Download or read book Doomed at the Start written by William H. Bartsch and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the first three days of the Japanese assault on American Pacific bases in December of 1941, the 24th Pursuit Group, the only unit of interceptor aircraft in the Philippine Islands, was almost destroyed as an effective force. Yet the group's pilot, doomed from the start by their limited training, an inadequate air warning system, and lack of familiarity with the few flyable pursuit aircraft they had left, fought on against immensely superior numbers of Japanese army and navy fighters.