The 12th & 15th Air Forces

Created in 1942, and immediately placed under the command of General Doolittle, the 12th Air Force was responsible for conducting Operation Torch on November 8, 1942. The unit served with the Northwest African Air Forces from February to December 1943, then with the Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean (MAAF) until the end of the war alongside the other unit presented in this work: the 15th Air Force. Formed in November 1943, the 15th Air Force was established to operate in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations (MTO), primarily from air fields located in southern Italy where they were stationed. The objectives of both units were to destroy all the oil refineries and aircraft factories. Gérard Paloque provides a detailed overview of all those involved in the 12th and 15th Air Forces as well as the aircraft utilised by these two great units, bringing to life many of the objectives and results that have been often forgotten by World War II historians. The reader will also find a chapter dedicated to the famous Tuskegee airmen, the 322nd Fighter Group of the 15th Air Force, the United States’first all-black air unit.