Eighth Air Force Operations

Images of aircraft and bomb missions from the Eighth Air Force during World War II, showcasing bomb drops, plane modifications, and service operations.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 8th Air Force drops tight concentrations of bombs on Darmstadt marshalling and railway workshop target area in western Germany.

EIGHTH AAF SERVICE COMMAND STATION-The work of the Eighth AAF Service Command is both varied and extensive. Along with supplying and maintaining Eighth Air force equipment. Service Command also makes all modifications on new planes

The target, a railroad bridge, north of Naples, crossing the Volturno River, takes a plastering. The picture shows all the bombs falling on the target, completely covering the bridge.

This photo was taken from cockpit of the plane in a B-26 (Martin) formation headed for targets in Northern Italy.

Men Pumping Gas From Consolidated B-24 Into Gas Drums To Be Used By Fighters At Nanning Air Base In China. 16 November 1944.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 8th Air Force drops tight concentrations of bombs on Darmstadt marshalling and railway workshop target area in western Germany.

21st BOMBER COMMAND, SAIPAN--Sgt. J.R. Krantz, Hickory Point, Tennessee, waist gunner on a 21st Bomber Command B-29 Superfortress, is hauled back to safety after being blown from the destroyed waist-gun blister while on an attack on the jap Capital.

Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather Does A Mural Of 'Ole Bill' At The Red Cross Building.

Station Hospital, Accra Air Base, Accra Gold Coast, Africa. May 1943.

On the San Pablo strip #1, Leyte Island, in the Philippines, L-5's are loaded with supplies ready to be dropped on Randolph Field.

Bombs Dropped By Planes Of The 14Th Air Force's 491St Bombardment Squadron, 341St Bombardment Group, Score A Direct Hit On An Enemy Ship In Samah Bay, Hainan Island On July 29, 1944.

Yanks with a Consolidated B-24 Liberator group stationed in southern Italy have built a mess kit washing arrangement from old oil drums, and native stone. The washer, similar in appearance to a barbecue pit, is very effective.

Busy day for Republic P-47 pilots comes to an end as they shoot up a tugboat pulling a string of barges.

This Is A View Of A Landing Strip For Transport Planes, In Germany. About 40 Planes An Hour Land On This Field And Leave Their Cargo Of Gasoline, To Be Used By Units Of The 3Rd Us Army During Their Drive Into Germany. Each Plane Delivers Approximately 6

OVER THE NETHERLANDS-Supplies are dropped from the air to paratroopers fighting in Holland.

In Order To Keep Pace With The Rapid Advance Of The 1St Us Army Thru Germany, Gasoline Has To Be Flown Up To Them Rather Than Transport It By Truck Over The Heavily Burdened Bridges Over The Rhine River. Douglas C-47S Fly Gasoline From France To A German

Aircraft, Burma, India & INDIA,Transportation War

Moving troops and equipment of the 38th Bomb Group from Townsville, Queensland, Australia to New Guinea.

Bombs Fall Toward Installations At Gablingen Airfield, Germany, To Add To The Destruction Already Being Wrought During A Mission By Planes Of The 93Rd Bombardment Group, 8Th Air force On 24 April 1944.

Captain John W. Robinson at the photo machine used on his Lockheed F-4 (P-38) airplane. The camera is a 24" Fairchild, manufactured by the Fairchild Aerial Corporation of New York.

Aircraft, Burma, India & Bombing,

Lockheed P-38 Landing On The Almost Completed Strip On Morotai Island, The First Plane To Make A Scheduled Landing.

Alert Room At A Caribbean Air Base (L To R): Lt. C.C. Roach, Washington, D.C.; Lt. D.L. Turner, Montgomery, Ala.; Lt. J. S. Mack, Trenton, N.J. Fighter Pilots Rush From Alert Shack To Their Waiting Airplanes At The Sound Of An Alarm. Shacks Such As The

Troop Carrier planes off on a mission.

High explosives and fragmentation bombs are seen blanketing the vital points of the German airdrome at Avord in occupied France during the concentrated attack by Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the 8th USAAF on 4 June 44. Hits were scored on hangars

Aerial view of 93rd Bomb Group Consolidated B-24 Liberators parked on an airfield in North Africa.

