Air Force World War Ii

The Third Reich's Luftwaffe began World War II with significant advantages over other European air forces, playing a critical role in the German war machine's swift, powerful advance. By war's end, however, the Luftwaffe had been decimated by combat losses and crippled by poor decisions at the highest levels of military decision-making, and it proved unable to challenge Allied air superiority despite a last-minute upsurge in German aircraft production.

Top World War II aces of the RAF, USAAF, and the Luftwaffe recall the greatest aerial missions in this thrilling program. There is Douglas Bader, one of the best of the RAF fighter pilots despite 2 artificial legs, Adolf Galland of the Luftwaffe, who, subsequent to being shot down in France one morning, took off in another Messerschmitt that afternoon, another German ace, Hans-Joachim Marseille, the young "Pilot of Africa" who would steal into the British fighters' own formations to down several Hurricanes before the enemy could react, and Robert S. Johnson, the American who heroically defended Liberator and Flying Fortress formations.

There were no mission limits for a pilot in the Pacific during World War II; unlike in Europe, you flew until it was time to go home. So it was for James "Jug" Curran, all the way from New Guinea to the Philippines with the 348th Fighter Group, the first P-47 Thunderbolt outfit in the Pacific. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Curran volunteered to try flying in the blue yonder and trained as an Army fighter pilot. He got his wish to fly the P-47 in the Pacific, going into combat in August 1943, in New Guinea, and later helping start the "Black Rams" fighter squadron.

Dorothy Lucas yearned to discover all that she was capable of. After the devastating news of Pearl Harbor, her brothers joined the World War II war effort, but Dorothy wanted to do her part, too. So, she enlisted to serve as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). After hours of flight school and roaring engines, Dorothy and her fellow WASPs risked their lives towing targets in the air for the male fighter pilots in training. Through many mechanical scares and smoke-filled cockpits, Dorothy remained brave and committed to her job - defying gravity and defying the odds.