Fifteenth Air Force

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Fifteenth Air Force

15th Air Force.png

15th Air Force symbol (post-war)
active October 1943 to March 2002 (incorporated into the 15th EMTF )
Country United StatesUnited States United States
Armed forces United States Armed Forces
Armed forces United States Air Force
Type Numbered Air Force
commander
Important
commanders

James Harold Doolittle
Nathan F. Twining

insignia
Fifteenth Air Force shoulder badge in World War II Fifteenth Air Force - Emblem (World War II) .svg

The Fifteenth Air Force (also 15th Air Force ; German  15th US Air Force ) was a strategic air fleet ( Numbered Air Force ) of the United States Army Air Forces and the United States Air Force , which existed from 1943 to 2002 and then in the 15th Expeditionary Mobility Task Force , which existed until 2012. In World War II erected, she served in the European theater of war, and was in Italy stationed. During the Cold War , it was one of three Numbered Air Forces under the Strategic Air Command . Parts of the 15th Air Force took part in the Korean and Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War.

history

Second World War

The establishment of the 15th Air Force was proposed on October 9, 1943 by General Henry H. Arnold , then Commanding General of USAAF, and the proposed directive on October 16 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to General Dwight D. Eisenhower , the Commander in Chief of the SHAEF , forwarded. The new air fleet was from Italy joint Bomber Offensive ( Combined Bomber Offensive support, CBO) against the German Reich. The directive was confirmed on October 22nd by the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the air fleet was set up in Tunis on October 30th and activated on November 1st with James Harold Doolittle as the first commanding general.

The following units were transferred to the 15th Air Force by the 12th Air Force :

  • 5th Bombardment Wing with B-17 in Depienne, Tunisia
    • 2nd Bombardment Group (Heavy) in Massicault , Tunisia
    • 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in Depienne , Tunisia
    • 99th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in Oudna , Tunisia
    • 301st Bombardment Group (Heavy) in Oudna, Tunisia
  • 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) with B-24 in Hergla and Enfidaville , Tunisia
  • 47th Bombardment Wing (Medium) with B-25 in Hammamet , Tunisia
  • 42nd Bombardment Wing (Medium) with B-26 in Ariana , Tunisia
    • 17th Bombardment Group (Medium) in Djedeida , Tunisia
    • 319th Bombardment Group (Medium) in Sardinia
    • 320th Bombardment Group (Medium) in Sardinia
  • 1st Fighter Group, 14th and 82d Fighter Group with P-38 in Sardinia, Ste-Marie-du-Zit, Tunisia and Lecce , Italy
  • 325th Fighter Group with P-47 in Mateur , Tunisia
  • 68th Reconnaissance Group with B-17, A-36 and P-51 in Massicault, Tunisia
  1. ^ All groups transferred back to the 12th Air Force on November 3rd.
  2. ↑ All groups transferred back to the 12th Air Force by the end of the year.

The 15th Air Force began operations on November 2nd. The first attacks were directed primarily against targets in northern Italy (including Turin ), but also in France, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Austria. On December 1, the headquarters was relocated to Bari on the Italian Adriatic coast and on December 3, the XV Air Force Service Command was formed. The units gradually moved all to Italy.

B-17 via Monte Cassino

On January 1, 1944, the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSAFE, later USSTAF) headquarters was formed under Carl A. Spaatz , which took over operational control of the 8th and 15th Air Force. On January 3, Nathan F. Twining took command of the 15th Air Force after Doolittle had been appointed as the new Commander in Chief of the 8th Air Force in Great Britain. On February 15, around 140 B-17s together with medium bombers of the 12th Air Force bombed the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino , which was almost completely destroyed. In addition, several missions took place to support the ground troops in the battles of Anzio and Monte Cassino . On February 22nd, locations in Germany (“Altreich”) were attacked for the first time as part of the “ Big Week ” with Regensburg and Petershausen .

15th Air Force bases in Italy

In the spring of 1944, attacks on targets in the Balkans (Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and later Czechoslovakia and Poland) followed, and daily operations with 500 bombers and more were now regularly flown. At the beginning of May, 21 heavy bomber groups and six fighter groups were in action. On June 2, the first operation took place as part of Operation Frantic , during which Debrecen was bombed before the bombers landed in Poltava and Mirgorod , Ukraine. On June 9, around 500 heavy bombers bombed Munich . Starting in July 1944, attacks on oil targets such as refineries , hydrogenation plants and depots as well as on targets in southern France in preparation for Operation Dragoon followed . Scout units were also used for the first time . One of the most bombed targets were the oil plants in the Ploieşti area (see air raids on Ploieşti ). From late summer onwards, missions to evacuate crews shot down in the Balkans and supply missions for the ground troops in southern France were flown, as well as leaflet missions and replenishment missions for partisans (see also Operation Carpetbagger ).

In the spring of 1945, large missions with sometimes more than 800 bombers were flown in support of the Allied spring offensive in northern Italy. The 15th Air Force bombers flew the last mission of the war on May 1st. On September 15, the air fleet in Italy was deactivated.

post war period

The 15th Air Force was reactivated on March 31, 1946 at Colorado Springs Army Air Base under the command of Strategic Air Command . The units and personnel of the Second Air Force were taken over. During this time, it was converted to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress . During the Berlin blockade in 1948, some units were put on alert. In November 1949, the air fleet was transferred to March Air Force Base in California and the area of ​​responsibility was set to the states west of the Mississippi River . Several 15th Air Force groups participated in the Korean War as part of the Far East Air Forces . After the end of the war, it was converted to the jet-powered Boeing B-47 Stratojet and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress .

Parts of the 15th Air Force were deployed to airfields in Guam , Okinawa and Thailand as part of nuclear deterrence during the Vietnam War . Among other things, they took part in Operation Arc Light .

In 1991 the 15th Air Force was converted into a tanker fleet. Were used u. a. Boeing KC-135 and McDonnell Douglas KC-10 tank aircraft. As part of the dissolution of the Strategic Air Command, the 15th Air Force came to the Air Mobility Command in 1992 . In 1993 the air fleet moved to Travis Air Force Base , California, and also took over the tanker capacities of the Twenty-Second Air Force .

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks , the 15th Air Force was renamed the 15th Expeditionary Mobility Task Force , which participated in the War on Terror . The deactivation took place on March 30, 2012.

See also

literature

  • Brian Hutchins: General Nathan Twining and the Fifteenth Air Force in World War II. University of North Texas, 2008.
  • Kevin A. Mahoney: Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis: Combat Missions over Europe during World War II. Scarecrow Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8494-6 .
  • Maurer Maurer: Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Office of Air Force History, Washington DC 1983.

Web links