault which had struck many a dangerous spark of discord (TIME, Feb. 15).

The minor part of an unsatisfactory situation remained. As chief of the Fourteenth Air Force, Claire Chennault was still under the command of Lieut. General Joseph W. Stilwell, who is no airman, yet has no other fighting command in China. But airmen could see that the situation was much improved.

*Other U.S. air forces: First, Second, Third and Fourth, continental U.S.; Fifth, Australia; Sixth, Canal Zone; Seventh, Honolulu; Eighth, England; Ninth, Middle East; Tenth, India; Eleventh, Alaska; Twelfth, Northwest Africa; Thirteenth, South Pacific.

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