The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Carl "Tooey" Spaatz - Feb. 9th, 2004

Wright Patterson AF Museum ^

[SAMWolf]

Feelijng a lot better, thing I finally got rid of that cold. How are you?

[Soaring Feather]

Doing good Sam thanks. Glad to hear you're recovering so well.

Weather is still dang cold here, I stay in most of the time.

[SAMWolf]

We've been in the upper 40's the last few days. Sort of nice, things are greening up here.

[colorado tanker]

Morning, Sam and Snippy!

At one time Ike thought Spaatz wasn't tough enough to make hard decisions? This is the guy who devised the daylight bombing war of attrition concept. We lost a lot of good men in that campaign, especially before the P-51's could provide cover all the way to the targets.

The results on the ground weren't very impressive, but the campaign had one undeniable result - the destruction of the Luftwaffe. By D-Day the Allies had complete air superiority over the battlefield.

[Professional Engineer]

Vital German targets, such as synthetic oil plants and large marshalling yards, used the Enigma machine to pass damage reports to Berlin, giving the Americans instant and accurate bomb damage assessments.

Oooops!

[SAMWolf]

Morning CT.

IMHO, the Air Force stuck to the "unescorted bomber" theory too long, the precision daylight bombing was right on though.

[SAMWolf]

Yeah, the Allies owe the Poles a lot more credit than they get for getting us an Enigma machine.

[colorado tanker]

I agree with you, Sam. Even with all the guns on a B-17 and flying tight formations, they were very vulnerable to fighters. We were asking an awful lot of those crews to continue to fly unescorted.

[SAMWolf]

During World War II, more than 200,000 Americans were stationed throughout the United Kingdom as members of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. Their mission was to help the Royal Air Force destroy the military and industrial power of Nazi Germany by taking the war directly over enemy land. In massive air battles involving thousands of bombers and fighters, over 26,000 young American airmen were killed (one-tenth of all Americans killed in WWII) and 18,000 were wounded. Over 28,000 became POWs after being shot down in German territory. Despite severe losses, the "Mighty Eighth" was never turned back by enemy action and eventually succeeded in devastating the Nazi warmaking machine. The heroic efforts of these brave men established air superiority that allowed the Allies to successfully invade the European continent and end the war.

The performance of the 8th Air Force would never again be matched in warfare, and no air force has done more to make a free world possible."

--Historical Aviation Album, 1979

[Professional Engineer]

When Enigma intercepts alerted American air leaders that this caused havoc, Spaatz encouraged the practice. . . . Spaatz continued the low-level attacks until April 1945. Soon the Luftwaffe could no longer conduct any operations, including training and air transport, without fear of interference.

Heh Heh Heh

[SAMWolf]

The code breakers in the Pacific Theatre get a lot more recognition than the ones in the European Theatre but both provided an invaluable service to the Allies.

[colorado tanker]

I always shake my head when I see the casualty statistics for the Eighth Air Force. So few crews ever made it to 25 or 30 missions.

BTW, I think Twelve O'Clock High is one of the best war movies ever made. Snippy should add it to her list.

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy ma'am.

[Professional Engineer]

I love the smell of airpower on a chilly Monday morning. It smells like victory.

Aim High bump

[SAMWolf]

It's easy to forget that each time a bomber went down 10 men were involved. Add to that the nubers of dead and wounded who came back in damaged planes, some of those missions ended up being very costly.

[Professional Engineer]

Yeah, the Allies owe the Poles a lot more credit than they get for getting us an Enigma machine.

Absolutely. That little gizmo was worth far more thatn it's weight in gold.

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon tanker.

[snippy_about_it]

Howdy sir. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Snippy should add it to her list.

It's on Snippy's list. I think Snippy's going to have to make a huge Christmas list. LOL. Or buy stock in videos/dvds.

I suppose before I invest in all these movies I should decide whether or not to get a dvd player and purchase dvd's instead of vhs. Please tell me they are easier to operate than VHS players!

[colorado tanker]

Definitely go with DVD. The picture is much crisper and lots of DVD's now have extra stuff like interviews, how the picture was made, historical background, etc. They don't wear out like video can. I got a dual system so I can still play my videos, but DVD is the wave of the future.

The controls are a little different, but really no harder that VCR. And the really good news is most new systems program themselves, so you don't have to set the clock!