The 12th AF, the largest air force ever assembled soon after its inception several months earlier, ceased to exist in the new MAC organizational structure. As an operational organization, the 12th AF simply disappeared when its groups were distributed among the various new NAAF commands listed above. The only remaining reference to the 12th AF among these commands was Major General Edwin House's XII Air Support Command which along with Broadhurst's Western Desert Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Sir Laurence Sinclair's Tactical Bomber Force, and Air Vice-Marshal Sir Kenneth Cross' No. 242 Group, became part of Coningham's NATAF. Later, XII Air Support Command became even less obvious when it was detached to No. 242 Group. The curious status of the 12th AF in February 1943 is illustrated by the quotation below taken from Craven and Cate, Eds., The United States Army Air Forces in WWII, Volume 2, Europe: Torch to Pointblank, Chapter 6, Climax in Tunisia, p 167, 1949.