In support of an official event 

The Museum will be closed Sunday, May 25
In addition, the Fourth Hangar will be closed Saturday, May 24

Access to the Presidential Gallery will be limited from May 15 to June 5
 

Fact Sheet Alphabetical List

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  • 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

  • Gunners

    US Army Air Forces gunners defended B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers against fighter attacks with machine guns aimed by hand (“flexible guns”) and electrically-powered gun turrets.  Typically, gunners made up half of a bomber crew, manning a top turret, ball turret, two waist guns,

  • 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. 

  • Fighter Escort: “Little Friends”

    During the first half of the strategic bombing campaign, the USAAF lacked fighters that could escort its heavy bombers on strikes against targets in Germany.  As a result, heavy bomber crews took devastating losses that threatened the continuation of the campaign.  By early 1944, improvements to the

  • “Big Week”: February 20-25, 1944

    In February 1944, the USAAF and RAF conducted an all-out campaign against Germany’s aviation industry and the Luftwaffe.  Heavy bombers from the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces hammered aircraft, engine, and ball-bearing plants by day, and RAF bombers attacked by night.  Code named Operation

  • Target Berlin

    Berlin, Germany’s capital, was selected as a prime target for the USAAF, not only for its industrial importance, but because the Luftwaffe would be forced to defend it, suffering heavy losses in the process.   The USAAF conducted its first major raid against Berlin on March 6, 1944—672 heavy bombers

  • OPERATION FRANTIC: Shuttle Raids to the Soviet Union

    In 1944, the US persuaded Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to allow USAAF aircraft to operate out of bases in the western Soviet Union.  Between June and September 1944, the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces conducted a total of seven so-called “shuttle raids” under the code name Operation

  • Blind Bombing: “Mickey”

    During the frequently cloudy conditions over Europe, USAAF bombers could not bomb visually.  In these conditions, USAAF heavy bombers used a radar system called H2X and code-named “Mickey.”   Mickey-equipped “pathfinder” aircraft gave formations the signal to bomb.  On B-24 pathfinders, the H2X

  • D-Day Support

    “I, personally, am convinced that without your air force...the invasion would not have succeeded...”            —Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe General of FightersBy May 1944, the strategic bombing campaign had crippled the Luftwaffe’s fighter force, making the Normandy invasion possible. 

  • Strategic Bombing Victorious

    “In my opinion the war was decided by the air offensive...it happened when you started large-scale attacks on our synthetic oil plants simultaneously with attacks on our communications.”            —Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, Luftwaffe Armaments Chief   By the fall of 1944, with thousands of