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Re: 8th Air Force weather
Thank you gents.
Weather is cited in some early USSTAF planning documents but I do not have them at hand.
Anyway...
The Rutgers link is based on the AAF Combat Chronology, and it's possible to compile the number of days the 8th (or any other AF) flew, but some interpretation is required. Both the 8th and 15th flew single- to double-digit sortie days: mostly weather recon or leaflet drops, etc. Should those be counted with 400-1000 bomber days? Idunno.
Certainly a BIG reason for standing up the 15th was its accessibility to Romania. The Ploesti complex produced 1/3 of Germany's oil, which was unreachable from the UK.
Berlin was 900 miles from Foggia--nearly 2X the distance from East Anglia bases. By spring '45 it was pretty much a bounce-the-rubble evolution.
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