US STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEYS
EUROPA AND PACIFIC THEATER
WORLD WAR TWO
The new relation of air power to strategy presents one of the distinguishing contrasts between this war and the last. Air power in the last war was in its infancy. The new role of three-dimensional warfare was even then foreseen by a few farsighted men, but planes were insufficient in quality and quantity to permit much more than occasional brilliant assistance to the ground forces. Air power in the European phase of this war reached a :
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442nd Bombardment Squadron December 1944. (SECRET)
Willis S. Cole, Jr., known to most as “Sam,” has a life-long interest in military history. For more than sixteen years Sam has been intensely researching the crashes of two American World War Two bombers in France.
The Memphis Belle, a B-17F Flying Fortress, is one of the most famous aircraft in history. In May 1943 it became the first US Army Air Forces heavy bomber to complete 25 missions over Europe and return to the United States. The pilot, then Lt Robert Morgan, named the aircraft after his wartime girlfriend, Margaret Polk, of Memphis, Tenn. Lt Morgan chose the artwork from a 1941 George Petty illustration in Esquire magazine. Flying in the 324th Bomb Squadron of the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy), the Memphis Belle and its crew of 10 flew their first combat mission on Nov 7 1942. Until the arrival of long-range fighters later in the war, AAF heavy bombers often flew without escort for part of their missions. Faced with hordes of enemy aircraft, deadly antiaircraft fire and the lack of friendly fighters in the target area, it was highly unlikely that a bomber crew would finish their required 25 missions.
