By the end of World War II, the USAAF was divided into sixteen numbered Air Forces (First-Fifteenth and the Twentieth) distributed across all theaters of war, plus the Zone of the Interior (The USA, or more fondly, "home”) general air force stationed in the continental United States. To these were attached an additional eight Air Divisions which were sometimes detached and served as independent units when the need arose. These Air Forces and Divisions grew out of earlier Air Corps commands; for example, the Eigth Air Force was originally called VIII Bomber Command. Several Air Forces were created de novo as the service expanded during the war. The Air Forces and Divisions were divided into a total of 91 Wings, called Bombardment, Tactical Reconnaisance, Training or Composite depending on whether their primary intended role was strategic bombing, pursuit, air support etc.. The Air Forces also had jurisdiction over a number of logistical units like the Air Transport Command, successor to the pre-war Air Corps Ferrying Command.
- First Air Force
Constituted as Northeast Air District on 19 Oct 1940. Activated on 18 Dec 1940. Redesignated First AF early in 1941. Trained new organizations and, later, replacements for combat units. Also provided air defense for the eastern US until 1943. Campaigns. American Theater.
- Second Air Force
Constituted as Northwest Air District on 19 Oct 1940. Activated on 18 Dec 1940. Redesignated Second AF early in 1941. Served as both an air defense and a training organization in 1941. Afterward, was engaged chiefly in training units and replacements for heavy and, later, very heavy bombardment operations. Campaigns. American Theater.
- Third Air Force
Constituted as Southeast Air District on 19 Oct 1940. Activated on 18 Dec 1940. Redesignated Third AF early in 1941. Trained units, crews, and individuals for bombardment, fighter, and reconnaissance operations. Also had some air defense responsibilities during 1940-1941 and engaged in antisubmarine activities from Dec 1941 to Oct 1942. Campaigns. Antisubmarine, American Theater.
- Fourth Air Force
Constituted as Southwest Air District on 19 Oct 1 940. Activated on 18 Dec 1940. Redesignated Fourth AF early in 1941. Provided air defense for the western US until 1943, and at the same time trained new organizations. Later, was engaged primarily in training replacements for combat units. Campaigns. American Theater.
- Fifth Air Force
Constituted as Philippine Department AF on 16 Aug 1941. Activated in the Philippines on 20 Sep 1941. Redesignated Far East AF in Oct 1941, and Fifth AF in Feb 1942. This air force lost most of its men and equipment in the defense of the Philippines after 7 Dec 1941. Later in Dec 1941 headquarters and some crews and planes moved to Australia, and in Jan 1942 they were sent to Java to help delay Japanese advances in the Netherlands Indies. The Fifth did not function as an air force for some time after Feb 1942 (the AAF organizations in the Southwest Pacific being under the control of American-British-Dutch-Australian Command and later Allied Air Forces). Headquarters was remanned in Sep 1942 and assumed control of AAF organizations in Australia and New Guinea. The Fifth participated in operations that stopped the Japanese drive in Papua, recovered New Guinea, neutralized islands in the Bismarck Archipelago and the Netherlands East Indies, and liberated the Philippines. Campaigns. Philippine Islands; East Indies; Air Offensive, Japan; China Defensive; Papua; New Guinea; Northern Solomons; Bismarck Archipelago; Western Pacific; Leyte; Luzon; Southern Philippines; China Offensive.
- Sixth Air Force
Constituted as Panama Canal AF on 19 Oct 1940. Activated in the Canal Zone on 20 Nov 1940. Redesignated Caribbean AF in Aug 1941, and Sixth AF in Feb 1942. Served primarily in defense of the Panama Canal; also engaged in antisubmarine operations. Campaigns. Antisubmarine, American Theater.
- Seventh Air Force
Constituted as Hawaiian AF on 19 Oct 1940. Activated in Hawaii on 1 Nov 1940. Redesignated Seventh AF in Feb 1942. Provided air defense for the Hawaiian Islands and, after mid-1943, served in combat in the central and western Pacific areas. Campaigns. Central Pacific; Air Offensive, Japan; Eastern Mandates; Western Pacific; Ryukyus; China Offensive.
Second Air Division
The Second Air Division evolved out of the reorganization of the VIII Bomber Command into the Eighth Air Force. Starting as the Second Bomb Wing, it became the Second Bomb Division and when the fighter wing was assigned, in January 1945, it was redesignated the Second Air Division.
While administrative responsibilities of bomb groups were retained by division headquarters, their operational functions were assigned to the 2nd, 14th, 20th and 96th Combat Bomb Wings, and, for a time, the 95th Combat Wing.
The 65th Fighter Wing maintained both an operational and administrative control and responsibility over its five fighter groups.
