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Early helicopters it seems were deployed by the American military in WW2 in the Burma and China theatres, and in the South Pacific.
Their principal use would appear to have been small scale rescue operations in difficult-to-reach terrain.
You would think that Europe also offered moderately difficult terrain in Italy, Yugoslavia and the Greek islands. Is there a reason the American military didn't use helicopters in those areas?
I think the two main reason why the early helicopters were tested in the Pacific were:
The European theater had more and better roads, so jeeps were quite on par with the new unproven technology.
The Germans had better AA facilities.
Remember, that these helicopters should be considered a "proof of technological capability" more than "production deployment".
This might be because the U.S. was heavily focused in the Pacific and not as much as in the European Theater. The U.S needed areas for supply and airplanes that had high fuel capacity and long travel times were perfect and were station in parts of Europe (Britain especially). However helicopters didn't have a high speed and needed to be refueled more frequently then the airplanes. Thus ships near the coastal Pacific delivered the helicopters. Ships couldn't get as close the the european borders as the Pacific.