S/Sgt Joe Louis questions S/Sgt Leo E. Walker, crew chief, about this ship "Zero Four," sluggingest bomber of the Mediterranean's oldest medium bomb group. The 128 mission veteran has kayoed five fighters and one merchant vessel. Walker is from

A Flight Crew of the 404th Bomber Sqdn., of the 11th Air Force after being decorated by the 11th A.F. C.O. Left to right, they are: T/Sgt. Alex D. Cuirezak, S/Sgt. Jack F. Leffler, T/Sgt. Dwight C. Lambe, S/Sgt. Vale W. Wrigth, Lt. Ray L. Lemons

North American B-25 covered with snow just after a snowstorm at Ladd Field, Alaska, 12 February 1944.

From the crates in which gliders are shipped from America to England, U.S. soldiers stationed at a 9th Air force Troop Carrier Command field have built a complete village called "Shantytown." The woodworking shop is seen in the above photo and other

Air commanders agree that the secret of good bombing is good formation flying. Here the "Bobcats," veteran North American B-25 group in the 12th AAF form over the water on their way to bomb a target in Northern Italy.

Base Operations Building. Gura Airport, Gura, Eritrea. July 1943.

Ground And Maintenance Crew Of The Boeing B-29 'Ding Hao', 768Th Bomb Squadron, 462Nd Bomb Group, Xx Bomber Command In China. Left To Right: M/Sgt. Frank Szarkowicz, Killingly, Conn.; Sgt. Guy R. Slaughter, Hurley, Missouri; T/Sgt. James W. Thurman, Olto

Bombardier Of Boeing B-29 Scans Enemy Skies Above The Overcast In China, From His Position In The Pressurized Flight Deck

Curtiss P-40 "Warhawks" Are Parked On The Line Prior To Take Off From Their Base Near Burg-El-Arab Somewhere In North Africa. Oct. 1942.

North American B-25 Mitchells of North African U.S. Army Air Forces blast Aquino airfield northwest of Naples.

A Carabao train, on Leyte Island, in the Philippines, fully loaded with ammunition, food, and medical supplies, gets into rougher terrain as they move forward to reinforce the advance Command Post at Mahonag, on Leyte Island, with badly needed

Modification of a Lockheed P-38 at an Air Base, 8th Air force, England.

Chinese Coolies Unloading Pipe From A Douglas C-47 Of The 1St Commando Group At Mangshish, China. After The Plane Is Unloaded It Takes Off For Warzup, India To Pick Up A Fresh Load Of Pipes. 27 January 1945.

Curtiss P-40S Lined Up Along The Runway At 30-Mile Strip In Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea.

Martin B-26 Marauders Of The 12Th Aaf Take Off On A Mission.

Filling the air with blinding smoke and flame a German supply train is destroyed by U.S. 8th Air Force fighters strafing enemy targets. GERMANY.

Lt. Robert Huber Of Sage City, Kansas, The Pilot Of A Liaison Plane For A Field Artillery Unit, Somewhere In France, Gets Set To Take Off On A Mission. He Has Painted The Nose Of His Plane With Shark Front Made Famous By The Flying Tigers In China.

By slinging the wing of a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane to the underside of a C-47 Douglas transport, members of a service squadron at a New Guinea base of the 5th AF Service Command have accomplished an engineering feat believed to be the first of

EIGHTH AAF SERVICE COMMAND STATION-To make way for the new, tank-enclosing leading edge, skilled Eighth AAF Service Command technicians remove this Lightning's old leading edge.

Aircraft, Burma, India &EQUIPMENT War

A Nazi HE-177 is destroyed on the ground by intense strafing attack of U.S. Eighth Air Force fighter planes.

War Theatre # 12 (England) Crews: Crew Members Of The 92Nd Bomb Group Stand In Front Of The Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" " Hellzapoppin." 19 Agust 1942, England.

Okinawa, Ryukyu Retto -- Low Angle Rear View Of The Japanese Baka Plane, Showing Cone Where 3 Rockets Are Placed. These Charges May Be Fired Either Singly Or Simultaneously, At The Pilot's Discretion.

