During World War Two and ever since, many stories of the USAAF "Mighty Eighth" Air Force, operating from Britain over Europe, have been made available for public consumption. In comparison, relatively little publicity has been afforded to the "Forgotten Fifteenth" Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO).
The Fifteenth was established as a strategic force on November 1, 1943, from elements of the Twelfth and Ninth Air Forces. At its peak, the Fifteenth was only about half the size of the Eighth Air Force, with 21 bomb groups compared with 41 in the Eighth, and seven fighter groups compared with 15. Consolidated B-24s made up 75 percent of the Fifteenth’s strategic bomber force, with the remainder being Boeing B-17s, while the Eighth’s was nearly 60 percent Boeing B-17s. By 1944, P-51 Mustangs dominated Eighth Fighter Command, and in Fifteenth Fighter Command, four P-51 groups provided long-range escort for the bombers while P-38s flew shorter escorts and increasingly performed dive-bombing and strafing.
In recent years, the story of the famous Tuskegee airmen of the Fifteenth’s 332nd Fighter Group has become well known, but very little of the exploits of the other squadrons and groups of the Fifteenth Air Force is common knowledge. This is a shame because the Fifteenth’s operations against strategic targets in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, southern Germany, Greece, Poland, and Yugoslavia, which were beyond the reach of British-based aircraft, made a significant contribution to winning the war. Most importantly, they massively reduced the Third Reich’s supply of oil and gasoline, with far-reaching strategic effect.
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Esta historia es de la edición November - December 2023 de Flight Journal.
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Scourge of the Allied Fighters
IT HAD TO BE THE MOST HELPLESS FEELING in the world: you're at 25,000 feet over Europe knowing that your primary function is to drop bombs-or flying escort for the bombers while being a slow-moving target for some of the world's finest shooters. However, you have John Browning's marvelous .50 caliber invention to give some degree of protection. Unfortunately, you're absolutely helpless against flak. Piloting and gunnery skills play no role in a game where sheer chance makes life and death decisions. For that reason, the Krupp 88 mm Flak 18/36/37 AA cannon could be considered WW II's ultimate stealth fighter. You never saw it coming.
ZERO MYTH, MYSTERY, AND FACT
A test pilot compares the A6M5 Zero to U.S. fighters
Fw 190 STURMBÖCKE
The Luftwaffe's \"Battering Rams\" against the USAAF heavy bombers
American BEAUTY
\"Forgotten Fifteenth\" top-scoring Mustang ace John J. Voll
BANSHEE WAIL!
Flying Skulls over Burma
KILLER CORSAIR
Albert Wells, Death Rattlers Ace
BACKSTREET BRAWLER
A young man, his Hurricane and the Battle of Britain
Still Flying After All These Years
One of the oldest airworthy J-3 Cubs
NOORDUYN NORSEMAN
Canada's rugged, fabric-covered workhorse
A good landing is one you can walk away from
NO, THIS IS NOT A SCENE FROM A MOVIE where the hero staggers away from a \"good landing\" on Mindoro, Philippine Islands, after being shot down by a Japanese Zero.