Patch WWII 8th Air Force Flying Fortress USAAF

The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) (8 AF) is a numberedair force (NAF) of the United States Air Force’s Air Force GlobalStrike Command (AFGSC).

It’s headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces Strategic– Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The Eighth Air Force includes theheart of America’s heavy bomber force: the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the B-52 Stratofortress heavybomber aircraft.

Established on 22 February 1944 by the redesignation of VIII Bomber Command at RAF Daws Hill in High Wycombe, England, 8 AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force in the European Theater of World War II (1939/41–1945), engaging in operationsprimarily in the Northern Europe AOR; carrying out strategic bombingof enemy targets in France, the Low Countries, and Germany; andengaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft until the German capitulation in May 1945.

It was the largest of the deployedcombat Army Air Forces in numbers of personnel, aircraft, andequipment.

During the Cold War (1945–1991), 8 AF was one of three NumberedAir Forces of the United States Air Force’s Strategic Air Command(SAC), with a three-star general headquartered at Westover AFB, Massachusetts commanding USAF strategic bombers and missileson a global scale.

Elements of 8 AF engaged in combat operationsduring the Korean War (1950–1953); Vietnam War (1961-1975), aswell as Operation Desert Storm (1990–1991) against Iraq andoccupied Kuwait in the First Persian Gulf War.