8th air force wwii roster

548 Bomb Squadron. On 7 May, another 1,000 bombers hit additional targets along the English Channel coast, hitting fortifications, bridges and marshaling areas. [citation needed]. } Fifteenth Air Force relocated to March Air Force Base, California. if (detailSize === "half") { 8th and 15th AF flight, ground crew and crash photos: B-24, B-17, P-51, B-26, P-47, P-38. 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. This was the first B-17 to complete 25 combat missions in the 8th Air Force, on 13 May 1943. It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. Because of the thick clouds and rain over the area the Luftwaffe did not attack the American bomber fleet, as the Germans believed that because of the weather the American bombers would be incapable of attacking their targets. Archived from the original on 4 December 2003. return '' + Nevertheless, in March and April 1945, Allied fighter patrol patterns over Me 262 airfields resulted in numerous losses of jets and serious attrition of the force. History. Join Our Newsletter. $currentSlide.find(".fancy-detail-link").on("touchstart", function() { captionToggle(); }); } 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. Then in April 1970, SAC moved the Eighth to Andersen AFB, Guam, to take over the direction of all bombing and refueling operations in Southeast Asia. Of the. In June 1946, the headquarters relocated to MacDill Field, Fla., to join the new Strategic Air Command (SAC). 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 . 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. return isMobile; VIII Fighter Command 1944-1945. In 1949, a realignment of responsibilities for SAC's two air forces occurred. Flying Royal Air Force (RAF) "Boston" light bombers, six American crews of the 15th Bombardment Squadron, and six RAF crews of 226th Squadron attacked German Luftwaffe (air force) airfields. 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. Support to the latter command included the operation of Task Force 204 (bombers). Altogether, the Eighth's bombers flew 325 sorties to drop over 7 million pounds of ordnance on enemy targets in that campaign. Personnel and group records to digital. The operation failed to achieve air superiority, even temporarily, and the German Army continued to be exposed to air attack. let isDesktopInit = false; On 7 April, Eighth Air Force dispatched thirty-two B-17 and B-24 groups and fourteen Mustang groups (the sheer numbers of attacking Allied aircraft were so large in 1945 that they were now counted by the group) to targets in the small area of Germany still controlled by the Nazis, hitting the remaining airfields where the Luftwaffe jets were stationed. These Veterans, born in the 1920s and before, were members of the greatest air armada of all time. Constituted as Philippine Department AF on 16 Aug 1941. *Due to rising costs to print and mail hard copies of the magazine, beginning in March 2023, annual dues will provide members with a digital copy ONLY of the 8th AF News magazine. Thank you for visiting our site. Login; Frequently Asked . On 7 June 1946, Headquarters Eighth Air Force was reassigned without personnel or equipment from Okinawa to MacDill Field, Florida, becoming SAC's second numbered air force. }, Nick was a life member of the Commemorative Air Force, a World War II aircraft heritage society, a charter member of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and a charter member of . 445BG. Although some personnel and combat units were assigned before V-J Day, the Eighth did not participate in combat against Japan. On 24 February, with the weather clearing over central Germany, Eighth Air Force sent over 800 bombers, hitting Schweinfurt and attacks on the Baltic coast, with a total of 11 B-17s being lost. 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. 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. There is an entry for each credited mission which that individual flew. 8th Air Force 448th Bomb Group, England WWII. VIII Bomber Command, re-designated as Eighth Air Force, and Ninth Air Force were assigned to (USSTAF). } We also located the series World War II Statistical Summaries, 1942-1945 in Record Group 18 . 8th Air Force, 1st Wing, 1st Division The Ragged Irregulars. By the time the group rotated back to the United States, they had flown more than 23,000 combat hours in more than 12,000 sorties. 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. if ($(".af3-caption-body").length > 0 && $(".af3-caption-body").css("height") != undefined) { Bomber wings of the 8th Air Force include: This article incorporates public domain material from Eighth Air Force. 5 months ago. 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. At all heights, the rate of climb was approximately doubled. (left) took the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command Headquarters to England the next month and located at High Wycombe, about 40 miles west of London and on the road to Oxford. '
' + The right propeller of Kegelman's Boston was shot away by flak while over the target at De Kooy Airfield[7][self-published source?] have served in the 8th Air Force since World War II. Eighth Air Force controls long-range nuclear-capable bomber assets throughout the United States and overseas locations. 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. clearTimeout(debounceTimer); Established on 22 February 1944 by the redesignation of VIII Bomber Command at RAF Daws Hill in High Wycombe, England, the Eighth Army Air Force (8 AAF) was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force in the European Theater of World War II (1939/411945), engaging in operations primarily in the Northern Europe area of responsibility; carrying out strategic bombing of enemy targets in France, the Low Countries, and Germany;[3] and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft until the German capitulation in May 1945. Major General Jimmy Doolittle relinquished command of the Fifteenth Air Force to Major General Nathan F. Twining and on January 6, 1944, took over command of the Eighth Air Force from Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker at RAF Daws Hill. debounceTimer = setTimeout(function () { debounceTimer = null; 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. var isMobile = false; //initiate as false The losses of the Allied Air Forces were replaced within weeks. // Fancy box miscalculates because of race conditions with new layout 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). $(".fancybox-caption").removeClass("af3-caption-bg"); var origImgWth = $(".fancybox-image").prop("naturalWidth"); Less than a week after "Big Week", Eighth Air Force made its first attack on the Reich's capital, Berlin. function getDetailsURL(fbObj) { On July 4th, 1942 the first American bomber mission flown from England by the U.S Army Air Forces (AAF) flew towards the occupied Netherlands. if ($(".fancybox-caption__body").hasClass("af3-caption-body")) { Moved to Egypt and began operations on 12 Nov 1942, participating in the Allied drive across Egypt and Libya, the campaign in Tunisia, and the invasions of Sicily and Italy. 