At first, the Eighth deployed its B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker units from the U.S. to operating bases in Guam, Okinawa and Thailand. Men and Machines of the US 8th Air Force.' by Roger A. Freeman (1989). As a contrast, the Luftwaffe was undertaking the sixth major raid of the "Baby Blitz" the following night (20/21 February), with only some 165 German aircraft sortieing against British targets. The engine was to be the Packard V-1650-3, based on the Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk68. Spaatz and Doolittle's plan was to use the US Strategic Air Forces in a series of co-ordinated raids, code-named Operation 'Argument' (popularly known as 'Big Week' ) and supported by RAF night bombing, on the German aircraft industry at the earliest possible date. }
On the night of 1920 February, the RAF bombed Leipzig with 823 aircraft. Europe). $currentSlide.find(".fancy-detail-link").on("touchstart", function() { captionToggle(); });
The Bloody Hundredth's legacy began when the100th Bomb Group flew its first 8th Air Force combat mission in a bombing raid on Germany's Bremen U-boat yards on June 25, 1943. As part of this game-changing strategy, especially after the bombers had hit their targets, the USAAF's fighters were then free to strafe German airfields and transport while returning to base, contributing significantly to the achievement of air superiority by Allied air forces over Europe. Superior aerodynamic and structural design gave the B-17 and B-24 respective extreme ranges of 800 and 1200 miles. }
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The Japanese, however, surrendered before the Eighth's first combat sortie in the Pacific. year that you select. '
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The first contingent arrived in May. The pilot continued, It was a good thing I was shot down honestly. winHgt / origImgHgt);
8th Air Force The 8th AF was primarily engaged in the bombardment of strategic targets in Europe. function recalculateImageSize() {
By mid-1944, the unit had a total strength of more than 200,000 people, and it could send more than 2,000 four-engine bombers and 1,000 fighters on a single mission against enemy targets in Europe. The B-17s firepower, combined with that of other aircraft in the formation, would be plenty to protect bombers from enemy attacks. With the organization of the AAF finalized in June 1941, Spaatz became Chief of the Air Staff. Nightmares so vivid that they caused the men to wake up screaming in the night were not uncommon.
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Eighth Air Force Bomber Command became the Eighth Air Force in February 1944, it oversaw bombardment of strategic targets in Europe until 1945. On 6 March 1944, over 700 heavy bombers along with 800 escort fighters of the Eighth Air Force hit numerous targets within Berlin, dropping the first American bombs on the capital of the Third Reich. The first combat group of VIII Bomber Command to arrive in the United Kingdom was the ground echelon of the 97th Bombardment Group, which arrived at RAF Polebrook and RAF Grafton Underwood on 9 June 1942. The Eighth Air Force earned the unofficial nickname 'The Mighty Eighth' in the 1970s following the publication of Roger Freeman's book 'The Mighty Eighth'.
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The B-17s had been over the target for nearly thirty minutes when the bombs in the lead aircraft finally dropped. The treaty that Hitler hated even more than the Treaty of Versailles and one of the most important treaties you have probably never heard of. On 22 February 1944, the Army reorganized its Air Forces in Europe by renaming Eighth Air Force as the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe (now known as the United States Air Forces in Europe). German anti-aircraft fire, or flak, was one of those deadly threats.
Many more awards were made to Eighth Air Force veterans after the war that remain uncounted. if (isMobile())
A survivor of the Stuttgart mission recalled, We began to wonder if they were trying to kill all of us. Vast fleets of B-24s and B-17s escorted by P-51Ds and long-range P-38Ls hit refineries in Germany and Czechoslovakia in late 1944 and early 1945.
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As a result, Eighth Air Force was incorporated into the new SAC. Spaatz defined to Gen. George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson the strategy of tactical air forces augmenting and protecting ground forces while strategic air forces bombed industry and infrastructure. $(".fancybox-content").css("transform",
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In what became known as "Black Thursday", the 8th Air Force's 1st and 3rd Air Divisions flew from bases in East Anglia and attacked German ball bearing factories 400 miles away at Schweinfurt, Germany. isDesktopInit = false;
Col. Carl Tooey Spaatz, a military aviation pioneer who had commanded the 13th Aero Squadron, and shot down three enemy aircraft in World War I, became assistant military attach (air) to Britain in May 1940. The reorganization transformed the Eighth into the only information operations and bomber NAF in the Air Force. $(".af3-caption-body").stop(true, false).animate({ height: "0vh" }, 800, function () {
The next day, the largest formation of German jets ever seen, most likely from the Luftwaffe's specialist 7th Fighter Wing, Jagdgeschwader 7 Nowotny, made attacks on Eighth Air Force bomber formations over Dresden and the oil targets at Essen, shooting down a total of three bombers. As part of this plan, Eighth Air Force headquarters was reassigned to Sakugawa (Kadena Airfield), Okinawa, on 16 July 1945, being assigned to the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific without personnel or equipment. With the end of combat in Southeast Asia, the Eighth Air Force moved without personnel or equipment to Barksdale Air Force Base Louisiana on 1 January 1975, absorbing the resources of Second Air Force. The enemy fighters, so determined in their mission to deter the B-17s, remained in attack mode over the flak field and flew through their own anti-aircraft fire in order to deliver their assaults. In the grisly battle for European air supremacy, the Luftwaffe proveda deadly foe to Allied bombers. Marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, The National WWII Museum connects two instances of remorse for Nazi criminality by leading German politicians. The Eighth's weapons inventory also changed to include KC-135 air refuelers and intercontinental ballistic missiles (the Atlas, Titan I and Titan II, and all Minuteman models.). Importantly, the Eighth's bombing effectiveness influenced the North Vietnamese to end hostilities. The result: a greater reliance on nuclear weapons and air power to deter war. caption += $(this).find('figcaption').html() +
In January 1945, the Luftwaffe attempted one last major air offensive against the Allied Air Forces. //initial desktop view
By mid-1944, Eighth Air Force had reached a total strength of more than 200,000 people (it is estimated that more than 350,000 Americans served in Eighth Air Force during the war in Europe). Bombers from the US Eighth Air Force carrying out a raid across Germany in 1943 in footage shot by director William Wyler in 1943 and restored after being recovered from the National Archives. On this mission, he sat in the co-pilot's seat of the lead B-17, Butcher Shop[8][self-published source] The pilot in command and leader of this historic mission was Paul Tibbets, who on 6 August 1945, dropped the first Atomic Bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima from the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay. The RAF had been making night raids on Berlin since 1940, (with heavy raids in 1943) and nuisance de Havilland Mosquito raids in daylight, but this was the first major daylight bombing raid on the German capital. View all 380 images. The Luftwaffe owned the skies over Europe and the men of the Eighth Air Force were paying the price.
