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The VIII Fighter Command was the fighter arm of Eighth Air Force in the World War II European
Theater. Its primary mission was to escort the heavy bombers of VIII Bomber Command to their
targets in Occupied Europe, providing protection against Luftwaffe interceptors.
The VIII Fighter Command was constituted initially as "VIII Interceptor Command" at Selfridge Field,
Michigan on January 19, 1942. Equipped with the 4th and 5th Air Defense wings, the command's
mission was air defense over the north central United States. The command's mission was
changed as it was ordered to deploy to Britain in February 1942 as first it was reassigned to
Charleston AAF on February 13, then shipped overseas to England where on May 12 it set up
headquarters at Bushey Hall.
Bomber escort for VIII Bomber Command was the fighters' primary mission. VIII Fighter Command
initially flew three types of aircraft during 1942-43: the Supermarine Spitfire, the Republic P-47
Thunderbolt and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
Even though the defense of the United States west coast initially took priority, plans were made in
the spring of 1942 to deploy P-38F Lightning squadrons to Britain. This deployment caused
logistical problems, since the U-boat menace made shipping across the Atlantic quite risky.
However, development by Lockheed of reliable drop tanks for the P-38F increased the ferry range
from 1300 to 2200 miles. This made it possible to ferry the Lightnings from Maine to the UK via
Goose Bay, Labrador to Greenland to Reykjavik, Iceland and finally to Prestwick, Scotland. Also,
following the American victory at the Battle of Midway, the USAAF felt sufficiently confident that the
Japanese fleet was not about to show up off the west coast and it was decided to redeploy the 1st
and 14th Fighter Groups to Britain. By August 1942, 81 P-38Fs of four of the six squadrons of the
1st and 14th Fighter Groups had arrived in Great Britain to complete the first transatlantic crossing
by single-seat fighters. On August 14, 1942, a P-38F flown by 2nd Lieut Elza Shaham of the 342d
Composite Group in Iceland shared with a P-40C in the destruction of a Focke-Wulf FW-200C-3
over the Atlantic Ocean to obtain the first victory of a P-38 over a Luftwaffe aircraft.
The P-38F-equipped 82nd Fighter Group arrived in Northern Ireland in November 1942. However,
the P-38 was not to become famous for its exploits in Europe as the needs of the North African
Invasion took priority in the fall of 1942 and the 1st, 14th and 82nd Fighter Groups were transferred
to the Twelfth Air Force in the North African Campaign. The fighter plane which would be used
most extensively over the skies of Europe would first be the P-47 Thunderbolt in 1943, then in
1944, be joined in the sky by the P-51 Mustang.
The P-38 equipped groups of the 6th Fighter Wing were reassigned to Twelfth Air Force on 14 Sep
1942 and later sent to French Morocco and Algeria in support of the North African and Tunisian
Campaigns.
The first P-47C Thunderbolts arrived in England in late December 1942, and equipped the 4th
Fighter Group which somewhat reluctantly traded in their Spitfires for the type. P-47Cs also
reequipped the 82nd, 83rd, and 84th Squadrons of the 78th Fighter Group. P-47Cs were also
supplied to the 56th Fighter Group which left their P-47Bs back home in the States when they
transferred to England. Engine and radio problems caused some delays, but the first operational
sorties began on March 10, 1943, and consisted of high-altitude escort duties and fighter sweeps.
The first encounter with German fighters came on April 15 when the P-47Cs of the 335th Squadron
shot down three German fighters for a loss of three of its own.
The high-altitude performance of the P-47C was far superior to anything the Luftwaffe could put up
against it, but at low and medium altitudes the P-47C could not match the maneuverability and
climb rates of its opponents. However, the P-47C could out-dive just about anything in the sky, and
many a Thunderbolt saved itself from a sticky situation by using its superior diving performance to
break off combat at will when it proved necessary to do so. The P-47Cs of the 56th, 4th and 78th
Groups were intended as bomber escorts, but were ineffectual until fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks to
lengthen their range at the end of July 1943. These three groups were joined later in 1943 by
seven new groups flying P-47Ds - the 352nd, 353rd, 355th, 356th, 358th, 359th, and 361st Fighter
Groups. P-47s flew escort missions until the end of 1943, when they began to be replaced by
longer-range and P-51 Mustangs which were better suited for the long-range escort role.