The Second Air Division's first bombing mission was flown on November 7, 1942; the last on April 25, 1945. A total of 95,948 sorties were flown in 439 operational missions by the division's B-24's, which dropped a total of 199,983 tons of bombs. Bomber crews accounted for 1,079 German aircraft destroyed in the air, and P-47's and P-51's of the fighter wing destroyed another 3,670 enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground. A total of 1,458 bombers and 649 fighters were lost in operations against the enemy.
| Bomb Groups |
|---|
| 44th | Shipdham |
| 93rd | Herdwick |
| 389th | Hethel |
| 392nd | Wendling |
| 445th | Tibenham |
| 446th | Bungey |
| 448th | Seething |
| 453rd | Old Buckenham |
| 458th | Horsham St Faith |
| 466th | Attlebridge |
| 467th | Rackheath |
| 489th | Halesworth |
| 491st | Metfield |
| 492nd | North Pickenham |
| Fighter Groups |
|---|
| 4th | Debden |
| 56th | Boxted |
| 355th | Steeple Morden |
| 479th | Wattisham |
| 361st | Bottisham |
| Attached Units And The A.R.C. |
|---|
|
- Eighth Air Force
Constituted as VIII Bomber Command on 19 Jan 1942. Activated in the US on 1 Feb 1942. An advanced detachment was established in England on 23 Feb and units began arriving from the US during the spring of 1942. The command conducted the heavy bombardment operations of Eighth AF from 17 Aug 1942 until early in 1944. Redesignated Eighth until AF on 22 Feb 1944. Afterward, engaged primarily in bombardment of strategic targets in Europe. Transferred, without personnel, equipment, and combat elements, to Okinawa on 16 Jul 1945. Although some personnel and combat units were assigned before V-J Day, the Eighth did not participate in combat against Japan. Campaigns. Air Offensive, Europe; Normandy; Northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace; Central Europe; Asiatic-Pacific Theater.
- Ninth Air Force
Constituted as V Air Support Command on 21 Aug 1941. Activated on 1 Sep 1941. Redesignated Ninth AF in Apr 1942. Moved to Egypt and began operations on 12 Nov 1942, participating in the Allied drive across Egypt and Libya, the campaign in Tunisia, and the invasions of Sicily and Italy. Moved to England in Oct 1943 to become the tactical air force for the invasion of the Continent. Helped prepare for the assault on Normandy, supported operations on the beach in Jun 1944, and took part in the drive that carried the Allies across France and culminated in victory over Germany in May 1945. Inactivated in Germany on 2 Dec 1945.
Campaigns. American Theater; Air Combat, EAME Theater; Egypt-Libya; Air Offensive, Europe; Tunisia; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Normandy; Northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace; Central Europe.
- Tenth Air Force
Constituted as Tenth AF on 4 Feb 1942 and activated on 12 Feb. Moved to India, Mar-May 1942. Served in India, Burma, and China until Mar 1943 when Fourteenth AF was activated in China. Then the Tenth operated in India and Burma until it moved to China late in Jul 1945. Campaigns. Burma, 1942; India-Burma; China Defensive; Central Burma; China Offensive.
- Eleventh Air Force
Constituted as Alaskan AF on 28 Dec 1941. Activated in Alaska on 15 Jan 1942. Redesignated Eleventh AF in Feb 1942. Participated in the offensive that drove the Japanese from the Aleutians, attacked the enemy in the Kuril Islands, and, both during and after the war, served as part of the defense force for Alaska. Redesignated Alaskan Air Command in Dec 1945. Campaigns. Air Offensive, Japan; Aleutian Islands.
- Twelfth Air Force
Constituted as Twelfth AF on 20 Aug 1942 and activated the same day. Moved to England, Aug-Sep 1942, and then on to North Africa for the invasion of Algeria and French Morocco in Nov 1942. Operated in the Mediterranean theater until the end of the war, serving with Northwest African Air Forces from Feb to Dec 1943, and afterward with Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. Inactivated in Italy on 31 Aug 1945. Campaigns. Air Combat, EAME Theater; Algeria-French Morocco; Tunisia; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Anzio; Rome-Arno; Southern France; North Apennines; Po Valley.
- Thirteenth Air Force
Constituted as Thirteenth AF on 14 Dec 1942. Activated in New Caledonia on 13 Jan 1943. Served in the South Pacific and, later, Southwest Pacific, participating in the Allied drive north and west from the Solomons to the Philippines. Campaigns. China Defensive; Guadalcanal; New Guinea; Northern Solomons; Eastern Mandates; Bismarck Archipelago; Western Pacific; Leyte; Luzon; Southern Philippines; China Offensive.
- Fourteenth Air Force
Constituted as Fourteenth AF on 5 Mar 1943 and activated in China on 10 Mar. Served in combat against the Japanese, operating primarily in China, until the end of the war. Campaigns. India-Burma; China Defensive; China Offensive.
- Fifteenth Air Force
Constituted as Fifteenth AF on 30 Oct 1943. Activated in the Mediterranean theater on 1 Nov 1943. Began operations on 2 Nov and engaged primarily in strategic bombardment of targets in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, and the Balkans until the end of the war. Campaigns. Air Combat, EAME Theater; Air Offensive, Europe; Naples-Foggia; Anzio; Rome-Arno; Normandy; Northern France; Southern France; North Apennines; Rhineland; Central Europe; Po Valley.
- Twentieth Air Force
Constituted as Twentieth AF on 4 Apr 1944 and activated the same day. Some combat elements moved in the summer of 1944 from the US to India where they carried out very heavy bombardment operations against targets in Japan, Formosa, Thailand, and Burma. Other combat elements began moving late in 1944 from the US to the Marianas, being joined there early in 1945 by the elements that had been in India. Headquarters, which had remained in the US, was transferred to Guam in Jul 1945. From the Marianas the Twentieth conducted a strategic air offensive that was climaxed by the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan. Campaigns. American Theater; India-Burma; Air Offensive, Japan; China Defensive; Eastern Mandates; Western Pacific; Central Burma.