His administration chose to invest in the Air Force, especially Strategic Air Command. Altogether, the Eighth's bombers flew 325 sorties to drop over 7 million pounds of ordnance on enemy targets in that campaign. The assaults were violent, head-on passes that resulted in high casualties among the lead crews. [9] Doolittle was well known to American airmen as the famous "Tokyo Raider" and former air racer. Eighth Air Force bomb wings, stationed in the Persian Gulf region, also attacked Iraq's Republican Guard forces and numerous key strategic targets, while other units provided air refueling and tactical reconnaissance throughout the conflict. Most of the missions occurred
On 2 March, when Eighth Air Force bombers were dispatched to attack the synthetic oil refineries at Leipzig, Messerschmitt Me 262As attacked the formation near Dresden. The USAAF was finally fully sold on the Mustang, and a letter contract for 2200 P-51Bs was issued. This calendar covers the Missions and other
That record, however, carried a high price. In November 1942, German fighter ace Egon Mayer found the weakest place on a B-17directly in the front of the aircraft. Photo Details
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Fifteen months after Operation Desert Storm, the Air Force reorganized. return caption;
On 22 March, over 800 bombers, led by H2X radar equipped bombers hit Berlin yet again, bombing targets through a thick rainy overcast causing more destruction to various industries. Less than a week after "Big Week", Eighth Air Force made its first attack on the Reich's capital, Berlin. For the survivors, there wasnt much time for contemplation of those lost. Eighth Air Force carried out strategic daytime bombing operations in Western Europe from airfields in eastern England as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive.
At MacDill, Eighth Air Force headquarters were manned chiefly by personnel from the 58th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy, stationed at Fort Worth Army Air Fied, Texas. General Carl Spaatz returned to England to command the USSTAF. As the bomber formation circled the target, the tight combat boxes of B-17s became easy targets for enemy fighters. Bomber wings of the 8th Air Force include: This article incorporates public domain material from Eighth Air Force. On 7 April 1945, the Luftwaffe flew its most desperate and deadliest mission, with the dedicated aerial ramming unit Sonderkommando Elbe. From spring 1943 until November 1943 slave labourers of the SS - Baubrigade II from the Neuengamme concentration camp were transferred to Wilhelmshaven to clear up after air raids. function isMobile() {
In addition, German airfields in France and Belgium were attacked. function getDownloadURL(fbObj) {
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The integration process started on 1 February 2001, when the Air Force realigned the Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) under ACC and assigned the 67th Information Operations Wing and the 70th Intelligence Wing to the Eighth. function getDetailsURL(fbObj) {
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The second Schweinfurt raid, [10] also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm ( Jagdwaffe ). This strategy fatally disabled the twin-engined Zerstrergeschwader heavy fighter wings and their replacement, single-engined Sturmgruppen of heavily armed Fw 190As, clearing each force of bomber destroyers in their turn from Germany's skies throughout most of 1944. The 91st Bomb Group Memorial Association's (BGMA) purpose is to keep alive the spirit of the 91st BG (H) and to maintain the fellowship of all those who fought together in . The operation was a pyrrhic success for the Luftwaffe as the losses suffered by the German air arm were irreplaceable and over 300 Luftwaffe aircraft were shot down, mostly by Allied anti-aircraft guns. debounceTimer = setTimeout(function () {
John Keema of the 390th Bomb Group said, No matter the target they were defending, they were balls to the wall. events of the 8th Air Force, European Theater of Operations
Luftwaffe airfields that were identified as jet and rocket bases, such as Parchim and Bad Zwischenahn, were frequently bombed, and Allied fighters patrolled over the fields to attack jets trying to land. '' +
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There were fewer and fewer guys returning every day. One of the many who didnt return from Stuttgart added, We felt as if they didnt know what the hell they were doing up there, especially over Stuttgart. Seventeen Medals of Honor went to Eighth Air Force personnel during the war. $(this).find('figcaption').html() +
Eighth Air Force controls long-range nuclear-capable bomber assets throughout the United States and overseas locations. let debounceTimer;
The buildup of the 8th Air Force in England was a gradual process and reached a peak on December 24, 1944 when 2034 Bombers and 853 Fighters pounded Germany from the Air. As the Americans flew further into Europe and Germany, the missions became deadlier. [citation needed]. January 28, 1942: The Mighty 8th Air Force Allied forces activate the VIII Bomber Command, the first operational element of the 8th Air Force, to coordinate and lead the air attack on. VIII Bomber Command was the heavy bombardment arm of Eighth Air Force which also came to include a large intelligence, photo interpretation, and mission planning staff in the early days of the strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany and Nazi-controlled Occupied Europe.
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