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  • Pantelleria

    The capture of the islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa, lying in the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and Sicily, was vital to protect the flank of the planned invasion of Sicily. Geographic features made Pantelleria easily defended against an amphibious assault, so on May 18, 1943, an almost

  • North Africa

    In the spring of 1942, the German Afrika Korps, commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, "The Desert Fox," had advanced eastward across North Africa to El Alamein, deep inside Egypt. The British called for U.S. aerial assistance and by July, the AAF had become sufficiently strong to join the RAF in

  • AAF Enters Combat from England

    The first AAF unit in England to become operational was the 15th Bomb Squadron. On July 4, 1942, six of its crews accompanied six British crews of the RAF No. 226 Squadron on a low-level attack against enemy airfields in Holland. Two of the U.S.-built, but RAF-owned, Bostons flown by Americans were

  • AAF to England

    Because of severe shortages of planes, personnel, supplies and equipment, the Army Air Forces was not able to send any units to England immediately. The first contingent of 1,800 personnel sailed from Boston for Liverpool on April 27, 1942. The first airplanes, 18 B-17s, left the United States on

  • Lend-Lease: Aircraft to the Soviet Union

    North and South Atlantic Routes During World War II, the Soviet Union received almost 15,000 U.S.-built aircraft under the lend-lease program. About half of these were delivered by sea via the North Atlantic or were flown across the South Atlantic Ocean to the USSR via North Africa. Each method was

  • Operation CARPETBAGGER

    Note:  This exhibit has temporarily been removed from display.  Night Flights Over Occupied EuropeIn 1943 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) -- the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency -- called upon the U.S. Army Air Forces to conduct special operations from the United Kingdom.

  • WWII Night Fighters

    Note:  This exhibit has temporarily been removed.As early as World War I, night bombing and interdiction had been countered by defending fighters and anti-aircraft guns. The fighters, in the earliest stages, depended on visual sightings assisted by searchlights and sound tracking, but they achieved

  • Luftwaffe General Staff Oil Painting

    This oil painting, done in Germany approximately 1941, was brought to the U.S. at the end of World War II. Reichs Marshall Hermann Goering (front center), Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, and Colonel-General Ernst Udet (left of Goering), General of Luftwaffe Supplies, were both famous German

  • War of Secrets: Cryptology in WWII

    Cryptology is the study of secret codes. Being able to read encoded German and Japanese military and diplomatic communications was vitally important for victory in World War II, and it helped shorten the war considerably.Vital to VictoryIn WWII, wireless radio communication was very important for

  • Fighting U-Boats in American Waters

    By January 1942, German submarines had moved into American coastal waters and posed a serious threat to U.S. and Allied shipping. During the first three months of 1942, German U-boats sank more than 100 ships off the east coast of North America, in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean Sea. Some