With arrival of the first P-51 groups, the strategic air war began shifting in the allies' favor. The P-51
Mustang first entered squadron service in Europe with the British in early 1942; the Allison V-1710
engined P-51A (Mustang I) having much success with the RAF, although it found the aircraft's
performance inadequate at higher altitudes. Rolls-Royce engineers rapidly realized that equipping
the Mustang with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine with its two speed, two stage supercharger would
substantially improve performance. Also, by using a four-bladed propeller, rather than the three-
bladed one used on the P-51A, the performance was greatly improved; the XP-51B achieved a
level speed of 441 mph at 29,800 feet, over 100 mph faster than the Allison-engined P-51A at that
altitude. At all heights, the rate of climb was approximately doubled.
The USAAF now finally had an aircraft which could compete on equal terms with the Fw 190 and
the later models of the Bf 109. The USAAF was finally fully sold on the Mustang, and a letter
contract for 2200 P-51Bs was issued. The engine was to be the Packard V-1650-3, based on the
Merlin 68. The P-51B, and subsequently the P-51C and P-51D became the most outstanding
fighter of the war.
In late 1943, the P-51B Mustang was introduced to the European Theater by the USAAF. It could fly
as far on its internal fuel tanks as the P-47 could with drop tanks. However the P-51B was
introduced as a tactical fighter, so the first deliveries of the P-51B in November 1943 were
assigned to three groups in the tactical Ninth Air Force at the expense of VIII Bomber Command,
whose need for a long range escort fighter was critical. The first escort mission for the bombers
was not flown until December 5.
A compromise was reached between 8th and 9th Air Force and the first Eighth Air Force unit to
receive the P-51B was the 357th Fighter Group based at RAF Raydon in Essex. From this point, the
P-51 saw widespread use as an escort fighter on long-penetration raids deep into Germany. In
March 1944, P-51Bs flew to Berlin and back for the first time. The 2,000 mile range of the Mustang,
when equipped with drop tanks was far in excess of what was available to other fighters of the day.
In many aspects, the P-51D was better than the Luftwaffe's Bf-109 and Fw-190 fighters. German
pilots were suffering heavy losses in air battles with the Mustangs. P-51D pilots achieved their
victories almost effortlessly and often the crews of the B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers listening in
on Luftwaffe radio frequencies heard distraught German pilots screaming "Mustang, Mustang" to
their fellow pilots to warn them of an attack by the American fighter escorts.
Combat operations
The effect of the Mustang on the Luftwaffe was swift and decisive. The result was that the Luftwaffe
was notable by its absence and over the skies of the Europe after D-Day and the Allies were
starting to achieve air superiority over the continent. Although the Luftwaffe could, and did mount
effective attacks on the ever larger formations of Allied heavy bombers, the sheer numbers of B-
17s and B-24s attacking enemy targets was overwhelming the German fighter force, which simply
could not sustain the losses the Eighth Air Force bombers and fighters were inflicting on it.
When Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took command of the Eighth Air Force in January 1944, he initiated a
policy change. Previously, fighters were largely tied to the bombers, but Doolittle and Kepner freed
many fighters to go "down on the deck" and become far more aggressive, seeking out the
Luftwaffe and attacking their airfields. The result was Luftwaffe losses rose to unsustainable
levels, increasing pressure on the German fighter arm with an attendant reduction in USAAF
bomber losses, though fighter losses inevitably rose.
By mid-1944, Eighth Air Force had reached a total strength of more than 200,000 people (it is
estimated that more than 350,000 Americans served in Eighth Air Force during the war in Europe.)
At peak strength, Eighth Air Force had forty heavy bomber groups, fifteen fighter groups, and four
specialized support groups. It could and did often dispatch more than 2,000 four-engine bombers
and more than 1,000 fighters on a single mission to multiple targets.
