IX Fighter Command


The IX Fighter Command was a United States Army Air Forces formation. Its last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force, based at Erlangen, Germany, where it was inactivated on 16 November 1945.
IX Fighter Command was the primary tactical fighter air arm of Ninth Air Force in the Western Desert Campaign in North Africa during 1942–1943. Transferred to England, it became the dominant tactical air force over the skies of Western Europe during the 1944 Battle of Normandy and the Western Allied invasion of Germany in 1945.
After its inactivation, the majority of its units were incorporated into the postwar United States Air Force Tactical Air Command.

History

North Africa

In Egypt during January 1943, IX Fighter Command became the control organization for Ninth Air Force fighter units assigned to the Western Desert Campaign.
Although wings were officially subordinate to the command, combat groups were attached to the Desert Air Force, which included squadrons of the Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and South African Air Force.
IX Fighter Command moved to England in November 1943 as part of Normandy invasion planning. Its subordinate units were reassigned to the Twelfth Air Force.

Western Europe

During the winter of 1943/44 IX Fighter Command expanded at an extraordinary rate so that by the end of May 1944, its complement ran to 45 flying groups operating some 5,000 aircraft. Initial missions from England consisted of fighter sweeps over troop concentrations and attacks on enemy positions and airfields, primarily on German 15th Army units in the Pas-de-Calais region of France as well as around Normandy and Cotentin Peninsula. On D-Day IX Fighter Command units carried out massive air attacks on German forces in Normandy area with North American P-51 Mustang and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers. Air cover during the morning amphibious assault by Allied forces on the beaches of France was flown by Lockheed P-38 Lightnings.
With the beaches secure, groups began deploying to France on 16 June 1944, ten days after the Normandy invasion by moving P-47 Thunderbolts to a beach-head landing strip. During the Battle of Normandy, its tactical air units then provided the air power for the Allied break-out from the Normandy beachhead in the summer of 1944 during the Battle of Cherbourg, Battle for Caen, and the ultimate breakout from the beachhead, Operation Cobra.
By early August most IX Fighter Command groups moved to bases in France and were assigned to missions supporting the Twelfth United States Army Group. The command then reorganized, with units transferred to three tactical air commands and which directly supported United States Army ground units, along with an air defense command to defend Allied-controlled areas.
After its units were reassigned, it remained active until after VE-Day when performed occupation duty in Germany. It was inactivated in November 1945.
In 1947, when the United States Air Force became independent, the Army transferred all Army Air Forces, Air Service and Air Corps units to the USAF. A year later, the newly forming USAF permanently disbanded the command.

Lineage

  • Constituted as the 9th Interceptor Command on 19 January 1942

Assignments

Components

North Africa

; Wings
; Groups

Western Europe

; Wings
; Groups
; Squadrons

Stations