THE 8TH AIR FORCE 1942-1945

The 8th Air Force was the first strategic air force of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) established during World War II. In mid-1944, two years after its creation, it brought together more than 200,000 men on its bases in Great Britain and was capable of deploying more than 2,000 four-engine bombers protected by 1,000 fighter planes for a single operation. Its main role was to support the Allied landings to take place on the continent, in particular thanks to massive raids carried out by day and intended to disrupt the production facility as well as the Nazi communications networks, both in Germany and in the territories of Western Europe then occupied by it. This work of more than 200 pages retraces, by means of more than 350 color profiles and several dozen period photos, the history of the “Mighty Eighth” in Europe, from 1942 to 1945, the different bombing and