In September 1944, the VIII Fighter Command attached its fighter wings to Eighth Air Force's
Bombardment Divisions. This administrative move allowed each division operational control of
several fighter groups to fly escort to their heavy bomb wings. the 65th Wing was attached to the 2d
BD; the 66th to the 3d BD, and 67th to the 1st Bombardment Division.
VIII Fighter Command also attacked German transport, logistics, and troops during the Normandy
campaign, though tactical operations in the European Theater largely were the realm of the Ninth
Air Force. During the Battle of the Bulge in late December 1944, several VIII Fighter Command
groups were attached to Ninth Air Force Tactical Air Commands to relieve the army ground forces
with close-air support. After the initial German attack was blunted by early January, the units
remained attached until February 1945 assisting the counter-attack by Allied forces.
First seen by Allied airmen during the late summer of 1944, it wasn't until March 1945 that German
Jet aircraft started to attack Allied bomber formations in earnest. On March 2, when Eighth Air Force
bombers were dispatched to attack the synthetic oil refineries at Leipzig, Messerschmitt Me 262s
attacked the formation near Dresden. The next day, the largest formation of German jets ever seen,
most likely from the Luftwaffe's specialist 7th Fighter Wing, Jagdgeschwader 7 Nowotny, made
attacks on Eighth Air Force bomber formations over Dresden and the oil targets at Essen, shooting
down a total of three bombers.
However, the Luftwaffe jets were simply too few and too late to have any serious effect on the Allied
air armadas, now sweeping over the Reich with almost impunity. V-1 and V-2 rocket sites were
gradually overrrun and the lack of fuel and available pilots for the new jets had virtually driven the
Luftwaffe from the skies. The Me-262 was an elusive foe in the skies for the P-47s and P-51s,
which outclassed the American fighters. Despite its great speed advantage. Allied bomber escort
fighters would fly high above the bombers — diving from this height gave them extra speed, thus
reducing the speed difference. The Me 262 was less maneuverable than the P-51 and trained
Allied pilots could catch up to a turning Me 262. However, the only reliable way of dealing with the
jets, as with the even faster Me 163 Komet rocket fighters, was to attack them on the ground and
during take off and landing. Luftwaffe airfields that were identified as jet bases were frequently
bombed by medium bombers, and Allied fighters patrolled over the fields to attack jets trying to
land. The Luftwaffe countered by installing flak alleys along the approach lines in order to protect
the Me 262s from the ground and providing top cover with conventional fighters during takeoff and
landing. Nevertheless, in March and April 1945, Allied fighter patrol patterns over Me 262 airfields
resulted in numerous losses of jets and serious attrition of the force.
On April 7, Eighth Air Force dispatched thirty-two B-17 and B-24 groups and fourteen Mustang
groups (the sheer numbers of attacking Allied aircraft were so large in 1945 that they were now
counted by the group) to targets in the small area of Germany still controlled by the Nazis, hitting
the remaining airfields where the Luftwaffe jets were stationed. In addition, almost 300 German
aircraft of all types were destroyed in strafing attacks. On April 16, this record was broken when
over 700 German aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
The Luftwaffe was, simply, finished.
At war's end the 8th's fighters had claimed 5,280 enemy aircraft shot down and 4,100 more
claimed destroyed on the ground. Losses were 2,113 in total. Some 260 VIII FC pilots became
aces, each with five or more aerial victories, though the command also recognized planes
destroyed on the ground. The top aces were Lt. Col. Francis S. Gabreski (28) and Capt. Robert S.
Johnson (28) of the 56th Fighter Group plus Maj. George E. Preddy (26.83) and Lt. Col. John C.
Meyer (24) of the 352nd. Gabreski was shot down and captured in July 1944 and Preddy was killed
in December. Some 5,000 pilots served with the VIII FC of which 2,156 made at least one part
share claim for a kill. Just 57 pilots made claims into double figures.
course of their official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the media is in the public
domain.
