The group's air echelon was activated in England under Eighth Air Force. It was equipped with export versions of the P-39 Airacobra originally ordered for the French Air Force in early 1940 which were diverted to England after the Fall of France. In England, the P-39s remained in storage in the crates in which they had arrived. By the summer of 1942 the number of American pilot volunteers in the Royal Air Force serving in England had grown to a few hundred in number. In urgent need of additional fighters to support the forthcoming North African invasion, American planners decided to combine these two assets already in England and at the end of September 1942 a number of American pilots in the RAF were invited to transfer to the USAAF.