Bombs Fall Toward An Enemy Installation At Gustrow, Germany Which Is Already Covered With Bomb Bursts. Smoke Markers Were Used To Guide The Bombardiers Of The 34Th Bomb Group, 8Th Air force In Dropping Their Lethal Loads On 7 April 1945.

Large Air Raid Sirens Atop Tokohama Police Station. Japanesean, Sept. 1945.

North American P-51 Mustangs of the all-Negro Fighter Group, 15th AAF, Italy, all use wing tanks for the extra distance required for escorting heavy bombers on raids. (Tank can be dropped by pilot in mid-air if he is attacked by enemy fighters.)

Aerial Mines In The Bomb Of A Boeing B-29 Of The 468Th Bomb Group Based In Chengtu, China. 24 January 1945.

The Volcania munitions...

Aircraft, Burma, India &CAPTURED MATERIEL War

The Pilot Of A Curtiss P-40 Prepares To Get Into The Cockpit Of His Plane At Chengkung Airbase In China.

Bell P-39 in parking area, with alert crew on duty.

Ju 88S Blasted By 9Th Af Bombs And Resting At Erratic Angles, Are Seen In The Remains Of This Large Junkers Repair Depot In Villecoublay, France 21 Sept. 1944.

Aircraft, Burma, India &Aircraft, TAKE-OFF,VULTEE War

Barracks at Wadi Seidna South Airfield, Khartoum Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. June 1943.

Returning Mitchell Bomber Crews Of The 'Bobcats' Group Report Seeing Hundreds Of Boats Landing Men And Supplies South Of Rome. They Seem Happy About It. The Mitchell'S Target Was The Road Leading From Rome To The Fifth Army Front And It Was Cut In Two P

A.S.C. inspectors overseas continually examine battle-damaged planes to determine whether they should be repaired or disassembled & the parts discarded or repaired. When the inspectors mark planes for salvage, every usable part is removed, repaired

T/5 James Hancock, of Baton Rouge, La., paints identification stripes on Artillery Observation plane in German pasture.

Aircraft, Burma, India & INDIA,EQUIPMENT War

Bomber and crew after return from mission.

Aerial View Of Bulk Petroleum Unloading And Storage Facilities At San Stefano, Italy. 25 Sept. 1945.

Aviation engineers lay pierced steel plank on a runway under construction at Santa Maria Airfield, Italy on 2 May 1944.

Formation Of Douglas C-47 "Skytrains" Over An Island Somewhere In The Pacific Area.

Major Thury Demonstrating The Use Of A G-Suit. England - 10 August 1944.

Aerial view of the Palel air strip, India, showing Douglas C-47's belonging to the 1st Air Commando Group, getting ready for their mission of flying troops and supplies on the invasion of Meiktila, Burma.

Chute packers of an Air Force Service Command unit in the field are shown performing varied tasks in the expert care of the silken aerial life preservers. In the foreground, S/Sgt. Frank Rusek, of 155 Weiss St., Buffalo, N.Y., left, and Sgt. William

Coolies are helping to dispose of a gasoline stockpile at Hengyang Airfield in China. A few hours later the field, a base for the 14th Air force, was evacuated in the face of advancing Japaneseanese troops.

The Broken Span In The Seefeld Bridge In Austria, Bombed By The 15Th Air Force Bombers.

Aerial view of Mar Strip near Cape Sansapar on the Dutch New Guinea mainland and Middleburg Island in the background, 8 September 1944. Mar Strip consists of steel matting at each end with asphalt middle section and Middleburg is all mat.

Control Tower Of The 51St Fighter Group Based At Nanning Air Base In China. 20 October 1944.

10th Evacuation Hospital at Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea.

A crew chief sits on the wing of a P-51 Mustang (of the all-negro 332nd Fighter Group, 15th Air Force, Italy) while the pilot taxies out to take-off. Wing-sitting is done so the crew chief can give his pilot directions as to where he is going-it is

Bell P-39 being repaired in the field.

General Mcclure And Wacs Arriving In China, 22 Nov 44. Greetings Being Extended To The New Arrivals.