The VIII Fighter Command was the fighter arm of Eighth Air Force in the World War II European
Theater. Its primary mission was to escort the heavy bombers of VIII Bomber Command to their
targets in Occupied Europe, providing protection against Luftwaffe interceptors.
The VIII Fighter Command was constituted initially as "VIII Interceptor Command" at Selfridge Field,
Michigan on January 19, 1942. Equipped with the 4th and 5th Air Defense wings, the command's
mission was air defense over the north central United States. The command's mission was
changed as it was ordered to deploy to Britain in February 1942 as first it was reassigned to
Charleston AAF on February 13, then shipped overseas to England where on May 12 it set up
headquarters at Bushey Hall.
Bomber escort for VIII Bomber Command was the fighters' primary mission. VIII Fighter Command
initially flew three types of aircraft during 1942-43: the Supermarine Spitfire, the Republic P-47
Thunderbolt and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
Even though the defense of the United States west coast initially took priority, plans were made in
the spring of 1942 to deploy P-38F Lightning squadrons to Britain. This deployment caused
logistical problems, since the U-boat menace made shipping across the Atlantic quite risky.
However, development by Lockheed of reliable drop tanks for the P-38F increased the ferry range
from 1300 to 2200 miles. This made it possible to ferry the Lightnings from Maine to the UK via
Goose Bay, Labrador to Greenland to Reykjavik, Iceland and finally to Prestwick, Scotland. Also,
following the American victory at the Battle of Midway, the USAAF felt sufficiently confident that the
Japanese fleet was not about to show up off the west coast and it was decided to redeploy the 1st
and 14th Fighter Groups to Britain. By August 1942, 81 P-38Fs of four of the six squadrons of the
1st and 14th Fighter Groups had arrived in Great Britain to complete the first transatlantic crossing
by single-seat fighters. On August 14, 1942, a P-38F flown by 2nd Lieut Elza Shaham of the 342d
Composite Group in Iceland shared with a P-40C in the destruction of a Focke-Wulf FW-200C-3
over the Atlantic Ocean to obtain the first victory of a P-38 over a Luftwaffe aircraft.
The P-38F-equipped 82nd Fighter Group arrived in Northern Ireland in November 1942. However,
the P-38 was not to become famous for its exploits in Europe as the needs of the North African
Invasion took priority in the fall of 1942 and the 1st, 14th and 82nd Fighter Groups were transferred
to the Twelfth Air Force in the North African Campaign. The fighter plane which would be used
most extensively over the skies of Europe would first be the P-47 Thunderbolt in 1943, then in
1944, be joined in the sky by the P-51 Mustang.
The P-38 equipped groups of the 6th Fighter Wing were reassigned to Twelfth Air Force on 14 Sep
1942 and later sent to French Morocco and Algeria in support of the North African and Tunisian
Campaigns.
The first P-47C Thunderbolts arrived in England in late December 1942, and equipped the 4th
Fighter Group which somewhat reluctantly traded in their Spitfires for the type. P-47Cs also
reequipped the 82nd, 83rd, and 84th Squadrons of the 78th Fighter Group. P-47Cs were also
supplied to the 56th Fighter Group which left their P-47Bs back home in the States when they
transferred to England. Engine and radio problems caused some delays, but the first operational
sorties began on March 10, 1943, and consisted of high-altitude escort duties and fighter sweeps.
The first encounter with German fighters came on April 15 when the P-47Cs of the 335th Squadron
shot down three German fighters for a loss of three of its own.
The high-altitude performance of the P-47C was far superior to anything the Luftwaffe could put up
against it, but at low and medium altitudes the P-47C could not match the maneuverability and
climb rates of its opponents. However, the P-47C could out-dive just about anything in the sky, and
many a Thunderbolt saved itself from a sticky situation by using its superior diving performance to
break off combat at will when it proved necessary to do so. The P-47Cs of the 56th, 4th and 78th
Groups were intended as bomber escorts, but were ineffectual until fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks to
lengthen their range at the end of July 1943. These three groups were joined later in 1943 by
seven new groups flying P-47Ds - the 352nd, 353rd, 355th, 356th, 358th, 359th, and 361st Fighter
Groups. P-47s flew escort missions until the end of 1943, when they began to be replaced by
longer-range and P-51 Mustangs which were better suited for the long-range escort role.
