A Concise History of the US Air Force - Air Force Historical Studies ...

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scheduled by the Allies for late spring, diverted Eighth Air Force bombers against transportation targets in France to isolate the invasion area. In support of the invasion, Spaatz wanted to go after German oil targets to ground the Lufhyuffe and force the German army to park its vehicles. Invasion commander General Dwight Eisenhower overruled him on March 25, assigning USSTAF to interdict the landing area. VIII Fighter Command under Kepner continued to strafe German airfields and other ground targets through June. When eight Allied divisions landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, they did so under conditions of near total Allied control of the air, courtesy of USSTAF-only two Lufhyuffe fighters appeared in the area that day. In late July USSTAF bombers again proved critical to the ground campaign as they blasted a hole through German lines at St. L6 for Lieutenant General George Patton’s Third Army. Allied tactical air forces, which included Major General Elwood Quesada’s IX Tactical Air Command for the First Army and Major General Otto Weyland’s XIX Tactical Air Command for the Third Army, provided protective cover and close air support, in line with procedures established in North Africa, for Allied armies sweeping across France toward Germany. At Argentan- Falaise in August air power plugged the gap between encircling Ame- rican anid Canadian armies, destroying hundreds of German armored vehicles and aiding in the capture of fifty thousand German troops. During the Battle of the Bulge in December, airlift, aerial interdiction, and close air support helped turn a near-disaster into an Allied victory. Eighth and Fifteenth Air Force attacks on Germany’s fuel indus- try provided immeasurable help to the ground offensives, restricting severely the ability of German ground forces to maneuver their armored and mechanized units. Allied air superiority, a product of the Eighth Air Force’s aerial campaign, had permitted the landings in Europe, the Allied armies freedom of maneuver, and resupply without concern for the Lufhyufs.. Germany had shown the world in 1939 and 1940 what close coordination between tactical air power and ground armies could accom- plish. The USAAF repaid the favor with a vengeance in the drive from Normandy into Germany in 1944 and early 1945. Eisenhower held first call on Spaatz’s strategic bombing force through the summer of 1944, but allowed it to return to POINTBLANK objectives with an assault on Germany’s oil production when it was not bombing targets in France in support of ground units. ULTRA intercepts confirmed that the USAAF had finally found a true chokepoint in the German industrial economy. German armaments minister Albert Speer predicted that continued attacks on it would have “tragic consequences.” 29
America’s Air War in Europe The formidable aerial armada unleashed by the USAAF’s victorious Eighth, Ninth, Twelfth, and Fifteenth Air Forces against enemy targets in Europe during World War I1 included, top to bottom, Consolidated B-24 Liberator and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, and, performing fighter, escort, and close air support duties, North American P-51 Mustangs and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts.
Page 2 and 3: A Concise History of the U.S. Air F
Page 4 and 5: The Genesis of American Air Power T
Page 6 and 7: vivid contrast to aerial achievemen
Page 8 and 9: For sale by the US. Government Prin
Page 10 and 11: In the United States an outpouring
Page 12 and 13: commander, General John Pershing, c
Page 14 and 15: Early Military Aviation Leaders The
Page 16 and 17: served him well at St. Mihiel in Se
Page 18 and 19: No one in the Air Service was parti
Page 20 and 21: direct or indirect support of other
Page 22 and 23: Interwar Aircraft In amazing techno
Page 24 and 25: AF) on March 1, 1935. This first Am
Page 26 and 27: World War 11-Global Conflict Despit
Page 28 and 29: 35 percent of America’s total inv
Page 30 and 31: Principal American participants at
Page 32 and 33: ought to bear against attacking fig
Page 37 and 38: Despite heroic efforts to restore p
Page 39 and 40: Molding the Line in the Pacific Top
Page 41 and 42: America’s Air War in Asia Right,
Page 43 and 44: Hansell’s XXI Bomber Command, the
Page 45 and 46: nance, radar, jets, rockets, and a
Page 47 and 48: The newly independent U.S. Air Forc
Page 49 and 50: In addition, vast distances to targ
Page 51 and 52: Principal American air commanders a
Page 53 and 54: Korean War fighters. North American
Page 55 and 56: Air Force attacked 78 cities and to
Page 57 and 58: Atlas, lef, and Titan I, right, int
Page 59 and 60: off at a moment’s notice; another
Page 61 and 62: Union. A more capable SR-71 Blackbi
Page 63 and 64: clude, “We’re eyeball to eyebal
Page 65 and 66: Vietnam-based Viet Cong, the other
Page 67 and 68: ombed, the two most famous were the
Page 69 and 70: Transport Aircraft in Vietnam The U
Page 71 and 72: The Tet offensive proved a military
Page 73 and 74: The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird strate
Page 75 and 76: meant that warheads could be smalle
Page 77 and 78: Beginning in March 1985, Soviet Com
Page 79 and 80: on an enemy army to isolate it on t
Page 81 and 82: America’s Air War in the Gulf
Page 83 and 84: tionally-televised attack by two F-
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2 percent of combat sorties. Their
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in the next. An innovator behind fi
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Hallion, Richard P. Rise of the Fig
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