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  • T-38 Sit-in Cockpit

    This has temporarily been removed from public display. This T-38 cockpit simulator, made by Quintron Systems Corporation, trained pilots to operate a T-38 aircraft’s controls and instruments during takeoff, approach, and landing at night.  The Northrop T-38 Talon is a twin-engine, high-altitude,

  • Black Thursday: Schweinfurt, October 14, 1943

    The Eighth Air Force attack against the ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany, on October 14, 1943, became known as "Black Thursday.”   After friendly fighters turned back at the German border, the bomber formations fought a running battle alone against the Luftwaffe.  The bomber crews

  • Bombing Campaign Leaders

    Three iconic USAAF generals—Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, and James “Jimmy” Doolittle—played key roles in leading the strategic bombing campaign in Europe. Gen. Carl Spaatz decorates a wounded Eighth Air Force Airman while he recovers in a hospital in August 1944.Carl A. SpaatzAfter leading the Eighth Air

  • Early Operations: Eighth Air Force in England

    In 1942 and early 1943, while the British Royal Air Force (RAF) conducted saturation bombing at night, the USAAF was trying to prove the validity of daytime precision bombing with its small bomber force in England.  For the first year, Eighth Air Force heavy bombers attacked submarine bases and

  • Deadly Skies over Europe

    The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) built a sophisticated defense system to counter the USAAF strategic bombing offensive.  Enemy fighters and antiaircraft guns (also called “flak”) took a devastating toll.  The USAAF lost more than 8,000 heavy bombers—each of which typically carried ten crewmen—in

  • Heavy Bomber “Firsts”

    The Memphis Belle was not the first USAAF heavy bomber to finish 25 missions—it was the first to complete 25 missions over Europe and return to the US.  A small number of heavy bombers finished their 25th missions before the Memphis Belle, including:  B-17E Suzy-Q The Suzy-Q, a 19th BG B-17E, was

  • Women’s Army Corps in Europe

    “The WAC has been of inestimable value...Its members have worked devotedly, often at arduous tasks requiring exceptional performance.”            —General Carl Spaatz, US Strategic Air Forces commander   About half of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) personnel—or “WACs”—sent overseas served in Europe. 

  • Early Operations: Ninth/Twelfth Air Force in the Mediterranean

    Until mid-1943, the USAAF’s small heavy bomber force in the Mediterranean primarily attacked enemy ports, airfields, and ships to help defeat enemy ground forces in North Africa and prepare for the invasion of Sicily.   Twelfth Air Force B-17 All-American was rammed by a German fighter while bombing

  • "Keeping them Flying": Mechanics and Bomb Leaders

    Bomber crews’ lives depended on the skill and diligence of their ground crews.  Ground crews constantly maintained the large, complex bombers, repaired battle damage, and performed modifications to make the aircraft more effective.  Bomb loaders in the ordnance section had the dangerous duty of

  • Fifteenth Air Force—Strategic Bombing from Italy

    In September 1943, the USAAF formed the Fifteenth Air Force, uniting its Mediterranean heavy bomber forces together at bases in southern Italy.  The USAAF could now mount major strategic raids in southern and eastern Europe, creating even more pressure on the Luftwaffe defense.  String of bombs on