With arrival of the first P-51 groups, the strategic air war began shifting in the allies' favor. The P-51
Mustang first entered squadron service in Europe with the British in early 1942; the Allison V-1710
engined P-51A (Mustang I) having much success with the RAF, although it found the aircraft's
performance inadequate at higher altitudes. Rolls-Royce engineers rapidly realized that equipping
the Mustang with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine with its two speed, two stage supercharger would
substantially improve performance. Also, by using a four-bladed propeller, rather than the three-
bladed one used on the P-51A, the performance was greatly improved; the XP-51B achieved a
level speed of 441 mph at 29,800 feet, over 100 mph faster than the Allison-engined P-51A at that
altitude. At all heights, the rate of climb was approximately doubled.
The USAAF now finally had an aircraft which could compete on equal terms with the Fw 190 and
the later models of the Bf 109. The USAAF was finally fully sold on the Mustang, and a letter
contract for 2200 P-51Bs was issued. The engine was to be the Packard V-1650-3, based on the
Merlin 68. The P-51B, and subsequently the P-51C and P-51D became the most outstanding
fighter of the war.
In late 1943, the P-51B Mustang was introduced to the European Theater by the USAAF. It could fly
as far on its internal fuel tanks as the P-47 could with drop tanks. However the P-51B was
introduced as a tactical fighter, so the first deliveries of the P-51B in November 1943 were
assigned to three groups in the tactical Ninth Air Force at the expense of VIII Bomber Command,
whose need for a long range escort fighter was critical. The first escort mission for the bombers
was not flown until December 5.
A compromise was reached between 8th and 9th Air Force and the first Eighth Air Force unit to
receive the P-51B was the 357th Fighter Group based at RAF Raydon in Essex. From this point, the
P-51 saw widespread use as an escort fighter on long-penetration raids deep into Germany. In
March 1944, P-51Bs flew to Berlin and back for the first time. The 2,000 mile range of the Mustang,
when equipped with drop tanks was far in excess of what was available to other fighters of the day.
In many aspects, the P-51D was better than the Luftwaffe's Bf-109 and Fw-190 fighters. German
pilots were suffering heavy losses in air battles with the Mustangs. P-51D pilots achieved their
victories almost effortlessly and often the crews of the B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers listening in
on Luftwaffe radio frequencies heard distraught German pilots screaming "Mustang, Mustang" to
their fellow pilots to warn them of an attack by the American fighter escorts.
Combat operations
The effect of the Mustang on the Luftwaffe was swift and decisive. The result was that the Luftwaffe
was notable by its absence and over the skies of the Europe after D-Day and the Allies were
starting to achieve air superiority over the continent. Although the Luftwaffe could, and did mount
effective attacks on the ever larger formations of Allied heavy bombers, the sheer numbers of B-
17s and B-24s attacking enemy targets was overwhelming the German fighter force, which simply
could not sustain the losses the Eighth Air Force bombers and fighters were inflicting on it.
When Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took command of the Eighth Air Force in January 1944, he initiated a
policy change. Previously, fighters were largely tied to the bombers, but Doolittle and Kepner freed
many fighters to go "down on the deck" and become far more aggressive, seeking out the
Luftwaffe and attacking their airfields. The result was Luftwaffe losses rose to unsustainable
levels, increasing pressure on the German fighter arm with an attendant reduction in USAAF
bomber losses, though fighter losses inevitably rose.
By mid-1944, Eighth Air Force had reached a total strength of more than 200,000 people (it is
estimated that more than 350,000 Americans served in Eighth Air Force during the war in Europe.)
