USAAF in UK 1942
 

Can anyone tell me what the USAAF were doing in UK before the USA declared war? Also, why would they have been flying Spitfires? 'Action Stations' tells that they were at Atcham but the information it gives is not very clear. Where they at other airfields as well as Atcham at this time?

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

Many volunteers fly everywhere. The same question you can ask for Finland as well you have one US pilot flew there, they call him Black Hawk. Most interesting is his image where he pose with other pilots and wear full US uniform!

Cheers :)

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

Thanks for your reply Srecko. These were not American volunteers in the RAF. This was a regular unit of USAAF. At RAF Atcham I understand it was part of the USAAF 8th Air Force.

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

That would be rather a neat trick, since (so far as I understand it) the Mighty Eighth was a re-designation (in Feb '44) of VIII Bomber Command, which itself wasn't constituted until Jan '42, after the declaration of war in December '41.

I see the thread mentions 1942 - just crossed dates re: declaration of war? (A date which will live in infamy...)

Edit - Good info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Atcham

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

As the US declared war in 1941, whiy should a USAAF unit in the UK in 1942 present any problem?

Certainly there was no USAAF unit in the UK in 1941.

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

My mistake - I got the date of declaration of war by USA wrong. This still leaves the other part of my question - USAAF flying Spitfires - were they just trying out RAF Spitfires or did they have their own squadron(s) of them, in particular at RAF Atcham?

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

Several USAAF units flew Spitfires, speaking from memory the 4th, 31st and 52nd FG. The 4th FG was formed mostly by redesignating as USAAF units three RAF squadrons formed of US volunteers, 71, 121 and 133 Sqn, called "Eagle" squadrons, all of which served before Pearl Harbor. By the way they were transferred from RAF to USAAF only in fall 1942.

The 31st FG was based in England before moving to North Africa in November 1942, the 52nd FG serving in MTO all the war. The USAAF used Spitfires in Italy up to spring 1944.

As for why these two units used Spitfire, I have no definitive answer but I think it was because the aircraft they used before (P-39 and P-40) were deemed not able to deal with German fighters at the time.

Some USAAF recon squadrons also used Spitfire and Mosquito during the war.

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

The first unit to arrive at Atcham was indeed 131 Eagle Squadron, on September 27 1941. They left in January 1942. On June 15th 1942 the airfield was handed over to the US 8th AF, for use by 31st FG. So "American" Spitfires played an important part in the airfield's history.

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

Sorry, I did not see date of your question.

Re: USAAF in UK 1942
 

Here is a link to another way that American pilots wound up flying Spitfires:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Dixon