This site is dedicated to all those who flew and served in the US 8th Army Air Force Fighter Command during World War 2. It is a consolidation of details gathered over many years including the various reference works published on the subject and is presented as a research tool to 8th Air Force historians. There are still many blanks to be filled in as well as errors in the listings. If you can add to the information contained here, please E-mail me the details, preferably quoting reference source, to be included in future updates of the site.

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NEW

For all the IL-2 players, I am pleased to be able to present an animated clip by Henry Yip that was shown at the 355th FG reunion in Philadelphia. Pilot of OS-S Bob Garlich is quoted as saying that he wished he could fly as good as that when he was in the real thing! Click HERE for the download. (38,550KB so please be patient!)

SPECIAL!

For the rare opportunity of listening to the pilot describe the action captured in Ronnie Olsthoorn's latest rendering, go to the News Page and click on the photo.

Best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution.

All of the photos on this site are freely sent in by donors for the enjoyment of the world in general. I have no objection at all if people want to download these images for their own enjoyment, reference or research. I do however object strongly to their use as mere commercial items for earning money by people who have no right to their use. Many of these images were donated by the veterans themselves or their immediate families and it grieves to me to think that the memory of the men depicted and commemorated here is being tarnished by personal greed.

Last Updated 24 March 2008. Additional seven illustrations added to the 5th ERS gallery. Currently working on complete revision of 56th FG gallery.

Updated 23 December 2007 - 5 January 2008.Thanks to the long Christmas and New Year break, I have been able to add another 60 photos to the galleries. These are: 4th FG - 6, 20th FG - 8, 55th FG - 3, 56th FG - 1, 78th FG - 1, 339th FG - 4, 352nd FG - 6, 353rd FG - 8, 355th FG - 11, 356th FG - 3, 359th FG - 3, 361st FG - 1 and 364th FG - 5. More to follow soon.

Updated 19 July 2007. 1 new photo to 20th gallery, and a long overdue update of 29 photos to the 353rd gallery, with a resizing of the majority of the originals to fit the esablished site format of 800 pixels for landscape. Will try and improve the few remaining poor quality undersized shots as soon as possible.

Updated 15 April 2007. Due to Router problems I have been unable to carry out regular updates since early March. The problem has now been resolved and you will find the following additions: 1 new photo each to 56th, 355th and 479th galleries, 1 new profile in the 339th and 20 new photos plus one profile to the 352nd gallery. More for the 353rd coming soon.

Updated 03 February 2007. Three new photos added to the 339th FG gallery

Updated 14 January 2007 (pm). The following additions have been made: 1 photo to 7th PRG; 6 to 20th FG; 4 to 55th FG; 12 to 56th FG; 6 to 78th FG and 1 each to 353rd, 357th and 364th FGs. Making a total of 156 new illustrations added in 7days!

Updated 14 January 2007 (am). Thirty-five illustrations of 3rd Scouting Force added to SF gallery to bring that up to date for the time being.

Updated 12 January 2007. Thanks mainly to the generosity of "Aces & Wingmen" author, Danny Morris, 57 illustrations added to the 4th FG gallery.

Updated 07 January 2007. Having been without Internet connection for the last four weeks, the time has been used to prepare updates for the site. Here is the first of them - 32 illustrations of 2nd Scouting Force in the SF gallery. More to follow!

Updated 19 November 2006. Major update of 479th FG gallery. 58 additional illustrations added.

Updated 29 October 2006. Work continued on Scouting Force. 36 illustrations of 1SF added to gallery. 2SF due soon!

Updated 22 October 2006. Scouting Force gallery revised to incorporate history details on page. Work still in progress.

Updated 19 October 2006. Image No 8 on Help Needed page now identified and moved to 4th FG gallery. Thanks to retired RAF Squ. Ldr. Paul E Miller, son of Capt. Ervin L ""Dusty" Miller.

Updated 18 October 2006. News page updated with photos from 355th FG reunion in Philadelphia.

Updated 23 September 2006. Scouting Force Database page now online and gallery started with SFX.

Updated 23 September 2006. Scouting Force Database page now online and gallery started with SFX.

