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  • 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

  • The Aircraft

    The Boeing-designed B-29 No. 44-27297 was built by the Glenn L. Martin Co. at Omaha, Neb., at a cost of about $639,000. It was accepted by the USAAF on April 19, 1945, and was delivered to the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Wendover Field in the Utah salt flats. There, aircrews of the 509th Composite Group

  • The Aftermath of the Mission

    Even after the second atomic bomb attack, disagreement raged within the Japanese government between peace advocates and those who urged continued resistance. An attempted coup by militant extremists failed, and on Aug. 14, Japan surrendered unconditionally. In a break with tradition, Emperor

  • The Mission

    The world entered a new era on Aug. 6, 1945, when the crew of the B-29 Enola Gay released an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. Maj. Charles W. Sweeney, commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron, accompanied the Enola Gay on the mission, piloting the B-29 The Great Artiste as an observation aircraft. The

  • "Bockscar": The Aircraft that Ended WWII

    By August 1945, U.S. Navy submarines and aerial mining by the Army Air Forces severely restricted Japanese shipping. The AAF controlled the skies over Japan and the AAF's B-29 bombing attacks crippled its war industry. A plan for the invasion of Japan had been drawn up; Operation Olympic was

  • Japan Surrenders

    Following the end of hostilities, weather and photo-reconnaissance flights continued over Japan while other B-29s made mercy flights to drop food and supplies to 154 prisoner of war camps in Japan, China and Korea, where Allied personnel were being held captive. On Sept. 2 in ceremonies onboard the