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. After the Southeast Asian war, Eighth Air Force moved on 1 January 1975 to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. 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. Within a few years, B-47 medium and B-52s heavy bombers replaced the Eighth's older B-29, B-50, and B-36 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. The next day, over 900 bombers and 700 fighters of Eighth Air Force hit more aircraft factories in the Braunschweig area. getDetailsURL($(this).parent()) + They did not realize that they were over Dutch territory; 850 civilians, including children on their way to school, were among the casualties. The 8th Army Air Force, 96th Bomb Group (H) Association. How I am shooting the records. var dstTop = Math.floor((winHgt - newImgHgt)) / 2; var ratio = Math.min(winWth / origImgWth, Contact Us. [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. Many bodies were exhumed and returned to the U.S. at the request of families and many families opted to allow their loved ones to remain in U.S. Military and other cemetaries in the United Kingdom and the Continent. 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. Description Ask questions about records of the U.S. Army, Air Force, . The B-1 force consists of 62 bombers assigned to the active duty 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess AFB, Texas and the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. The other American-flown Boston had been shot down over De Kooy[6]. 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. Also after the deployment of forces to Far East Air Force to engage in combat over Korea, the history of Eighth Air Force becomes indistinguishable from that of SAC. Later in Dec 1941 headquarters and some crews and planes moved to Australia . 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 Japanese, however, surrendered before the Eighth's first combat sortie in the Pacific. 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]. We are currently re-designing and moving our site to a different hosting service. At Andersen AFB, the Eighth took over the direction of all bombing and refueling operations in Southeast Asia. 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. 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. Donations Page. First Name. That base assignment lasted until November 1950, when SAC transferred the Eighth to Carswell AFB (formerly Fort Worth Army Air Field), Texas. Last Name Beginning With (B) Updated 6/2/12. 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. This air force lost most of its men and equipment in the defense of the Philippines after 7 Dec 1941. In addition, German airfields in France and Belgium were attacked. Constituted as VIII Bomber Command on 19 Jan 1942. During the Cold War (1945-1991), 8 AF was one of three Numbered Air Forces of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC), with a three-star general headquartered at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts commanding USAF strategic bombers and missiles on a global scale. 2d Bombardment Wing: 1942-1943. Some 230 B-24s hit the Messerschmitt Bf 110 assembly plant at Gotha with a loss of 24 aircraft. $(".fancybox-caption__body").removeClass("af3-caption-body"); isMobile = true; On 1 January, the entire German fighter force in the West, comprising combat aircraft from some eleven Jagdgeschwader day fighter wings, took off and attacked 27 Allied airfields in northern France, Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands in an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries of Europe. Eighth Air Force remained in Okinawa until 7 June 1946. 8th Air Force commander relieves two commanders at Minot. Their children and descendants, who are representatives of these Veterans, saw the need to keep the history and experiences of these warriors alive. Under ACC, the Eighth received control over active duty, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard units in the central U.S. and two overseas locations. 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. 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. "translate(" + dstLeft + "px, " + dstTop + "px)"); Year. Want to help? The Luftwaffe countered by installing flak alleys along the approach lines in order to protect the Me 262s from the ground and providing top cover with conventional fighters during takeoff and landing. afterLoad: function (instance, current) { By mid-1944, the 8th AF had reached a total strength of more than 200,000 people. 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. [12], On Okinawa, Eighth Air Force derived its headquarters personnel from the inactivated XX Bomber Command, and Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle assumed command, being reassigned from England on 19 July. Were proud to be able to present archival issues below: INSTRUCTIONSStart here! For information on any of the names listed below, . Redesignated Eighth AF on 22 Feb 1944. $(".closing-box, .closingx").on("touchstart", function() { captionToggle(); }); 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). (Approved 20 May 1943. -Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle, Commanding General, 8th Air Force. [citation needed]. The first escort mission for the bombers was not flown until 5 December. The vinyl used is UV and water resistant, and will last many years without . function isMobile() { On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Me 262 was also less maneuverable than the P-51 and so trained Allied pilots could turn tighter than an Me 262A. In January 1945, the Luftwaffe attempted one last major air offensive against the Allied Air Forces. 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