VIII Fighter Command Book Search

[Larry deZeng]

I'm looking for a book that summarized all of the VIII Fighter Command missions for each day it operated and includes details covering strafing attacks on Luftwaffe-occupied airfields. At a minimum, the details must give the date, name of the airfield, the number and type of German aircraft shot up and destroyed or damaged on the ground.

Believe it or not, after a half-day of searching on the net I cannot come up with a book that gives this information. There IS one for the tactical air forces ( American Fighter-Bombers in World War II, Schiffer, 2003), but not for the VIII Fighter Command that sent its P-47 and P-51 escorts down to the deck to beat up the German airfields during the great day missions over the Reich.

Can anyone help?

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Larry,

I remember to have seen many years ago such details you name and I have a vague recollection that it was part of Roger Freemans Might Eighth War Diary but you certainly will have thought about this.

Now that I have contact with you: have you any idea where I could find files of the 54th Air Disarmament Squadron > would love to know if these do describe identities of He219's found on Luftwaffe fields in southern Germany.

All the best, Marcel Hogenhuis / Venlo

[drgondog]

Kent Miller's Fighter Units and Pilots of the 8th AF - Vol I and II is pretty close. The credits are extracted from encounter reports and 8th VCB for ground scores.. errors but basically an excellent reference..

Regards,

Bill

[Larry]

Diary of an Air War - Allied Flights over Fortress Europe in WWII by Gerrit Zijlstra is a cheap alternative

Published in the USA by Eakin Press 1994

ISBN 0-89015-934-3

[Larry deZeng]

Many thanks for the response!

@Marcel: (1) I have Freeman's The Mighty Eighth War Diary and it only occasionally will mention escorts strafing airfields but never with the resulting claims; (2) those would the coveted "A" and "B" Reports, I think, where the Allied team arrived on an airfield a day or a couple of days after the ground troops captured it to investigate the wrecks the Luftwaffe had left behind. Very comprehensive reports, in many cases. PRO/TNA Kew and AFHRA Maxwell both have copies. Marcel van H. already has a bunch of these, IIRC. Does this sound like the reports you are after?

@Bill: I read reviews of the Miller volumes this morning and they sounded like statistical summaries of the daily missions without details on the ground targets strafed and the claimed results. It sounded more like this: "5 Apr 44 - 4th Fighter Gp. - in the air 5/1/6, on the ground 3/-/2." Hopefully, someone who has these books can shed some more light on what a typical entry includes.

@Larry: I ran into this one today but without a review or content description. I'll take another look.

I'm hoping to find this detail in a published book because AFHRA Maxwell has only a spotty holding of VIII Fighter Command Intel/Ops Sums for 1944 (7 out of 12 monthly's, IIRC) and only for 1 month of 1945.

Thanks again.

Larry

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by Larry deZeng

Many thanks for the response!

@Marcel: (1) I have Freeman's The Mighty Eighth War Diary and it only occasionally will mention escorts strafing airfields but never with the resulting claims; (2) those would the coveted "A" and "B" Reports, I think, where the Allied team arrived on an airfield a day or a couple of days after the ground troops captured it to investigate the wrecks the Luftwaffe had left behind. Very comprehensive reports, in many cases. PRO/TNA Kew and AFHRA Maxwell both have copies. Marcel van H. already has a bunch of these, IIRC. Does this sound like the reports you are after?

@Bill: I read reviews of the Miller volumes this morning and they sounded like statistical summaries of the daily missions without details on the ground targets strafed and the claimed results. It sounded more like this: "5 Apr 44 - 4th Fighter Gp. - in the air 5/1/6, on the ground 3/-/2." Hopefully, someone who has these books can shed some more light on what a typical entry includes.

@Larry: I ran into this one today but without a review or content description. I'll take another look.

I'm hoping to find this detail in a published book because AFHRA Maxwell has only a spotty holding of VIII Fighter Command Intel/Ops Sums for 1944 (7 out of 12 monthly's, IIRC) and only for 1 month of 1945.

Thanks again.

Larry

Larry - not so.. Kent's details include the specific locations and type of aircraft cedited to specific pilots and squadrons. Air and Ground.

It will Read "Capt Bert W Marshall Me 109 dest (air) Mulhausen" or "Major William Hovde - 4 Fw 190s dest (air), .5 Fw 190 Destroyed (air), 1 Me 109 dest (air) Berlin/Eberswalde"... etc

[Larry deZeng]

Drgondog wrote:

Larry - not so.. Kent's details include the specific locations and type of aircraft cedited to specific pilots and squadrons. Air and Ground.

It will Read "Capt Bert W Marshall Me 109 dest (air) Mulhausen" or "Major William Hovde - 4 Fw 190s dest (air), .5 Fw 190 Destroyed (air), 1 Me 109 dest (air) Berlin/Eberswalde"... etc

Many thanks! That changes the equation and I'll add his two volumes to my outgoing order to Amazon.

Best,

Larry