United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa


The United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa is a United States Air Force major command and a component command of both United States European Command and United States Africa Command. As part of its mission, USAFE-AFAFRICA commands U.S. Air Force units pledged to NATO, maintaining combat-ready wings based from the United Kingdom to Turkey. USAFE-AFAFRICA plans, conducts, controls, coordinates and supports air and space operations in Europe, parts of Asia and all of Africa with the exception of Egypt to achieve U.S. national and NATO objectives based on taskings by the two combatant commanders.
USAFE-AFAFRICA is headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is the oldest continuously active USAF major command, originally activated on 1 February 1942 at Langley Field, Virginia, as the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces. Two years later, it was designated as United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe and on 7 August 1945 it was designated as United States Air Forces in Europe. On 20 April 2012 it formally assumed its current designation when the Seventeenth Air Force inactivated.
The command has more than 35,000 active duty personnel, Air Reserve Component personnel, and civilian employees assigned.

Origins

The origins of USAFE can be traced to 19 January 1942, with the establishment of Eighth Air Force. Eighth Air Force was activated on 28 January at Savannah Army Air Base, Georgia. On 5 May, Major General Carl Spaatz assumed command of HQ Eighth Air Force. On 8 January, the order activating the "U.S. Air Forces in the British Isles" was announced. On 12 May, the first contingent of USAAF personnel arrived in England to join the Eighth Air Force. On 15 June, Spaatz arrived in England to establish Headquarters, Eighth Air Force at Bushy Park, west-south-west of London.
Eighth Air Force controlled:
On 22 February 1944, the Army Air Forces reorganized its commands in Europe. Eighth Air Force was redesignated as United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe and VIII Bomber Command was redesignated as Eighth Air Force.
On 7 August 1945, USSTAF was redesignated as United States Air Forces in Europe. Its headquarters was relocated from Saint Germain-en-Laye, France, to Lindsey Air Station, Wiesbaden, Germany, on 28 September 1945. Within 18 months of VE-Day, virtually all U.S. armed forces personnel had left Europe except for the Occupation Forces in Germany, Austria, and a small number of U.S. Army troops in Trieste. USAFE had been reduced from a force of 17,000 aircraft and about 500,000 personnel to about 2,000 aircraft and 75,000 personnel. USAFE's four wartime Air Forces were demobilized or reassigned between August and December 1945. In March 1946 USAFE was given the status of a Major Command.
A major postwar mission for USAFE was Operation Lusty, in which former Luftwaffe jet aircraft, such as the Messerschmitt Me 262A and Heinkel He 162A were located on various airfields around Munich and shipped to the United States for inspection and evaluation. At Lechfeld Air Base near Augsburg, large numbers of Me 262s were discovered, and valuable German air-to-air rockets. At the Oberpfaffenhofen air base near Munich – the former Dornier factory airfield, and today the home of Germany's DLR aerospace research facility – USAFE found a high-speed Dornier Do 335. This propeller-driven aircraft could reach a speed of 760 km/h, about 100 km slower than the Me 262 jet fighter. Other former Luftwaffe aircraft were collected and simply sent to blast furnaces for metal recycling.
In March 1947, General Joseph T. McNarney, Commanding General, U.S. Forces, European Theatre, told the War Department all he needed was "an Air Force of about 7,500 to provide air transport and communications." He had no need for combat units, which he described as an "administrative burden," and he wanted them withdrawn. Nobody in Washington objected. Thus, the XII Tactical Air Command, the now USAFE combat organization after the inactivation of the four Air Forces, was inactivated on 10 May 1947. By this time, USAFE's fighting force appears to have dropped to a single unit, the 86th Fighter Group, which was shuffled around three separate stations in Germany in 1946–47 as it absorbed the inactivating personnel and equipment of first the 406th Fighter Group and then the 33rd Fighter Group.
In 1945, IX Air Force Service Command was reassigned from Ninth Air Force to USSTAF. On 7 October 1946, IX ASC was redesignated European Air Materiel Command. This command administered USAFE's supply and maintenance depots. EAMC was headquartered at Erlangen Air Depot. At Erding Air Depot, it had Detachment B, 4th Air Vehicle Repair Squadron, and the 43d Air Depot. The 10th Air Depot was located at Oberpfaffenhofen Air Depot. The 862d Engineer Aviation Battalion and 837th Engineer Aviation Battalion were located at Landsberg. At Industriehafen Air Depot was Detachment A, 42d Air Repair Squadron. Minor EAMC facilities were located at Bad Wiesse, Wolfgang, Munich, Bruck, Oberwiesenfeld and Bremerhaven. EAMC also controlled ammunition depots at Landesberg, Roth and Zepplenheim. EAMC remained assigned to USAFE until it was inactivated on 15 September 1947.
File:P-51ds-duxford-1945-2.jpg|thumb|P-51D Mustangs, mostly from the 78th Fighter Group, in storage at RAF Duxford, England, Summer 1945. Most of these aircraft were returned to the United States or used by USAFE units in Germany.

