Eighth Air Force
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Logo of the Eighth Air Force during World War II |
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B-17 Flying Fortresses Over Europe during World War II |
The
Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force (NAF) of the major command (MAJCOM) of
Air Combat Command of the
United States Air Force and it is headquartered at
Barksdale Air Force Base,
Louisiana.
In
World War II, it was a
United States Army Air Forces unit, which carried out daytime bombing operations in western
Europe from
airfields in eastern
England from
1942. During the war the Eighth Air Force was headquartered in
England at the
Wycombe Abbey School for Girls,
Buckinghamshire. It also has wartime associations with the
Grange Hotel, Brampton,
Cambridgeshire. The Eighth Air Force was commanded during World War II by Major General
Carl A. Spaatz, Major General
Ira C. Eaker, and
Lt. General James H. Doolittle, the hero of the 1942
B-25 air raid on
Tokyo and other cities in Japan. It later became the
United States Air Forces in Europe.
The present Eighth Air Force began its existence as VIII
Bomber Command and received its current designation when the original Eighth Air Force redesignated to
United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF). It engaged in combat in the
European Theater of Operations during World War II and moved to the
Pacific Theater in the final months of the war. Eighth Air Force served
Strategic Air Command (SAC) after the war, both in the United States and overseas until SAC was deactivated, then served
Air Combat Command since June 1,
1992.
The Eighth Air Force's now commonly-accepted nickname, "The Mighty Eighth", derives from the title of British historian
Roger A. Freeman's seminal "History of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force" (Doubleday and Company, 1970). Freeman died in the fall of 2005.
First Eighth Air Force
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VIII Air Support Command 1942-43
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VIII Bomber Command 1942-44
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VIII Fighter Command 1942-44
Second Eighth Air Force
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VIII Fighter Command 1944-45
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Joint Functional Component Command for Space and Global Strike (
US Strategic Command)
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Eighth Air Force official website*
WWII Bomb Groups - European Theater of Operations (ETO)*
The Ruhr - one of the main target of the 8th USAAF in Europe, 1943-1945 