In Nuremberg'S Marshalling Yards Rail Traffic Moved To And From The Ruhr To Points East, South And West When It Was Not Ruptured And Blasted By The Night-And-Day Offensive Of The RAF And The Us 8Th Air force. Here One Small Bomb Cut The Rails, Tossed Them High

The Crew Of A Boeing B-29 "Ding How", A Plane With The 444Th Bomb Group, Xx Bomber Command, Gather Under Nose Preparatory To Take-Off On Mission 13 - The 25 October 1944 Bombing Raid On Omura, Japanesean. They Are: (L To R): S/Sgt. Martin T. Warner, Boston, M

KWEILIN, CHINA-A ferry boat, the only means available to cross the river, is loaded with troops who are ready to assume their position on the fighting front. Notice how few wear helmets. Their lack of clothing as well as their lack of

Alert Building Of The 51St Fighter Group At Nanning Air Base In China. All Operations Were Directed From This Building.

B-29 Crew Of The 444Th Bomb Group, Xx Bomber Command, Being Interrogated In Map Room Of Advance China Base On Their Return From Mission 13 Bombing Raid On Omura, Japanesean On 25 October 1944.

Shot of coolies loading bombs into boats prior to hauling them across the river and then by train to Kweilin, from whence they once came.

Native Boat Being Pushed Up On The Beach At Accra Air Base, Accra, Gold Coast, Africa. May 1943.

The Railroad Bridge At Puchi, China Is Shown On March 31, 1945, As Bombs Dropped By Planes Of The 341St Bombardment Group, 491St Bombardment Squadron, 14Th Air Force, Strike Their Objective.

Air Base in the Caribbean. Nurse Lt. Irene Gukeisen, Parkston, So. Dakota; Nurse Lt. Myrtle J. Miller, Lansing, Mich; and Nurse Lt. Jane Jordan, New Glasgow, Va. Nurses in the Caribbean Area who have been trained in evacuation of wounded by air

AAF CONTROL TOWER IN RUSSIA: American and Russian soldiers put the finishing touches on a flying control tower at a U.S. AAF base in the Soviet Union, to which the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe now run "shuttle" bombing attacks across

Chinese People Slowly Return To The Bombed-Out Ruins Of Liuchow, China In July 1945, After Its Re-Occupation By The Allies. The City Was First 'Scorched' By The Chinese And Americans Before Their Retreat And Was Further Destroyed By The Retreating Japaneses.

A member of the United States Army Air Force fighter squadron that destroyed seventy-two Japaneseanese planes in aerial combat in New Guinea from June 1, 1942, to January 8, 1943 shortly after the fall of Buna Mission, is shown here. He is Second

Supply Train Of Douglas C-47's Pass Over The Snow-Swept Meadows, To Drop Much Needed Medical Supplies And Ammunition For The Men Of The 101 Airborne Division, Who Held Bastogne, Belgium For Ten Days Against The Germans.

Lt. Col. Oris B. Johnson of Natchitoches, La., commanding officer of a 9th Air Defense Command Night Fighter Squadron stands beside the propeller of his "Black Widow" fighter at a base in France.

Enlisted Mens' Quarters, Showing Beds Equipped With Mosquito Bars. Val De Caes Field, Belem, Brazil. April 1943.

Aircraft, Burma, India &Maintenance, REFUELING War

American Heavies dealt Germany's fighter plane production a major blow Tuesday, smashing thru Nazi fighter defenses, ofrts (Boeing B-17 Liberators (Consolidated B-24s) escorted by U.S. fighters shattered three principal factories producing German

Men of the 38th Bomb Group at Catholic mass, Christmas 1942 at Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea.

Troops Of The 2Nd Bomb Division, 8Th Air Force Are Reviewed By (L To R) General Henry H. Arnold, Brig. Gen. James P. Hodges, Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, Brig. Gen. Frederick L. Anderson And General Carl Spaatz. 3 September 1943. England.

Gunners Of 'Stars And Stripes' A Plane Of The 358Th Bomb Group, Based In England. 20 Nov. 43.

Low Level Bombing Over Vunakanua, Rabaul, New Britain On Oct. 12, 1943 By The 501St Sq Of The 345 Bg.

THIS IS IT, FELLERS-THE BIG DAY. .. Somewhere in England air crew and bombardiers on an 8th USAAF heavy bomber station are shown getting up on D-Day morning, ready for the great attack against the Hun.

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