The AAF in the Invasion of Southern France tells how the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, under the command of Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, supported the Allied airborne and amphibious assault designed to undercut German defenses in Occupied France. In this invasion-the fourth major one in three months-American air power overwhelmed the meager enemy forces and diverted attention from the north, helping to topple German control in Vichy. Air operations persistently found, fixed, and fought occupying German forces, preventing their orderly withdrawal, greatly easing the way for Allied invasion forces.

During the war in Southeast Asia, U.S. Air Force fighter pilots and crewmen were repeatedly challenged by enemy MIG's in the skies over North Vietnam. The air battles which ensued were unique in American history because U.S. fighter and strike forces operated under stringent rules of engagement. With periodic exceptions, for example, MIG bases could not be struck. The rules generally forbade bombing or strafing of military and industrial targets in and around the enemy's heartland, encompassing the capital of Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong. These restrictions gave the North Vietnamese...

Airborne Assault on Holland highlights the role of air power as the Allies attempted to penetrate German defenses at the Siegfried Line. The work reflects the circumstances of the time and the desire to find good even in unfortunate circumstances and should be read with this in mind. Allied airborne paratroops and glider-borne units converged on Arnhem. Unfortunately, stiff German resistance forced their eventual withdrawal; Allied tactical air power prevented even heavier friendly losses, but could not turn defeat into victory. This boldly conceived operation involved the Eighth and Ninth...

Air-Ground Teamwork on the Western Front describes close air support and battlefield interdiction in action. A single, month-long campaign-the famous thrust across northern France in August 1944 of Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army and Maj. Gen. 0. P. Weyland's XIX Tactical Air Command-became a model for close cooperation between army and aviation forces in future conflicts. This day-by-day, blow-by-blow account shows how the ground forces raced forward, frequently twenty miles per day, because friendly air power protected their flanks, shielded them from the Luftwaffe, and devastated the...

Throughout the War in Southeast Asia, Communist forces from North Vietnam infiltrated the isolated, neutral state of Laos. Men and supplies crossed the mountain passes and traveled along an intricate web of roads and jungle paths known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the Viet Cong insurgents in South Vietnam. American involvement in Laos began with photo-reconnaissance missions and, as the war in Vietnam intensified, expanded to a series of air-ground operations from bases in Vietnam and Thailand against fixed targets and infiltration routes in southern Laos. U.S. Air Force leaders and aircrews...

The fight for air superiority began the day the Korean War started and only ended with the armistice three years later. Once the shock of the North Koreans' invasion wore off, it did not take long for the United States Air Force, assisted by other United Nations air forces, to destroy the North Korean Air Force. The arrival of the MiG-15 in November 1950, often flown by Soviet pilots, changed things considerably however. For the remainder of the war, bitterly contested air battles were fought almost daily. Yet despite a decided numerical superiority in jet fighters, the Communists were never...

Pacific Counterblow tells the story of the Battle for Guadalcanal (1942), focusing on the operations of the 11th Bombardment Group and the 67th Fighter Squadron. Months after the devastation of Pearl Harbor, U.S. forces had crushed the Japanese fleet at Midway and then moved to seize the initiative. AAF commanders in the Pacific sought to prevent the enemy from severing Australia's supply lines. So the B-17s of the 11th Bomb Group and the P-39s and P-400s of the 67th Fighter Squadron, flying from makeshift bases at Espiritu Santo and Henderson Field, began grueling attacks on Japanese...

This is the second in a series of interim reports published by Headquarters, Army Air Forces. The original manuscript was prepared by Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Eighth Air Force, on the basis of official records and firsthand observation. This text has been abridged and edited in order to provide for combat personnel in all theaters a succinct summary of the planning and execution of the tactical use of heavy bombardment in the invasion of Normandy. The conscientious and able work of staff personnel in the theaters makes possible the publication of this series, the intent of which is...

When the Korean War began in June 1950, the United States Air Force's Air Rescue Service was a fledgling organization possessing a variety of aircraft types, most having seen service during World War II. The concept of using helicopters and amphibious fixed-wing aircraft to rescue airmen downed behind enemy lines or in hostile waters had gained little consideration by the Air Force and was largely unproven. But by the fall of 1950 the 3d Air Rescue Squadron had begun to write a new chapter in the history of air power, and by July 1953, when the armistice was signed in Korea, air rescue had...

In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Korean War, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Historian commissioned the Research Division, Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, to compile this chronology of significant events of USAF military operations in the Korean theater. The chronology points out the relationship of these operations to the land battle, naval operations, and important political and diplomatic events. It also identifies such USAF historical "firsts" as the first all-jet air battle, the introduction of new weapons systems, and the...