European Air Transport Service

The European Air Transport Service, built around the 51st Troop Carrier Wing, controlled C-46, Douglas C-47 Skytrain and C-54 transport aircraft and provided passenger and cargo transport within Western Europe. Its headquarters was at Wiesbaden. It initially controlled the former IX Troop Carrier Command squadrons which remained after the war. EATS operated both cargo and personnel transport routes in non-Communist controlled areas to support the American, British and French occupation forces, along with units in Greece and Italy.
Known EATS facilities were:
There were also EATS terminals and detachments at Tempelhof Airport, West Berlin, RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, UK, and Paris-Orly Airfield, France.

Beginning of the Cold War

Uneasy peace

Concerned about the massive drawdown of USAFE and the United States Army Europe, the U.S. member of the Allied High Commission for Germany, John J. McCloy, had grave concerns that the troops available would be insufficient to ensure a peaceful transition in the American Zone. The United States' European wartime allies, Britain and France, had also rapidly demobilized.
In preparation for the future, the British Royal Air Force and USAFE began a series of mapping flights over Soviet-controlled territory in Germany that led to numerous skirmishes and high tensions. Between the autumn of 1945 and 1947, mapped areas in west and central Europe, North Africa and the Atlantic Islands on a large scale in Operation Casey Jones. Casey Jones flights were made by reconnaissance variant RB-24 Liberators and RB-17 Flying Fortresses. These flights were only supposed to be flown over the Western Allies occupation zones, but there is a strong suspicion that these aircraft also operated over the Soviet zone. Soviet fighters regularly opened fire on U.S. aircraft operating over their occupation zone. On 22 April 1946, a Douglas C-47 near the Tulln Air Base near Vienna over the Soviet zone of Austria was attacked by Soviet Bell P-39 Airacobra fighters. On 9 August, Yugoslavian fighters opened fire on another USAAF C-47 and forced it to land.

Rotation of strategic bombers through Europe

Soviet activity in Eastern Europe unsettled the western allies. President Harry S. Truman decided to take a hard line with Russia, lest the situation evolve into a new war. In Germany, Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base near Munich, Giebelstadt near Würzburg, and Rhein-Main near Frankfurt were rebuilt to accommodate Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers. Strategic Air Command wanted its B-29 fleet as close to the Soviet Union as possible because of their limited range and it was decided to rotate a portion of SAC's B-29 fleet through Europe. In November 1946, six B-29 bombers from SAC's 43d Bombardment Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona were deployed to RAF Burtonwood, and from there to various bases in Germany as a "training deployment." The B-29s were flown to bases in France, Turkey, Greece and were flown along the borders of Bulgaria and Russia over the Black Sea as part of "show the flag" operations. In May 1947, SAC began additional "training deployments" that stationed a number of B-29s in Germany at Giebelstadt and Fürstenfeldbruck. These B-29 squadrons were constantly rotated back to the United States. being replaced with new squadrons in rotation. SAC also deployed B-29s to the United Kingdom where they were rotated through RAF Marham, RAF Waddington, RAF Scampton and RAF Lakenheath.
The United States also provided military aid to the Greek Air Force to help the postwar Greek government during the Greek Civil War. AT-6 Texan trainers and C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft, along with armored vehicles, small arms weapons, munitions and radar were provided. In Turkey, various intelligence gathering aircraft were deployed along the northern Black Sea coast, providing the United States intelligence about the Soviet Republics of Armenia and Georgia. Overflights of the Soviet Union were also performed.

Berlin Airlift

The Berlin Airlift was one of the defining events of and marked the beginning of the Cold War. The 464-day effort to supply a city's needs solely through the air demonstrated the resolve of Western nations to maintain influence in Berlin. The massive humanitarian effort was an early triumph for allied air forces, and symbolized Western commitment to anti-Communist efforts in Europe after World War II.
In 1945 the Soviets, Americans, British and French divided Germany into occupation zones. Berlin, although in the Soviet zone, also was divided among the four powers. On 18 June 1948, the three Western sectors agreed on a new common German currency, coming into force on 20 June, that ended the use of occupation currency and introduced the Deutsche Mark. The Soviets considered this move a breach of agreements reached at the 1945 Potsdam Conference, which stated that Germany would be treated as one economic unit. In response to the currency reform action by the West, on 23 June the Soviets cut off electrical power to a large part of the western sectors of Berlin. The next day, 24 June the Soviet Union blocked western all road, rail and barge access through the Soviet occupation zone of Germany to the three Western-held sectors of Berlin, beginning the Berlin Blockade. The Soviets also now rejected western arguments of their occupation rights in Berlin, and legal claims to unimpeded use of the highways and railroads to the city.