Updated 21 September Two new photos to the 339th gallery, one profile and nineteen photos to the 355th gallery.

Updated 10 September Additional illustrations added - 4th FG two and one profile; 20th FG four; 78th FG two; 339th FG one; 352nd one and just for a change, a profile of a Me262 on the 353rd FG gallery.

Updated 09 September Some long overdue items and photos added to the News page.

Updated 16 July 2006 Two additions to 55th gallery, one to 364th and two to 479th.

Updated 10 July 2006 Two additional photos to the 56th gallery and four in the 357th with spaces left for two addidions.

Updated 2 July 2006 Details of nose markings added to 56th FG gallery and an additional eight photos to the 364th FG gallery

Updated 28 May 2006 Latest 12 additions - 20th FG 1 photo; 55th FG 2 photos and a profile; 78th FG 4 photos; 355th FG 3 photos and 1 photo in the 364th FG

Updated 14 May 2006 Thanks to author Garry Fry, six photos added to the 78th FG gallery and a photo of Gen. Woodbury's bubble-top P-47D added to the 479th FTG gallery.

Updated 10 May 2006 Twelve new photos added: 78th FG 5 plus 1 profile; 352nd FG 1; 353rd FG 1, 355th FG 1; 359th FG 2 and 479th FG 2.

Updated 24 April 2006 Nine new photos added: 4th FG 1; 55th FG 3; 353rd FG 1 and 364th FG 4.

Updated 22 April 2006. Addition to News Page with photos of presentation to veteran Capt. Bill Staggs of 55th FG.

Updated 19 March 2006 Unidentified P-38J added to 20th FG gallery thanks to Michael Bates.

Updated 18 March 2006 New P-51 added to 20th gallery and two new shots of Glenn Duncan's Dove of Peace VIII to the 353rd gallery.

Updated 1 March 2006 Thanks to photos from Sam Sox and profiles from Nick King, all of George Preddy's a/c are now displayed in the 352nd gallery including his 49th FG P-40 and the last "Cripes" as it looked on the day it was lost.

Updated 12 February 2006 Profile of "Wild Honey" added to 55th FG gallery.

Updated 4 February 2006 Seven more photos added to the 55th FG gallery thanks to Lt. Quinn's nephew Dave Erne.

Updated 29 January 2006 Thanks to the generosity of Capt. William Staggs and Judge Curtis Smith, twenty-five new photos have been added to the 55th FG gallery.

Updated 14 January 2006 Now that the new search facility is on line, The database has been updated with about 50 alterations, mostly dealing with typos - please keep telling me when you find them! In future, I will try and detail database alterations on the "News" page and keep them there for about six months. The galleries have also had a major update today with 53 additions as follows: 4th FG 1; 20th FG 4; 339th FG 3; 352nd FG 7; 353rd FG 4; 355th FG 23; 356th FG 3; 357th FG 4; 359th FG 1 and 364th FG 1. More to come!

Updated 13 January 2006. The search facility available from the navigation bar will now display thumbnails associated with the search string. When using the search facility, please note that only one field should be entered. For example, if searching for a pilot, only enter the surname as the Rank/Christian names are stored in separate fields. I would appreciate feedback from users on the usefulness of this feature as well as notifications of any serious problems encountered.

Updated 1 November 2005. Search facility has now been added for searching individual unit tables within their own pages.

Updated 31 October 2005. New news item for 22 October 2005 added to the news page. Of interest to all 8th Air Force enthusiasts and particularly so to fans of the 56th FG. Apologies to site visitors at the moment - since the restructured site has gone live, we have been bombarded with search engine crawlers that are taking up so much bandwidth that the site is running very slow and erratically. Hopefully things will settle down in the next week or so!

Updated 23 October 2005 New format of this site put on-line and old style removed.

Updated 16 October 2005 Seven new photos on the 355th FG page. The first installment of Bill Marshall's photo collection which should outdo the 4th and 56th FGs by a large margin!

Updated 15 October 2005 Three new photos on the 55th FG gallery

Last updated 4 October 2005 Profile and additional photo of "Kentucky Pud" added to 56th gallery.

Updated 3 October 2005 Three additional photos to 356th FG gallery.