1 September: At 4:40am the Luftwaffe starts World War II with the terror bombing of the Polish city of Wielu. The operation failed to achieve air superiority, even temporarily, and the German Army continued to be exposed to air attack. On 22 February 1944, a massive reorganization of American airpower took place in Europe. Eighth Air Force Bomber Command became the Eighth Air Force in February 1944, it oversaw bombardment of strategic targets in Europe until 1945. return 'DOWNLOAD'; year that you select. The 8th Air Force was a bomber command unit formed at the Army Air Base in Savannah, Georgia on January 28, 1942 (just weeks after the Pearl Harbor attacks). Forty-five B-17s failed to return to England that night. It was famous for bringing crews home, even when three of its four engines failed. [12], Eighth Air Force's mission in the Pacific was initially to organize and train new bomber groups for combat against Japan. Phone: 703-584-1501. Eighth Air Force has five Regular Air Force bomb wings, two Air Reserve Total Force Integration bomb wings (one in Air Force Reserve Command and one in the Air National Guard), and one detachment in the continental United States. The mission of "The Mighty Eighth" is to safeguard America's interests through strategic deterrence and global combat power. Arming wire tag from one of the bombs dropped by the Eighth Air Force in its first heavy bomber raid against Nazi-occupied Europe, against the Rouen-Sotteville railway yards in France on August 17, 1942. However, the P-51B was introduced as a tactical fighter, so the first deliveries of the P-51B in November 1943 were assigned to three groups in the tactical Ninth Air Force at the expense of VIII Bomber Command, whose need for a long range escort fighter was critical. 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. $(".fancybox-caption").removeClass("desktop-init"); The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, established in 1996, tells the story of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. An advanced detachment of VIII Bomber Command was established at RAF Daws Hill, near RAF Bomber Command Headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, on 23 February in preparation for its units to arrive in the United Kingdom from the United States. The pre-war U.S. Army Air Corps assumed a smaller force of long-range bombers could cover wide areas, and redeploy swiftly for more distant strikes. } From 1946 through 1949, what little money became available was used to buy new planes (Boeing B-50 Superfortress, Convair B-36 Peacemaker) for SAC, and as the newer aircraft became available, the older B-29s were sent to storage depots or sent to Air Force Reserve units for training missions. afterShow: function (instance, current) { With bombing accuracy measured in hundreds of feet, it took a great many bombs to get the job done. It also participated in lesser-known humanitarian missions in which the B-17 was utilized to drop supplies and food. One of the worst days of the war for the B-17 and its crewmen was the second raid on German ball bearing production in Schweinfurt, Germany on October 14, 1943. }, event.stopImmediatePropagation(); Eighth Air Force History > 8th Air Force/J-GSOC > Display Even so, the "pathfinder" bombers of the RAF Alconbury-based 482d Bomb Group proved very capable of finding the targets and guiding the bombers to them. 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. fbObj.find(".actions .details").attr("href") + A strategic air force was that with a mission to attack an enemy's war effort beyond his front-line forces, predominantly production and supply facilities, whereas a tactical air force supported ground campaigns, usually with objectives selected through co-operation with the armies. [6] Alerted to the attack, the airfield defences were prepared for the raid when it arrived. Luckadoo recalled that the enemy fighters attacked the bombers as soon as they crossed the border into France and continued all the way through to the target. Importantly, the Eighth's bombing effectiveness influenced the North Vietnamese to end hostilities. 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. July 4, 1942: The Mighty Eighth's First Bombing Raid - HistoryNet Once over the target, however, the mission began to unravel, as a cloud front had unexpectedly moved in, obscuring its view from the bombardiers perched in the noses of their B-17s 25,000 feet above. Men became jumpy and jittery, the Focke-Wulf Jitters, or flak happy, became commonly used terms in the Eighth Air Force. For two years, the wing remained in this status until the 58th Bomb Wing was inactivated on 16 October 1948. $(".fancybox-caption__body").addClass("af3-caption-body"); At Andersen AFB, the Eighth took over the direction of all bombing and refueling operations in Southeast Asia. And simultaneously, the Pacific Theater competed for aircraft. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 plans were made to transfer some of the B-17/B-24 heavy bomber groups of Eighth Air Force to the Pacific Theater of Operations and upgrade them to Boeing B-29 Superfortress Very Heavy (VH) bomb groups. else { 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. Eighth Air Force, with headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base in the Bossier City Shreveport, Louisiana metro area, supports U.S. Strategic Command, and is designated as U.S. Strategic Command's Task Force 204, providing on-alert, combat-ready forces to the president. After the war in Europe, the Mighty Eighth moved to Okinawa in July 1945, where the unit started to train new bomber groups for combat against Japan. Further ground fire caused damage to his right wing, and the engine caught fire. The attack required great skill and courage, as the German and American aircraft closed at an astonishing speed. WWII Air War Over Europe - 390th Memorial Museum - Tucson, AZ Plans for the invasion of North Africa, known as Operation Torch, distracted from the effort. } An official website of the United States government, Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil. With the end of fighting in Korea, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had taken office in January 1953, called for a "new look" at national defense. $(".fancybox-content").removeAttr("style"); Targets that directly affected the German war machine became priorities. 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. } During World War II, Eighth Air Force earned a reputation as a great warfighting organization. return '
