History hold

During World War II, the Eighth Air Force was a United States Army Air Forces command and control organization, which primarily carried out strategic daytime bombing operations in Western Europe from airfields in eastern England from 1942 through the end of the war in 1945.

It took several months from its deployment to England to get the VIII Bomber Command ready for combat operations. One of the major factors was that adequate crew training was lacking in many areas, as well as an initial lack of B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft. However in early 1942, several heavy B-17, as well as two B-24 Liberator bombardment groups were activated and were being prepared for deployment to Britain. Four B-17E/F groups, the 92nd, 97th, 301st, 303rd and two B-24D groups, the 44th and 93rd were going to be the nucleus for VIII Bomber Command in England.

1942
The initial mission of VIII Bomber Command was the destruction of submarine bases along the French coast, as the limited number of aircraft available in 1942 prevented the command from hitting targets within Germany. This was a critical assignment, as Allied shipping losses rose dramatically in the summer of 1942 and as shipping from the United States to Britain was expected to ramp up in October and November, losses were expected to get worse.
In the face of determined Luftwaffe fighter opposition to the American bombers, losses throughout 1942 against the U-Boat pens were high, although the commanders believed that the bombers could fight their way to their objectives without fighter escort. This belief was given credence on 20 December when only six B-17s were lost out of 101 aircraft dispatched on a mission to Romilly, near Paris despite widespread Luftwaffe fighter activity in France. Romilly was a turning point in the daylight aerial war, as for the first time VIII Bomber Command had penetrated 100 miles into enemy territory and had successfully kept the Luftwaffe interceptors at bay. The results from the Romilly mission however, were disappointing as only 72 of the 101 bombers had actually hit the target and those hits only caused minimal damage.

Spring of 1943
Throughout the spring of 1943, VIII Bomber Command Fortresses and Liberators grew in numbers and attacked more targets in France, the Low Countries, and into Germany itself. In June, "Operation Pointblank" was initiated. It was an objective aimed at German fighter production. The operation was initiated as a result of the Casablanca Conference, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed on a combined bomber offensive from England. The primary objectives listed were the German submarine yards and bases, the German aircraft industry, manufacturers of ball bearings, and the German oil industry. Secondary objectives were synthetic and rubber tires and military motor transport vehicles. However, it was emphasized the reduction of the German fighter force was of primarily importance. The plan called for 2,700 heavy bombers to be in place before the Allied invasion of France, earmarked for mid-1944.

1944
VIII Bomber Command was re-designated as Eighth Air Force, with VIII Fighter and VIII Air Support Commands being brought under the command of the re-designated Eighth Air Force. VIII Bomber Command was inactivated.
General Carl Spaatz returned to England to command the USSTAF. Major General Jimmy Doolittle relinquished command of the Fifteenth Air Force to Major General Nathan F. Twining and took over command of the Eighth Air Force at RAF High Wycombe. Doolittle of course was well known to American airmen as the famous "Tokyo Raider" and former air racer. His directive was simple: `Win the air war and isolate the battlefield'.

Eighth Air Force operations 1944 - 1945
Spaatz and Doolittle's plan was to use the US Strategic Air Forces in a series of co-ordinated raids. code-named Operation 'Argument' and supported by RAF night bombing, on the German aircraft industry at the earliest possible date.

Cold and clear weather was predicted for the last week of February 1944 and Operation Argument became known as "Big Week". On the night of 19-20 February, the RAF bombed Leipsig. Eighth Air Force put up over 1,000 B-17s and B-24s and over 800 fighters and the RAF provided sixteen squadrons of Mustangs and Spitfires. In all twelve aircraft factories were attacked, with the B-17s heading to Leipsig, Bernburg and Oschersleben, while the B-24s hitting the Messerschmitt Bf 110 plants at Gotha, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 plant at Tutow and the Heinkel He 111 Plant at Rostock.

The raids on the German aircraft industry caused so much damage that the Germans were forced to disperse aircraft manufacturng eastward, to safer parts of the Reich. (Ironically, it was because of this dispersement eastward that, in 1945 allowed the Soviet Union to gain access to much German aviation technology in their occupation zone. The postwar result was the rapid development of Soviet Air Force fighter jets largely based on this captured German wartime technology).

The next day, over 900 bombers and 700 fighters of Eighth Air Force hit more aircraft factories in the Braunschweig area. Over 60 Luftwaffe fighters were shot down with a loss of 19 bombers and 5 fighters. On February 24, 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. Some 230 B-24s hit the Messerschmitt Bf 110 assembly plant at Gotha with a loss of 24 aircraft.

On 25 February, both Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces hit numerous targets at Furth, Augsburg and Regensburg, attacking Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Bf 109 plants. The 8th lost 31 bombers, the 15th losing 33.

D-Day - June 6, 1944
In a prelude to the invasion of France, American air attacks began in February 1944 against railroad junctions, airfields, ports and bridges in northern France and along the English Channel coastline. Fighters from both Eighth and Ninth Air Forces made wide sweeps over the area, mounting staffing missions at airfields and rail networks. By 6 June Allied fighter pilots had succeeded in damaging or destroying hundreds of locomotives, thousands of motorized vehicles, and many bridges. In addition, German airfields in France and Belgium were attacked.
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. On 7 May, another 1,000 bombers hit additional targets along the English Channel coast, hitting fortifications, bridges and marshaling areas.
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.

On 7 April, 1945 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. In addition, almost 300 German aircraft of all types were destroyed in strafing attacks. On April 16th, this record was broken when over 700 German aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
The Luftwaffe was, simply, finished.
The end came on 25 April 1945 when Eighth Air Force flew its last full-scale mission of the european war. B-17s hit the Skoda armaments factory at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia, while B-24s bombed rail complexes surrounding Hitler's mountain retreat at Berchtesgarden.
After the end of hostilities on 7 May 1945, Eighth Air Force bombers flew "Trolley" missions all over western Europe. This gave ground crews, which supported them at their English bases, a tour of the continent. They could witness first hand the complete destruction of the Third Reich that the Eighth Air Force inflicted.

After D-Day, attacks on the German oil industry assumed top priority which was widely dispersed around the Reich. Vast fleets of B-24s and B-17s escorted by P-51Ds and long-range P-38Ls hit refineries in Germany and Czechoslovakia in late 1944 and early 1945. Having almost total air superiority throughout the collapsing German Reich, Eighth Air Force hit targets as far east as Hungary, while Fifteenth Air Force hit oil industry facilities in Yugoslavia, Romania, and northeastern Italy. On at least eighteen occasions, the Merseburg refineries in Leuna, where the majority of Germany's synthetic fuel for jet aircraft was refined was hit. 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.
These missions however, carried a high price. Half of the U.S. Army Air Force’s casualties in World War II were suffered by Eighth Air Force (more than 47,000 casualties, with more than 26,000 dead). Seventeen Medals of Honor went to Eighth Air Force personnel during the war. By war’s end, they had been awarded a number of other medals to include 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals. Many more awards were made to Eighth Air Force veterans after the war that remain uncounted. There were 261 fighter aces in the Eighth Air Force during World War II. Thirty-one of these aces had 15 or more aircraft kills apiece. Another 305 enlisted gunners were also recognized as aces.