General, The multiple mission roles conducted by Eighth Air Force in the air war over Europe in World War II denoted combat activities that are now the focus of separate Major Commands within the modern United States Air Force. One such mission set would today be characterize as special air operations.

4 January 1944, Inaugural mission of Operation Carpetbagger campaign – special air operations: Eighth Air Force (8 AF) Mission #175 dispatched four B-17s to conduct a night time air mission of dispersing 800,000 propaganda leaflets on the towns of Orleans, Lorient, Rouen, and Tours in German-occupied France. Operation Carpetbagger was the code name covering a series of clandestine air operations conducted by the Eighth which included multiple tasks that today’s Air Force would define as special air operations.

The quantity of these clandestine air operations conducted by the Eighth included a variety of psychological warfare tasks beyond just dropping leaflets as noted. Other special operational tasks included logistical support to French resistance partisan groups collectively referred to as the “French Underground” or Marquis in its conduct of a low-intensity fight throughout France against occupying German Army troops and targets. This logistical support to partisan groups was fostered by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) with 8 AF providing support to partisan and resistance forces in other German-occupied northern European countries beside France as noted further below. (Fifteenth Air Force operating out of Italy provided logistical air drops to partisan groups in German-occupied Yugoslavia.)

Rest of the Story: Eighth Air Force conducted Carpetbagger special air operations missions starting in January 1944 to April 1945 by creating Carpetbagger operational units from its available sources. The Eighth transitioned its assigned 492d Bomb Group (492 BG) with its B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft to be configured for Carpetbagger-unique air tasks. Overtime the 492 BG would adapt several aircraft types and conducted a variety of special air operations. The 492 BG would be essentially disbanded by the end of August 1944 with the Carpetbagger mission moved to a provisional unit created by 8 AF to further enhance its capability to perform these unique tasks.

B-24 Technological Modifications: The B-24 bomber aircraft became the favored airframe for a vast number of Carpetbagger tasks due to its longer flying range and larger carrying capacity. The Eighth conducted in-house modifications to the B-24 airframe which included removal of 20 factory installed items, replaced by the installation of 48 technology items and systems. A sampling of the technology installed by the Eighth included: special radio sets, directional finding radars, absolute radio altimeter (for accurate altitude data), a Gee radar (for precise navigation), a “Rebecca” radar to work with the “Eureka” ground beacon devices supplied to the French Underground (to locate drop points for parachuted supplies), and the “S-Phone” (allowing short-range, two-way radio communications between Carpetbagger aircrews and persons manning a designated drop zone). The American factory-installed bomb shackles in Carpetbagger B-24s were replaced by British-made conversion shackles that allowed air dropping by parachutes of supply canisters / containers.

Eighth Air Force’s Carpetbagger Sorties: The Eighth successfully completed 1,860 Carpetbagger sorties out of 2,857 attempted resulting in the parachuting of 20,945 canisters / containers and 11,174 packages to resistance fighters in France, The Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark. Supplies parachuted in canisters / containers included: light weapons, ammunition, food, and first-aid items as well as hampers containing homing pigeons used for carrying paper messages from partisans back to Carpetbagger collection areas.

Eighth Air Force’s Carpetbagger Operations: The majority of Carpetbagger air missions conducted by the Eighth were flown during hours of darkness – although a few were conducted in daylight hours. One example was a daring daylight air mission conducted by a Carpetbagger C-17, a modified cargo airplane. This aircraft landed in occupied France and successfully evacuated wounded French Underground partisans to England for medical treatment.

Overtime, the Eighth converted other types of airframes for Carpetbagger air operations beside the 80 B-24s which was the primary airframe used. Other included the C-47 cargo aircraft and B-17 bombers - as noted above as well as A-26 fighter-bomber aircraft and some Mosquito fighter aircraft borrowed from the Royal Air Force.

Another aspect of Carpetbagger air operations conducted by the Eighth was the parachuting of nearly 1,000 agents – primarily OSS agents – into German-occupied areas of Europe as well into Germany itself. The parachuting of these agents resulted in the Eighth expanding its technology onboard Mosquito aircraft to include “Red Stocking” and “Skyway” devices to record received radio transmissions from these deployed agents.

Similar to the conventional air war waged by the Eighth Air Force over Europe in World War II, there was a price to pay in conducting Operation Carpetbagger special air missions. The Eighth lost 24 Carpetbagger-configured B-24 aircraft with their respective aircrews.