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The Air Forces |
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The Air Forces |
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This Air Force was constituted as Northeast Air District on 19 Oct 1940, and was activated on 18 Dec 1940. Re-designated 1st Air Force early in1941, it trained new organizations and, later, replacements for combat units. It also provided air defense for the eastern USA until Aug 1944. |
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This Air Force was constituted as Northwest Air District on 19 Oct 1940, and activated on 18 Dec 1940. Re-designated 2nd Air Force early in 1941, it served as both an air defense and training organization during 1941. Afterwards it was engaged chiefly in training units and replacements for heavy, and later very heavy bombing operations. |
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This Air Force was constituted as Southeast Air District on 19 Oct 1940, and activated on 18 Dec 1940. Re-designated 3rd Air Force early in 1941, it trained units, crews and individuals for bombardment, fighter and reconnaissance operations. It also had some air defense responsibilities during 1940-1, and engaged in anti-submarine activities from Dec 1941 to Oct 1942. |
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This Air Force was constituted as Southwest Air District on 19 Oct 1940, and activated on 18 Dec 1940. Re-designated 4th Air Force early in 1941, It provided air defense for the western USA until 1943, and at the same time trained new organizations. Later, it was engaged primarily in training replacements for combat units. |
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This Air Force operated in the Philippine Islands; East Indies; Air Offensive, Japan; China Defense; Papua New Guinea; Northern Solomans; Bismark Archipelago; western Pacific; Leyte; Luzon southern Philippines, and the China Offensive. |
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It was constituted as the Philippine Department Air Force on 16 Aug 1941, and activated in the Philippines on 20 Sept 1941. Re-designated Far East Air Force in Oct 1941, and 5th Air Force in Feb 1942, it lost most of its men and equipment in the defense of the Philippines after 7 Dec 1941. Later that same month, its headquarters and some crews and aircraft moved to Australia, and in Jan 1942 they were sent to Java to help delay Japanese advances in the Dutch East Indies. The 5th did not function as an Air Force for some time after Feb 1942 (the AAF organizations in the south-west Pacific being under the control of US-British-Dutch-Australian Command, and later Allied Air Forces). Its headquarters was re-manned in Sept 1942, and assumed control of AAF organizations in Australia and New Guinea. The 5th AF participated in operations that stopped the Japanese drive in Papua, recovered New Guinea, neutralized islands in the Bismark Archipelago and the Dutch East Indies, and liberated the Philippines. When the war ended in Aug 1945, elements of the 5th AF were moving to the Ryukyus for the invasion of Japan. |
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This Air Force was constituted as the Panama Canal Air Force on 19 Oct 1940, and was activated in the Canal Zone on 20 Nov 1940. Re-designated Caribbean Air Force in Aug 1941, and 6th Air Force in Feb 1942, it served primarily in defense of the Panama Canal. It also engaged in antisubmarine operations. |
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This Air Force operated in the central Pacific; Air Offensive, Japan; Eastern mandates; western Pacific; Ryukyus, and the China Offensive. |
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It was constituted as the Hawaiian Air Force on 19 Oct 1940, and activated in Hawaii on 1 Nov 1940. Re-designated 7th Air Force in Feb 1942, it provided air defense for the Hawaiian Islands and, after mid-1943, served in combat in the central and western Pacific areas. It was transferred back to Hawaii in Jan 1946. |
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This Air Force operated in the Air Offensive, Europe; Normandy; northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace; central Europe, and the Asiatic-Pacific theater. |
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It was constituted as VIII Bomber Command on 19 Jan 1942, and was activated at Savannah AAB, Georgia, on 28 Jan 1942. An advanced detachment was established in England on 23 Feb, and units began arriving from the USA during the spring on1942. The command conducted the heavy bombardment operations of the 8th Air Force from 17 Aug 1942 until early in 1944. Re-designated US Strategic Air Forces in Europe on 22 Feb 1944, afterwards it engaged primarily in bombardment of strategic targets in Europe. It was transferred, without personnel, equipment and combat elements, to Okinawa, Japan, on 16 Jul 1945. Although some personnel and combat units were assigned before VJ Day, the 8th AF did not participate in combat against Japan. |
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This Air Force served in the US ZOI; air combat, EAME theatre; Egypt-Libya; Air Offensive, Europe; Tunisia: Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Normandy; northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace, and central Europe. |
