closeDetails(); 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. Major General Mark E. Weatherington assumed command of 8th Air Force on 12 June 2020. The effect of the Mustangs, fully operating as an air supremacy fighter force, on the Luftwaffe defenders was arguably swift and decisive. This calendar covers the Missions and other [12], Eighth Air Force's mission in the Pacific was initially to organize and train new bomber groups for combat against Japan. Visit our 8th Air Force Honor Project with rosters of servicemen who served in the groups of the 8th. The target for 1,221 of the bombers was Berlin. }); Although Eighth Air Force's strategic bomber force was not committed to combat in Korea, the Eighth deployed the 27th Fighter Escort Wing for combat action in Korea and earned numerous honors and awards for their combat record during the Korean War. This was largely so that the Air Force could perpetuate the names of groups that had distinguished themselves in World War II. 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. Download Hi-Res 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. Constituted as VIII Bomber Command on 19 Jan 1942. [citation needed] By 1955, SAC no longer needed its fighters and these fighter units were transferred to Tactical Air Command and utilized in a tactical role. 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 pilot continued, It was a good thing I was shot down honestly. Major General James C. Dawkins Jr. assumed command of 8th Air Force on 20 August 2018, after having served as the Deputy Director for Nuclear, Homeland Defense, and Current Operations on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.[13] On 12 June 2020, he was succeeded by Major General Mark E. Weatherington, who had previously served as deputy commander of Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio in Randolph, Texas.[14]. getDownloadURL($(this).parent()) + function recalculateImageSize() { The original Eighth Air Force was redesignated as the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF). 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. let detailSize = "full"; [citation needed]. This dedicated offensive force supported strategic objectives, and an eventual invasion of Europe. The result was that the Luftwaffe was notable by its absence over the skies of Europe after D-Day and the Allies were starting to achieve air superiority over the continent. caption: function (instance, item) { At peak strength, Eighth Air Force had forty heavy bomber groups, fifteen fighter groups, and four specialized support groups. They observed British night bombing operations and the German Blitz against the RAF and British cities. return '

' if (isMobile()) '">DETAILS'; For instance, the Eighth suffered about half of the U.S. Army Air Force's casualties (47,483 out of 115,332), including more than 26,000 dead. "Black Thursday" October 14, 1943: The Second Schweinfurt Bombing Raid Theory was one thing. On 7 April 1945, the Luftwaffe flew its most desperate and deadliest mission, with the dedicated aerial ramming unit Sonderkommando Elbe. var caption = ''; Originally, the U.S. Army Air Forces activated the Eighth at Savannah, Georgia, on 28 January 1942 with three major subordinate units: the VIII Bomber Command (BC), the VIII Fighter Command (FC), and the VIII Ground Air Services Command (GASC). 8th Air Force, 1st Wing, 1st Division . 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. In the planned invasion of Japan, the mission of Eighth Air Force would be to conduct B-29 Superfortress raids from Okinawa in coordination with Twentieth Air Force operating from airfields in the Mariana Islands.[12]. function showFBShare() { var $currentSlide = $(".fancybox-slide.fancybox-slide--current.fancybox-slide--image").parent().parent(); } The B-2 force consists of 20 bombers assigned to the active duty 509th Bomb Wing along with the Missouri Air National Guard's associate 131st Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Missouri. 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. For the Mighty Eighth, that change heralded an interesting future, one that bring further restructuring, different aircraft systems, and a new challenging mission to the NAF. } There are (46894) servicemen of the 8th AF Bomber Groups in this archive. On 1 May, over 1,300 Eighth Air Force heavy bombers made an all-out attack on the enemy's rail network, striking at targets in France and Belgium. The wing served in combat with Fifth Air Force from February 1944 to August 1945, operating as a task force with various groups and squadrons that were . The first escort mission for the bombers was not flown until 5 December. 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. By December, the head-on attack was the preferred method of assailing American heavy bombers by Luftwaffe fighter pilots. The "Allied Force" campaign also marked the Eighth's return to Europe and the participation of U.S. bombers in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) first combat operation. United States Air Force. (Heavy Bombers) and as an historical record of events that took place in Europe during World War II. Beginning on October 8 and continuing until October 14, Eighth Air Force crews attacked targets all over Germany in an attempt to continue the pressure on the Germans. var winHgt = $(window).innerHeight() In January 1945, the Luftwaffe attempted one last major air offensive against the Allied Air Forces. The command controlled three airfields on Okinawa, Bolo, Futema, and Kadena Airfield. General Carl Spaatz returned to England to command the USSTAF. 