8th AAF in the Pacific

[Terminus]

Does anybody know if there were serious plans to transfer the 8th AAF to the Pacific theatre, post-VE Day? I've looked around the web and found a lot of references to 8th AAF units that were rotated back to the States and disbanded while the war was still going on against the Japanese.

[Big B]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Does anybody know if there were serious plans to transfer the 8th AAF to the Pacific theatre, post-VE Day? I've looked around the web and found a lot of references to 8th AAF units that were rotated back to the States and disbanded while the war was still going on against the Japanese.

65 views and no posts.....I gues the answer is "we don't know"...

B

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: Big B

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Does anybody know if there were serious plans to transfer the 8th AAF to the Pacific theatre, post-VE Day? I've looked around the web and found a lot of references to 8th AAF units that were rotated back to the States and disbanded while the war was still going on against the Japanese.

65 views and no posts.....I gues the answer is "we don't know"...
B

1st Army was moving to the Pacific, but I never heard anything to suggest 8th Air Force. Most of the crews would have been well up the ladder towards completing their "tours", and the B-17's wouldn't have had the range to be worth transferring. If I had to guess, transfers to the Pacific would have been by individual and crew rather than unit. There were already several Bomber Forces in the Pacific. They needed crews and aircraft, not more infrastructure. If there was an Air Force in Europe likely to be sent to support the invasion of Japan, try the XIX Tactical. Ground support for the forces once they were ashore might have been something the US Army didn't want to leave in the hands of the US Navy. But that's purely speculation.

[tsimmonds]

Wouldn't 8th Air Force have had to remain in Europe to form a necessary deterrent to our Red allies? What did become of the 8th AF post-VE Day?

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: Big B

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Does anybody know if there were serious plans to transfer the 8th AAF to the Pacific theatre, post-VE Day? I've looked around the web and found a lot of references to 8th AAF units that were rotated back to the States and disbanded while the war was still going on against the Japanese.

65 views and no posts.....I gues the answer is "we don't know"...

B

Very few of the RAF and USAAF flyers of the European campaign made their way East though there were plans to transfer some assets there. There was no need to transfer the command structure since the Twentieth Airforce was already established and bombing the Home Islands.

[Belce]

My Dad was in RAF bomber command and after Germany surrendered he was in the process of being made ready to go to Pacific theatre, had his shots and all done just before Japan surrendered. Instead he went to Berlin and stayed there for a while. One of his stories was about attending a party hosted by the Red Army, it was in a building with a very tall set of steps in the front and at each dozen steps a Russian Guards Army soldier stood and would stop you as you climbed up. He would pour a shot of vodka for you and offer a toast, "Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill!" and then drink his shot, my Dad sipped his the first time and the reply was "What, you no like toast?" The glasses were topped up and the toast repeated until he climbed the stairs.

I think that any campaign on the Japanese home islands would have provided a need and a reason for B-17 bombers and it would be logical to assume that at least some would transfer to there, in addition the Soviets were also intended to be involved in that area as well. Also the 8th AF was not just B-17's but also a large number of B-24's as well. There was another airforce group located in Italy and North Africa that did bombing from that area as well, perhaps they might have been selected to transfer east. Once you get bases in Japan, B-17 bomber range stops being an issue for operations there.

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Does anybody know if there were serious plans to transfer the 8th AAF to the Pacific theatre, post-VE Day?

I have seen references on the web that say that the 8th AF HQ moved to Okinawa in July 1945. For example this site:

www.strategic-air-command.com/Command/Air_Forces/08th_Air_Force.htm

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this information, however.

I also don't know about the movement of air groups from Europe to the Pacific, but in CHS the 8th AF and a bunch of ex-ETO US air groups arrive as reinforcements in mid to late 1945.

Andrew

[afspret]

IIRC the HQ 8th was moved to Okinawa just before war ended. I also remember reading somewhere (Ospreys Mustang Aces of the Pacific I think) some fighter groups already in action with other Pacific commands were earmarked for the 8th, though I don't think they actually made the move before hostilities ended.

[popejoy1]

Hi!

OK, here's the official word from the U.S.A.F (here)

After the war in Europe, the Mighty Eighth moved to Okinawa in July 1945, where the unit started to train new bomber groups for combat against Japan. The Japanese, however, surrendered before the Eighth’s first combat sortie in the Pacific. In June 1946, the headquarters relocated to MacDill Field, Fla., to join the new Strategic Air Command (SAC). That base assignment lasted until November 1950, when SAC transferred the Eighth to Carswell AFB (formerly Fort Worth Army Air Field), Texas.

Information from an unofficial site for the 8th Air Force's 457th Bombardment Group (Heavy) indicates elements of the group volunteered to transition to a "new" 8th Air Force where their B-17 aircraft were to be replaced with B-29s.

Pablo <edited to add new information>