Notice: Ads help support our website operation, if you would like to turn them OFF for this visit;
United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe was established on January 1, 1944, created to solve a problem that had grown increasingly urgent as American strategic bombing capability in the European theater expanded: the Eighth Air Force in England and the newly forming Fifteenth Air Force in Italy were both conducting strategic bombing operations against Germany, but under separate theater commands with no unified strategic direction. Placing both organizations under a single senior headquarters allowed target selection, timing, and resource allocation to be coordinated across both fronts rather than managed independently, ensuring the two forces reinforced rather than duplicated each other's efforts against German war-making capacity.
General Carl A. Spaatz, who had commanded Eighth Air Force earlier in the war before moving to North Africa and the Mediterranean theater, took command of USSTAF at its creation and led it for the duration of the European air campaign. Under his direction, USSTAF became the American half of the Combined Bomber Offensive, working alongside RAF Bomber Command under the broader POINTBLANK directive framework, with the RAF concentrating on night area bombing of German cities and USSTAF's Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces conducting daylight precision attacks against specific industrial and military targets.
USSTAF's target-prioritization decisions shaped the entire second half of the air war against Germany. Early priorities focused heavily on the German aircraft industry and Luftwaffe fighter strength, culminating in operations like Big Week in February 1944, aimed at establishing the air superiority that would prove essential to the coming invasion of France. As 1944 progressed, USSTAF increasingly shifted emphasis toward German oil production and the transportation network, campaigns credited by postwar analysts with severely constraining German fuel supplies and military mobility during the war's final year, directly supporting the ground campaigns in Western Europe.
Beyond target selection, USSTAF also managed the complex logistical and personnel challenges of running two large, geographically separated strategic air forces simultaneously, standardizing procedures, coordinating fighter escort doctrine as the P-51 Mustang extended range deep into Germany, and integrating battle-damage assessment and intelligence across both commands to refine ongoing targeting decisions.
Following Germany's surrender in May 1945, USSTAF's mission in Europe was complete, and the organization was dissolved. General Spaatz himself moved on to command U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, carrying the organizational lessons, target-prioritization methods, and command relationships refined in Europe directly into the final phase of the strategic bombing campaign against Japan, a direct institutional throughline from the skies over Germany to the Pacific theater's climactic final months.
Q1: When was USSTAF established?
A1: US Strategic Air Forces in Europe was established January 1, 1944, unifying command of American strategic bombing operations against Germany.
Q2: Who commanded USSTAF?
A2: General Carl A. Spaatz commanded USSTAF from its creation until the end of the war in Europe.
Q3: What air forces did USSTAF control?
A3: USSTAF exercised strategic direction over the Eighth Air Force, based in England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, coordinating their operations against common target sets.
Q4: What was the Combined Bomber Offensive?
A4: The Combined Bomber Offensive, guided by the POINTBLANK directive, was the coordinated day-and-night Anglo-American strategic bombing campaign against German industry, oil, and transportation, with USSTAF directing the American daylight portion.
Q5: What happened to USSTAF after V-E Day?
A5: Following Germany's surrender, USSTAF was dissolved and General Spaatz moved to command US Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, applying lessons from the European campaign against Japan.
a. Status, readiness, and supply of US armed forces
USSTAF's creation in January 1944 reflects a strategic bombing force that had matured well past the improvisational stage of 1942-43 and now required genuinely sophisticated, centralized management to deploy its growing aircraft numbers effectively. By this point, American aircraft production and aircrew training had reached a scale sufficient to sustain two full strategic air forces simultaneously, a readiness milestone unimaginable just two years earlier, but that very scale created a coordination challenge that only a unified command structure could solve. USSTAF's later shift toward oil targeting demonstrates a supply-and-readiness insight turned outward against the enemy: by 1944, American planners understood that degrading German fuel supply would constrain the readiness and mobility of German forces just as thoroughly as destroying aircraft on the ground, a sophisticated application of economic-warfare thinking to military readiness itself.
b. Development of fighting men and command structures
USSTAF represents one of the most significant command-structure innovations of the Army Air Forces' European campaign, establishing that strategic bombing forces separated by hundreds of miles and operating from entirely different national infrastructures (Britain and Italy) could nonetheless be directed as a single coherent strategic instrument. This required developing standardized intelligence-sharing, target-assessment, and operational-planning procedures between staffs that had previously operated independently, an organizational achievement that mattered as much to the campaign's ultimate success as any single technological or tactical innovation. The fighter escort revolution, coordinating P-51 Mustang deployment and doctrine across both Eighth and Fifteenth Air Force fighter commands under USSTAF's direction, exemplifies how unified command translated directly into more effective employment of scarce, high-value resources.
c. Prominent personnel and their role with the organization
General Carl Spaatz stands as the singular figure most associated with USSTAF, having already commanded Eighth Air Force and led Northwest African Air Forces before taking the helm of this unified strategic command; his continuous, senior-level experience across nearly every major American air campaign in the European-Mediterranean theater gave him an unusually comprehensive understanding of how to direct large-scale strategic bombing operations. Spaatz's subsequent move to command US Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific after V-E Day is itself historically significant, representing a direct transfer of organizational expertise and command philosophy from the European campaign to the climactic bombing campaign against Japan, making Spaatz one of the very few American commanders to hold senior strategic air command responsibility in both major theaters of the war.
Do you have WWII memorabilia that you are not sure what to do with it? The children don't want it? Then let us help you preserve this history by donating these items to the Army Air Corps Library and Museum. We are accepting donations in the form of uniforms, medals, ribbons, patches, photos, memorabilia, papers, gear and equipment. We also accept monetary donations to support our operations and long term plans. This website is part of the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, and as a 501(c)(3) Non-profit, your qualifying donations are tax deductible.
Read about how we need your support and use donations.
Historical Artifacts: We are looking for photos, documents and other types of artifacts including uniforms, medals, insignia, gear, manuals, and training material. We accept electronic/scans or originals of pictures and paper records. A General Order could be an award document that contains information on many servicemen. Special Orders may contain transfers or other information. Flight records, accident reports, maintenance logs, after action reports, pilot encounter reports, diaries and biorgraphies; all of these types of documents help us support or mission: preserving your history! Contact us today for instructions on sending us this material. Contact Today
Are you an AAC, AAF or USAF Veteran, family member, historian or WW2 enthusiast? We Need YOU! Contact us today to see how you can help the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, a Texas Not-For-Profit Corporation. We need your help! We are looking for volunteers that can help us with the following tasks. Typing and Transcriptionists: One of our big projects is extracting data from the thousands of documents we have and putting this data into a database where we can display the information on a website such as this one. We also need assistance with retyping unit history documents.
