Eighth Air Force's effort was over 1,000 B-17s and B-24s and over 800 fighters and the RAF provided sixteen squadrons of North American P-51 Mustangs and Supermarine Spitfires in addition. worldwartwoveterans@gmail.com. $(".fancybox-caption").removeClass("desktop-init"); $(".fancy-photo-detail-link").removeClass("photo-detail-gradient"); Eighth Air Force Historical Society 8th Air Force Bases in England Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB Air Force Personnel Center Barksdale AFB, Louisiana (Current 8th AF headquarters) Department of Veterans Affairs Fold 3 by Ancestry.com MacArthur Memorial Kassel Mission National Archives and Records . 3d Air Division: 1943-1945. As a result, Eighth Air Force was incorporated into the new SAC. Contact Us, If you have any data on servicemen and their units and would like to submit it to our digital library; please Contact Us, Copyright, Army Air Corps Library and Museum, Inc., All Rights Reserved. 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. He established the 8th Air Force Headquarters at Bushy Park (Teddington, Middlesex), 15 miles west southwest of the center of London on 25 June 1942. were missing in action and never accounted for as to their whereabouts. Eighth Air Force also provides conventional forces to U.S. Joint Forces Command and provides nuclear capable bombers, specified Global Strike assets, and C2ISR capabilities to U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM). 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. 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. Thank you for visiting our site. 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. On 16 April, this record was broken when over 700 German aircraft were destroyed on the ground. $(".af3-caption-body").stop(true, false).animate({ height: "0vh" }, 800, function () { Year. 445BG. While posturing itself for that mission change, the Eighth also supported Operation ENDURING FREEDOM against terrorists in Afghanistan, and NOBLE EAGLE for the homeland defense of America. Under ACC, Eighth Air Force provides command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C2ISR); long-range attack; and information operations forces to Air Force components and warfighting commands. Kegelman's aircraft lost altitude and even bounced off the ground, but he was able to bring the damaged bomber home and received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) from General Spaatz on 11 July. 12th Bombardment Wing: 1942-1944. A handful remained in service performing non-combat duties through the mid-1950s as air-sea rescue aircraft (SB-17, SB-24); photo-reconnaissance aircraft (RB-17, RB-24), and as unmanned target drones (QB-17) and their controllers (DB-17). }, 1000); The first escort mission for the bombers was not flown until 5 December. At all heights, the rate of climb was approximately doubled. Importantly, the Eighth's bombing effectiveness influenced the North Vietnamese to end hostilities. At the close of 1946, they shared only a handful of operational bombers, all B-29 Superfortresses. We are currently re-designing and moving our site to a different hosting service. Official homepage of the 385th bomb group association. By war's end, they had been awarded a number of other medals to include 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals. The Eighth's combat record also shows 566 aces (261 fighter pilots with 31 having 15 or more victories and 305 enlisted gunners), over 440,000 bomber sorties to drop 697,000 tons of bombs, and over 5,100 aircraft losses and 11,200 aerial victories. ", The Eighth Air Force team consists of more than 16,000 Regular Air Force (e.g., active duty), Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve professionals operating and maintaining a variety of aircraft capable of deploying air power to any area of the world. As part of this realignment, most SAC bomber forces west of the Mississippi River were reassigned to 15th AF. On 21 January 1951, Lt. Col. William Bertram, commander of the 523rd Fighter-Escort Squadron, shot down the first MiG-15 for the wing and became the first F-84 pilot with a confirmed MiG kill. The Me 262A was a difficult foe for the P-47s and P-51s, possessing a distinct speed advantage. A lack of fuel and available pilots for the new jets greatly reduced their effectiveness. let debounceTimer; debounceTimer = null; One of the main benefits of membership in the Society is our Magazine, the 8th AF News. //initial desktop view 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. Transferred, without personnel, equipment, and combat elements, to Okinawa on 16 Jul 1945. Click here to view more information on the tours, American Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation. 