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It was constituted as V Air Support Command on 21 Aug 1941, and activated on 1 Sept 1941. Re-designated 9th Air Force in Apr 1942, it moved to Egypt and began operations on 12 Nov 1942, participating in the Allied drive across Egypt and Lydia, the campaign in Tunisia, and the invasions of Sicily and Italy. It moved to England in Oct 1943 to become the tactical Air Force for the invasion of the Continent. It helped prepare for the assault on Normandy, supported operations on the beachhead in Jun 1944, and took part in the drive that carried the Allies across France and culminated in victory over Germany in May 1945. It was inactivated in Germany on 2 Dec 1945. |
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This Air Force operated in Burma, 1942; India-Burma; the China Defensive; central Burma, and the China Offensive. |
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It was constituted as the 10th Air Force on 4 Feb 1942, and activated on 12 Feb . It moved to India during Mar-May 1942. It served in India, Burma and China until Mar 1943, when the 14th Air Force was activated in China. Then the 10th AF operated in India and Burma until it moved to China late in Jul1945. It returned to the USA during Dec 1945-Jan1946. |
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This Air Force operated in the Air Offensive, Japan, and the Aleutian Islands. |
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It was constituted as the Alaskan Air Force on 28 Dec 1941, and activated in Alaska on 15 Jan 1942. Re-designated 11th Air Force in Feb 1942, it participated in the offensive that drove the Japanese from the Aleutians, attacked the enemy in the Kurile Islands and, both during and after the war, served as part of the defense force for Alaska. It was re-designated Alaskan Air Command in Dec 1945. |
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This Air Force operated in air combat, EAME theatre; Algeria-French Morocco; Tunisia; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Anzio; Rome-Arno; southern France; north Appennines, and Po Valley. |
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It was constituted as the 12th Air Force on 20 Aug 1942, and was activated the same day. It moved to England during Aug-Sep 1942, and then on to North Africa for the invasion of Algeria and French Morocco (Operation Torch) in Nov 1942. It operated in the Mediterranean theatre until the end of the war, serving with the Northwest African Air Forces from Feb to Dec 1943, and afterwards with the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. It was inactivated in Italy on 31 Aug 1945. |
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This Air Force operated in the China Defensive; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands; New Guinea; northern Solomons; Eastern mandates; Bismark Archipelago; western Pacific; Leyte, Philippines; Luzon, Philippines; southern Philippines, and the China Offensive. |
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It was constituted as the 13th Air Force on 14 Dec 1942, and activated in New Caledonia on 13 Jan 1943. It served in the south Pacific and, later, south-west Pacific, participating in the Allied drive north and west from the Solomons to the Philippines. It remained in the Philippines, as part of the Far East Air Forces, after the war. |
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This Air Force operated in India-Burma; the China Defensive, and the China Offensive. |
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It was constituted as the 14th Air Force on 5 Mar 1943, and activated in China on 10 Mar 1943. It served in combat against the Japanese, operating primarily in China, until the end of the war. |
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This Air Force operated in air combat, EAME theatre; Air Offensive, Europe; Naples-Foggia; Anzio; Rome-Arno; Normandy; northern France; southern France; north Appennines; Rhineland; central Europe, and the Po Valley. |
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It was constituted as the 15th Air Force of 30 Oct 1943, and activated in the Mediterranean theatre on 1 Nov 1943. It began operations on 2 Nov, and engaged primarily in strategic bombing of targets in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and the Balkans until the end of the war. It was inactivated in Italy on 15 Sep 1945. |
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This Air Force operated in the US ZOI; India-Burma; Air Offensive, Japan; China Defensive; Eastern mandates; western Pacific, and central Burma. |
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It was constituted as the 20th Air Force on 4 Apr 1944, and activated the same day. In the summer of 1944 some combat elements moved from the USA to India, where they carried out very heavy bombardment operations against targets in Japan, Formosa, Thailand and Burma. Late in 1944 other combat elements began moving from the USA to the Marianas, being joined there early in 1945 by the elements that had been in India. Its headquarters, which remained in the USA, transferred to Guam in Jul 1945. From the Marianas, the 20th AF conducted a strategic air offensive that climaxed in the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in Aug 1945. |
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