Five days later, the Australian War Cabinet officially transferred the operational control of northern Australia between Onslow in Western Australia and the south-east edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria to ABDACOM. The Darwin area become an Allied air sub-command known as AUSGROUP, under ABDACOM's air component, ABDAIR. Following reports on 27 January that the formidable Japanese combined carrier fleet had entered the Flores Sea, Wilson ordered the dispersal of assets at RAAF Darwin. Repair and maintenance equipment and staff were moved to Daly Waters, almost further south, but when Wilson also directed that five obsolescent CAC Wirraway armed trainers move to Daly Waters, he was overruled by the Deputy Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock. In early February 1942, Air Commodore George Jones, soon to be appointed Chief of the Air Staff, inspected NWA and found the morale and serviceability of its combat units—Nos. 2, 12 and 13 Squadrons—to be lacking. On 19 February 1942, NWA's complement of aircraft included seventeen Lockheed Hudson light bombers of Nos. 2 and 13 Squadrons based at Darwin and Daly Waters, fourteen Wirraways of No. 12 Squadron based at Darwin and Batchelor, and ten P-40 Kittyhawk fighters of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) that were transitting through Darwin to Java. Half of the Hudsons were without crews, five of the Wirraways were out of service, and the Kittyhawk pilots were considered inexperienced. Wilson was attending meetings at ABDACOM headquarters in Java, and Scherger was acting AOC. Just before 10 am, Darwin suffered its first air raid by the Japanese, a force of 188 aircraft that bombed the harbour and town. A further attack by fifty-four bombers, directed mainly at the RAAF airfield, followed at around midday. The raids on 19 February destroyed civil and military infrastructure, twenty-three aircraft and ten ships, and killed approximately 250 people; 278 RAAF personnel deserted Darwin in an exodus that became known as the "Adelaide River Stakes". "There was", in Scherger's words, "an awful panic and a lot of men simply went bush". The Kittyhawks and anti-aircraft gunners were credited with shooting down five Japanese aircraft and probably destroying five others. In the wake of the disaster, NWA headquarters moved to a bush camp south of the RAAF Station, and the senior leadership was changed.