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. Bombing Berlin: The Biggest Wartime Raid on Hitler's Capital $(".fancybox-caption__body").removeClass("half"); Those east of the Mississippi were assigned to SAC's other strategic air force, Eighth Air Force, which moved to Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, where it commanded all SAC bases in the eastern United States. $(".fancy-photo-detail-link").addClass("photo-detail-gradient"); On D-Day, over 2,300 sorties were flown by Eighth Air Force heavy bombers in the Normandy and Cherbourg invasion areas, all aimed at neutralizing enemy coastal defenses and front-line troops. var origImgHgt = $(".fancybox-image").prop("naturalHeight"); Practice was another. 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. isMobile = true; Many more awards were made to Eighth Air Force veterans after the war that remain uncounted. Importantly, the Eighth's bombing effectiveness influenced the North Vietnamese to end hostilities. return 'SHARE'; $currentSlide.find(".fancy-detail-link").on("touchstart", function() { captionToggle(); }); The plane carried 10 crewmen, and sported 13 50-caliber guns for self-defense. As usual, as the fortresses approached German territory, German fighters attacked. 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. Bomber wings of the 8th Air Force include: This article incorporates public domain material from Eighth Air Force. Fighter-production facilities, ball-bearing plants, shipyards, and other military targets were in the crosshairs of the Eighth. }); October 8's target was the shipyard in dreaded Bremen, known as "Flak City" by the aircrews. #WWII . Since 1994, the Eighth has participated in a string of contingency operations, such as the 1996 Operation DESERT STRIKE against Iraq, the 1998 Operation DESERT FOX against Iraq, which featured the B-1B in its combat debut, and 1999 Operation ALLIED FORCE against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which involved the B-2A Spirit in its first combat. In its early days, SAC had fighter wings for the escorting its aircraft equipped with the new F-82E Twin Mustang along with long range F-51H Mustangs and F-47N Thunderbolts, all of which were designed late in World War II for use in the planned invasion of Japan. Eighth Air Force Bomber Command became the Eighth Air Force in February 1944, it oversaw bombardment of strategic targets in Europe until 1945. It was famous for bringing crews home, even when three of its four engines failed. Much has been made in the historical record of the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany in early March of 1945. At the same time, a smaller force hit an Fw 190 repair depot at Zwickau. Then in January 1994, ACC reorganized Eighth Air Force as a general purpose Numbered Air Force (NAF) with a warfighting mission to support the U.S. Joint Forces and U.S. Strategic Commands. SAC fighter wings assigned to Eighth Air Force were: Fighter escorts were no longer needed once SAC was equipped with Boeing B-47 Stratojet and then Boeing B-52 Stratofortress jet bombers carrying nuclear bombs. 504-528-1944, Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, Two Moments of Remorse for Nazi Crimes: Willy Brandt, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the Memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Operation FLAX, April 1943: Severing the German, General William H. Simpsons Ninth US Army and the Crossing of the Rhine, Black Volunteer Infantry Platoons in World War II, Kasserine Pass: German Offensive, American Victory. An official website of the United States government, Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil. It was the largest of the deployed combat Army Air Forces in numbers of personnel, aircraft, and equipment. Altogether, the Eighth Air Force dropped over 4,800 tons of high explosive on Berlin during the first week of March. 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. Defended by only four machine guns, the nose of the B-17and more importantly the cockpitwas vulnerable to a head-on attack. 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. 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. On 8 March, another raid of 600 bombers and 200 fighters hit the Berlin area again, destroying the VKF ball-bearing plant at Erkner. Eighth Air Force remained in Okinawa until 7 June 1946. The Eighth received its first B-29 Superfortress on 8 August 1945. Elements of 8 AF engaged in combat operations during the Korean War (19501953); Vietnam War (19611975), as well as Operation Desert Storm (19901991) over Iraq and occupied Kuwait in the First Persian Gulf War.

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