ARMY AIR FORCE IN GREAT BRITAIN – WORLD WAR II
Following the entrance of the United States into World War 2, the young U.S. Air Force, then still part of the Army, activated the 8th Air Force, originating in Savannah, Georgia, to serve in the defense of Britain and to launch offensives against Germany.
In January 1944, command was taken over by renowned Major General Jimmy Dolittle. Over the following years, the bombers of the Eighth Air Force reclaimed air superiority for the Allies – destroying the German aircraft Industry and beginning to bomb Berlin and the coastal regions, paving the way for the D-Day invasion.
Over half of the Air Force’s casualties in the war were suffered by the Eight Air Force. After the Allied victory in Europe, operations departed for the Pacific theater.
The Eighth Air Force continues to operate today, presently headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and continuing to serve as the heart of America’s heavy bomber force.
AFRICAN AMERICAN TROOPS IN GREAT BRITAIN
“I think the impact these soldiers had by volunteering was the initiation of the Civil Rights movement, ’cos these soldiers were never going back to be discriminated against again. None of us were.” – Wilford Strange
100,000 African American troops arrived in Great Britain, far outnumbering the nation’s current black population, around 7,000. The segregated Army brought United States racial divisions with them. Transferring into a society without the segregation of home offered new freedoms for African-American troops. Access to shared social spaces and open fraternization with white British women resulted in frequent racial conflicts within the US force, sometimes boiling over into violence. While President Harry Truman would begin the desegregation of the military in 1948, troops returning home from Britain faced old persecutions with a new perspective.
384TH BOMBARDMENT GROUP
The 384th operated out of RAF Grafton Underwood from May 1943 to June 1945, flying Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The Group received 2 Distinguished Unit Commendations and over 1000 Flying Crosses.
Over the course of the war, the Group flew 316 combat missions, including participating in the “Big Week” attacks on the German aircraft industry and flying support for the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge.
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