At Casablanca, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder persuaded American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and their staffs to establish an air force command structure based on the previously successful coordination of No.

201 (Naval Co-operation) Group, and AHQ Western Desert during the North African Campaign of 1942, primarily in Egypt and Libya.

NAAF under the command of Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz became the major sub-command of MAC and based on Tedder's tri-force model, was invested with three major sub-commands: The new unified tri-force command structure was implemented and practiced during the Tunisian, Pantellerian, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns.

The intended successful coordination of these tri-forces was immediately put into practice when Spaatz placed most of the strategic bombers at Coningham's disposal during a critical period of the Tunisian campaign at the end of February and the beginning of March 1943.

242 Group flew over 1,000 offensive sorties in just five days against ground targets as part of Coningham's NATAF.