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Official homepage of the 385th bomb group association. Constituted as VIII Bomber Command on 19 Jan 1942. By the late 1940s, the B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators used in the European Theater of the war were thoroughly obsolete as combat aircraft and were mostly sent to the smelters. It played an important role in many missions now recognized as key to winning WWII such as D-Day, Munster, Schweinfurt, and the raid on Berlin. Eighth Air Force 139. It was created from a. ROSTER OF AIRMEN. The USAAF now finally had an aircraft that could compete on equal terms with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and the later models of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
Located at Hunter Field, Colonel Asa N. Duncan was the first commander. By mid-1944, the 8th AF had reached a total strength of more than 200,000 people.
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-Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle, Commanding General, 8th Air Force.
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. // Animation complete. Air Offensive, Europe ; Normandy; Northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace ; Central Europe; Asiatic-Pacific Theater. 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 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. var $currentSlide = $(".fancybox-slide.fancybox-slide--current.fancybox-slide--image").parent().parent();
In May 1942 Command of the 8th Air Force was assumed by Major General Carl A. With the loss of two American crews, this first mission . var winWth = $(window).innerWidth();
By 1955 the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress would be entering the inventory in substantial numbers, as prop B-36s were phased out of heavy bombardment units rapidly. function closeDetails() {
However, the only reliable way of dealing with the jets, as with the even faster Me 163B Komet rocket fighters, was to attack them on the ground and during takeoff and landing. This is from where the present-day Eighth Air Force's history, lineage and honors derive. Were proud to be able to present archival issues below: INSTRUCTIONSStart here! Documenting History Since a complete roster of World War II Eighth Air Force veterans has never existed, the Research Center is compiling its own list known as the Veterans' Database.
In June 1946, the headquarters relocated to MacDill Field, Fla., to join the new Strategic Air Command (SAC). $(".fancy-photo-detail-link").removeClass("photo-detail-gradient");
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