'Tooey' Spaatz (right). $(".fancybox-caption__body").addClass("mobile"); World War II proved what the proponents of air power had been championing for the previous two decadesthe great value of strategic forces in bombing an enemy's industrial complex and of tactical forces in controlling the skies above a battlefield. Support to the latter command included the operation of Task Force 204 (bombers). The operation failed to achieve air superiority, even temporarily, and the German Army continued to be exposed to air attack. $(".fancybox-content").css("height", newImgHgt + "px"); REGISTRATIONRegister for the 2023 Reunion, REUNION SCHEDULEClick here to view the schedule, TOUR INFORMATIONClick here to view more information on the tours. var winHgt = $(window).innerHeight() $(".af3-caption-body").removeClass(detailSize); It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. Colonel Frank A. Armstrong may have been the commander of the 97th, but at the time of the raid, not yet left seat qualified. An Eighth Air Force unit, the 2d Bomb Wing, spearheaded the air campaign by dispatching B-52s from Barksdale to launch conventional air-launched cruise missiles against Iraqi targets. Last Name. The 8th Air Force Historical Society was created in 1975 to preserve the legacy of the Mighty Eighth and the part it played in World War II. Personnel and equipment from the inactivated 40th and 444th Bomb Groups were reassigned to the 43d Bomb Group. // Animation complete. function isMobile() { 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. Under Air Force Global Strike Command since 1 Feb 2010, Eighth Air Force controls strategic bomber (e.g., B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress, and B-1 Lancer) forces throughout the United States and overseas locations. Researching World War II Bombing Aerial Photography. Please visit the websites of our wonderful partners in history. Throughout the first six months of Enduring Freedom, the Mighty Eighth's bombers were instrumental in the eradication of many targets and opposing combatants in Afghanistan. Fifteen months after Operation Desert Storm, the Air Force reorganized. afterClose: function () { The 305th Bombardment Group was a B-17 Flying Fortress group of the Eighth Air Force and took part in the daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe. Although the Luftwaffe could, and did, mount effective attacks on the ever-larger formations of Allied heavy bombers, the sheer numbers of B-17s and B-24s attacking enemy targets was overwhelming the German fighter force, which simply could not sustain the losses the Eighth Air Force bombers and fighters were inflicting on it. In 1965, Eighth Air Force entered combat again, this time in Southeast Asia. General Carl Spaatz returned to England to command the USSTAF. } fbObj.find(".actions .download").attr("href") + 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. Initially, Eighth Air Force under SAC consisted of the following: Personnel and equipment from the inactivated 449th Bomb Group were reassigned to the 7th Bomb Group (later 7th Bomb Wing). By 6 June, Allied fighter pilots had succeeded in damaging or destroying hundreds of locomotives, thousands of motorized vehicles, and many bridges. Notably, the 1 June 1992 change inactivated SAC and the Tactical Air Command (TAC), and reassigned the Mighty Eighth to the new Air Combat Command (ACC). 226 Squadron RAF) commanded by Captain Charles C. Kegelman attacked four airfields[b] in the Netherlands. The mission of "The Mighty Eighth" is to safeguard America's interests through strategic deterrence and global combat power. 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. Both Davis-Monthan and Fort Worth Army Airfields were B-29 training bases during World War II, and the Eighth Air Force Bomb Groups were simply activated at the same field and on the same day as the original Army Air Force Continental Air Forces training bomb groups were inactivated. These data were taken from the Loading Lists of the 385th BG combat missions missions, preserved in the U. S. National Archives in College Park, MD. if (isMobile()) "translate(" + dstLeft + "px, " + dstTop + "px)"); Altogether, the Eighth's bombers flew 325 sorties to drop over 7 million pounds of ordnance on enemy targets in that campaign. By the end of 1944, only three out of ninety-one refineries in the Reich were still working normally, twenty-nine were partially functional, and the remainder were completely destroyed. This 8th Air Force WWII Decal is die cut - which means it is cut to the exact shape of the image, and made in the USA at our facilities in Chino Valley, Arizona. 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. The VIII Bomber Command launched its first raid in North-western Europe on 4 July 1942, when six RAF Douglas A-20 Havocs flown by crews of the 15th Bombardment Squadron (Light) (accompanied by another six Bostons from the more experienced No. This is from where the present-day Eighth Air Force's history, lineage and honors derive. Email. var dstTop = Math.floor((winHgt - newImgHgt)) / 2; return; [9] Doolittle was well known to American airmen as the famous "Tokyo Raider" and former air racer. Eighth Air Force did not strike at oil industry targets until 13 May 1944 when 749 bombers, escorted by almost 740 fighters, pounded oil targets in the Leipzig area and at Brx in Czechoslovakia. Rudder, James E. 2nd Ranger Battalion; 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division 53; 243; 384; 476; 557 . Dates shown are when the Group was operational. In addition, German airfields in France and Belgium were attacked. By 1945, all but one of the Eighth Air Force fighter groups were equipped with the P-51D. var ratio = Math.min(winWth / origImgWth, '">DOWNLOAD'; During World War II, the offensive air forces of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) came to be classified as strategic or tactical. 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. 8th Air Force, 1st Wing, 1st Division The Ragged Irregulars. In Europe, Eighth Air Force was the first USAAF strategic air force, with a mission to support an invasion of continental Europe from the British Isles. 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