Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
Early in 1942, Japanese forces cut the Burma Road. For the next three years, the only means of getting supplies from India to U.S. and Allied forces in China was by air over the rugged Himalayan Mountains. Known as the “Hump”, this air route crossed some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain. Treacherous weather, freak winds and violent turbulence over mountain ranges as high as......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
The aircraft considered by many to be the best fighter during World War II was the P-51 Mustang. With its long range and high altitude capabilities, the P-51 was capable of accompanying bombers all the way to Berlin and back. This aircraft would eventually become the plane of choice for the Tuskegee Airmen. Just behind the B-24 you will find an exhibit dedicated to these courageous black......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
D-Day: June 6, 1944. It could have been a field day for a strong Luftwaffe. Thousands of ships, boats and landing craft crowded the English Channel. A dominant German air fleet could have created much havoc. However, American air power had destroyed the Luftwaffe on the air and on the ground. Before the first troops stormed the beaches, more than 1,000 B-17s and B-24s plastered German defenses......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
In late 1941, Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met in Washington. For several weeks, they and their advisors shaped a strategy for the war against the Axis powers. The two Allies agreed that Nazi Germany had to be defeated first while they fought only a holding action in the Pacific. Once the European war was won, they would turn their......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
During World War Two, operations were conducted throughout several different theaters -- or places of action. In the Mediterranean, the U.S. Army Air Forces began using aircraft such as the British Bristol Beaufighter, an effective night fighter, in the summer of 1943. Beaufighters flew night cover for Allied forces in Italy and France until the closing days of World War II. The British......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
As early as 1930, the War Department considered using women pilots, but the Chief of the U.S. Army Air Corps called the idea "utterly unfeasible," stating that women were too "high strung." Nothing was done until after the American entry into World War Two. Facing the need for male combat pilots, the situation by mid-1942 favored the use of experienced women pilots to fly U.S. Army Air Forces......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
It was imperative that the United States have qualified pilots, navigators, bombardiers and gunners in the air and qualified maintenance people on the ground during World War Two. As you look throughout the Air Power Gallery, especially at the planes suspended from the ceiling, you will see many of the training aircraft that prepared airmen for combat. One small, unusual-looking contraption......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 12.31.1969
In the early months of the war, following the Japanese successes at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines, American morale was very low. The United States needed a military victory, so a plan was devised for a daring air raid on the Japanese homeland. The top secret plan called for B-25s to take off about 450 miles from Japan on a Navy aircraft carrier, bomb selected targets then fly another......
