Fortresses of the Big Triangle First; A History of the Aircraft Assigned to the First Bombardment Wing and First Bombardment Division of the Eighth Air Force from August 1942 to 31st March 1944

The format is approximately 8.5 inches by 12 inches. 320 pages. Explanation of Terminology. Illustrations. Map. Tables/Tabular Data. Technical Data. Selected Bibliography. Research Sources. Index. Illustrated dust jacket. The dust jacket has minor wear and soiling. Slight corner bumps. Cliff Bishop is a Structures Design Engineer and the proprietor of East Anglia Books, which specialized in U.S.A.F. and World War Two history. He served in the Royal Air Force in the 1950's. He had been personally involved in the dismantling and rebuilding of B-17 aircraft, one for the Imperial War Museum. He researched the information for this work over a ten year period. His brother, Stanley, specialized in air crash investigating and research on missing aircrews. VIII Bomber Command of the United States Army Air Forces was established early in 1942. The first combat operations began in July with first heavy bomber operations in August. Its bomber units were deployed in the UK, chiefly around East Anglia. From June 1943 it was the daylight bombing part of the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany. It was redesignated as Eighth Air Force on 22 February 1944. The Eighth Army Air Force (8 AAF) was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force in the European theater of World War II (1939/41–1945), engaging in operations primarily in the Northern Europe area of responsibility; carrying out strategic bombing of enemy targets in France, the Low Countries, and Germany; and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft until the German capitulation in May 1945. The 1st Bombardment Wing was initially formed in France in 1918 during World War I as a command and control organization for the Pursuit Groups of the First Army Air Service. It was re-established in the United States as the first wing formed in the reorganized United States Army Air Service, created in August 1919 to control three groups patrolling the border with Mexico after revolution broke out there. As the 1st Wing, the unit was one of the original wings of the GHQ Air Force on 1 March 1935. During World War II, it was one of the primary B-17 Flying Fortress heavy strategic bombardment wings of VIII Bomber Command and later, Eighth Air Force. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945. After the Pearl Harbor Attack, initially supervised Heavy Bomber Operational Training at Tucson AAF. Re-designated as 1st Bombardment Wing and reassigned to VIII Bomber Command and deployed to England July–August 1942. In England, mission was command and control of B-17 Flying Fortress bombardment groups stationed in East Anglia, receiving operational orders from VIII BC headquarters and mobilizing subordinate groups for strategic bombardment attacks on enemy targets in Occupied Europe. Operated primarily from RAF Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire. Served in combat in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) from August 1942 until 25 April 1945, receiving a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for an attack on aircraft factories in Germany on 11 January 1944. Returned to the United States in August 1945. Almost all the bomber and fighter groups and squadrons in Cambridgeshire were commanded by the First Bomber Wing in Brampton, renamed the First Bomber Division, and finally renamed in 1944 the First Air Division. By the war’s end, the 8th Air Force was spread over 112 airfields across East Anglia, flying B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, B-26 Marauder medium bombers, P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang fighters, as well as Spitfires and Mosquito bombers provided by the RAF. Throughout the war, the 8th Air Force dropped 700,000 tons of bombs on Germany and occupied Europe, flew 600,000 bomber and fighter sorties, and destroyed over 15,000 enemy aircraft by air-to-air engagements, ground strafing, or by bomber crew engagement. 35,000 men and women would serve with the 8th Air Force during the war, with many thousands never returning home. Much of that enormous effort was planned and execute.