At peak strength, Eighth Air Force had forty heavy bomber groups, fifteen fighter groups, and four
specialized support groups. It could and did often dispatch more than 2,000 four-engine bombers
and more than 1,000 fighters on a single mission to multiple targets.
In September 1944, the VIII Fighter Command attached its fighter wings to Eighth Air Force's
Bombardment Divisions. This administrative move allowed each division operational control of
several fighter groups to fly escort to their heavy bomb wings. the 65th Wing was attached to the 2d
BD; the 66th to the 3d BD, and 67th to the 1st Bombardment Division.
VIII Fighter Command also attacked German transport, logistics, and troops during the Normandy
campaign, though tactical operations in the European Theater largely were the realm of the Ninth
Air Force. During the Battle of the Bulge in late December 1944, several VIII Fighter Command
groups were attached to Ninth Air Force Tactical Air Commands to relieve the army ground forces
with close-air support. After the initial German attack was blunted by early January, the units
remained attached until February 1945 assisting the counter-attack by Allied forces.
First seen by Allied airmen during the late summer of 1944, it wasn't until March 1945 that German
Jet aircraft started to attack Allied bomber formations in earnest. On March 2, when Eighth Air Force
bombers were dispatched to attack the synthetic oil refineries at Leipzig, Messerschmitt Me 262s
attacked the formation near Dresden. The next day, the largest formation of German jets ever seen,
most likely from the Luftwaffe's specialist 7th Fighter Wing, Jagdgeschwader 7 Nowotny, made
attacks on Eighth Air Force bomber formations over Dresden and the oil targets at Essen, shooting
down a total of three bombers.
However, the Luftwaffe jets were simply too few and too late to have any serious effect on the Allied
air armadas, now sweeping over the Reich with almost impunity. V-1 and V-2 rocket sites were
gradually overrrun and the lack of fuel and available pilots for the new jets had virtually driven the
Luftwaffe from the skies. The Me-262 was an elusive foe in the skies for the P-47s and P-51s,
which outclassed the American fighters. Despite its great speed advantage. Allied bomber escort
fighters would fly high above the bombers — diving from this height gave them extra speed, thus
reducing the speed difference. The Me 262 was less maneuverable than the P-51 and trained
Allied pilots could catch up to a turning Me 262. However, the only reliable way of dealing with the
jets, as with the even faster Me 163 Komet rocket fighters, was to attack them on the ground and
during take off and landing. Luftwaffe airfields that were identified as jet bases were frequently
bombed by medium bombers, and Allied fighters patrolled over the fields to attack jets trying to
land. The Luftwaffe countered by installing flak alleys along the approach lines in order to protect
the Me 262s from the ground and providing top cover with conventional fighters during takeoff and
landing. Nevertheless, in March and April 1945, Allied fighter patrol patterns over Me 262 airfields
resulted in numerous losses of jets and serious attrition of the force.
On April 7, Eighth Air Force dispatched thirty-two B-17 and B-24 groups and fourteen Mustang
groups (the sheer numbers of attacking Allied aircraft were so large in 1945 that they were now
counted by the group) to targets in the small area of Germany still controlled by the Nazis, hitting
the remaining airfields where the Luftwaffe jets were stationed. In addition, almost 300 German
aircraft of all types were destroyed in strafing attacks. On April 16, this record was broken when
over 700 German aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
The Luftwaffe was, simply, finished.
At war's end the 8th's fighters had claimed 5,280 enemy aircraft shot down and 4,100 more
claimed destroyed on the ground. Losses were 2,113 in total. Some 260 VIII FC pilots became
aces, each with five or more aerial victories, though the command also recognized planes
destroyed on the ground. The top aces were Lt. Col. Francis S. Gabreski (28) and Capt. Robert S.
Johnson (28) of the 56th Fighter Group plus Maj. George E. Preddy (26.83) and Lt. Col. John C.
Meyer (24) of the 352nd. Gabreski was shot down and captured in July 1944 and Preddy was killed
in December. Some 5,000 pilots served with the VIII FC of which 2,156 made at least one part
share claim for a kill. Just 57 pilots made claims into double figures.
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