General, Part of the vast history and heritage of Eighth Air Force coming out of the air war over Europe in World War II was the Eighth's enormous array of operational and technical innovations. These innovations resulted from both experimentation as well as implementation by actual air combat missions. Today's Eighth Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center adds to this history and heritage of innovation and learning from actual air operations.

Innovation Heritage Overview of Eighth Air Force (8 AF): During World War II - both air and ground crews as well as support personnel, and civilian contractors within the Eighth improvised or improved on some 350 technical innovations and operational techniques. The Eighth as part of its innovation efforts had a robust and on-going knowledge and technical transfer collaboration with the Royal Air Force and British industry as well as two internal special sections which worked directly for the Eighth's Commander.

One of these internal sections was called the 8 AF Operational Section (subsequently renamed 8 AF Technical Office) which essentially constituted an internal "skunk works" that gathered data, did research, conducted technology-based experiments, developed ideas, and applied lessons learned pertaining to assigned aircraft especially aircraft component failures and improvements. This specific section did not hesitate to work with British industries in solving 8 AF operational aircraft challenges - thus the Eighth's office was branded as being a "buccaneering outfit" so named by the U.S. Army Air Force's research and development establishment back in the United States.

The Eighth's second internal section was the Operational Research Section (later renamed the Operational Analysis Section) that essentially was a "brain trust" that analyzed aerial operations and produced studies on bombing accuracy, causes of loss and battle damage, use of new aircraft technology like radar sets, and target analysis among several examined areas. Besides miliary personnel, this specific 8 AF research analysis section was also composed of civilian contractors - especially mathematicians, statisticians, and scientists.

Starting with its earliest air combat missions, 8 AF's senior leaders realized that the Eighth Air Force had to identify, learn, and adapt quickly to the innovations in weapons and counter-air tactics of the German Air Force (GAF). Senior GAF leaders reasoned that the Eighth would continue to grow in size in the number of bomber and fighter aircraft thus eventually possessing the capability to project strategic airpower consistently into the very heart of the German Homeland. As the air war over Europe continued, the reasoning of the GAF senior leaders proved to be correct.

The specific air battle conducted on 16 February 1943, is just one historic example were both 8 AF and the GAF demonstrated that both opposing air forces were not merely engaged in air battles but were both very much involved in learning, adjusting, adapting, and applying combat-gained knowledge faster than the opposing force could. Innovating and experimenting by both the Eighth and GAF essentially continued until the end of the air war over Europe.

16 February 1943, Strike on German Navy U-Boat pens: VIII BC Mission #36 dispatched 89 bombers - a mixed force of B-17s and B-24s - to strike German Navy U-Boat (submarine) pens at the port of St. Nazaire, one of the German-occupied ports along the Atlantic Coast of western France. This specific air mission was a continuation of an air campaign began in late 1942 against U-Boat facilities whose submarines were battling U.S. Navy and Royal Navy in the larger Battle of the Atlantic for the control of the shipping lanes through the North Atlantic. In 1942, just twelve U-Boats operating from the western coastal ports of France had sunk more than 100,000 million tons of Allied shipping in the North Atlantic. During this specific 16 February aerial strike on St Nazaire, the Eighth lost eight bomber aircraft with another 30 sustaining battle damage.

For this 16 February bomber attack, the Eighth employed two innovative operational air techniques. The first technique was a longer "bomb run" into the designated target by attacking bomber formations. This specific air operational technique had been pioneered by the Commander 305th Bomb Group - Colonel Curtis LeMay - who flew on Mission #36. The second innovation used was for the formation of bombers to "bomb-on-leader" that is when bomb release was done by the formation's lead bomber then this signaled the following bombers to drop their bomb load as well. At St Nazaire, it was noted that bombs dropped were well placed and more accurate on the target than in previous bombing strikes by Eighth Air Force.

Rest of the Story: During this 16 February air combat mission by the Eighth, the GAF employed a new counter-air tactic. A pair of GAF Me-109 fighters approached from behind toward a B-17 bomber formation (composed of the 91st Bomb Group). Then lifting up to be approximately 150 feet above a pair of B-17s, the German fighters dropped a cluster of bomb-like objects. The aircrews aboard the B-17s observing this counter-air incident, noted some 50 bursts of red and white smoke that exploded simultaneously at the same altitude just missing the two B-17s which were the intended target. This occurrence was the first experiment by the GAF in air-to-air bombing using time-fused fragmentation bombs.

The intent of this unique air-to-air bombing effort was a GAF counter-air tactic to break up the attacked bomber formation and down bomber aircraft in the process. Although this experimental attempt was not successful, it does reflect the GAF's then on-going effort of thinking out of the box to counter Eighth Air Force bomber formations.

Later, another counter-air experiment by the GAF would be used in an air battle against the Eighth. In this later incident, GAF fighters would experiment by employing a unique weapon in air-to-air combat. The weapon experimented with by the GAF was borrowed from the German Army in battling Russian tanks - namely an anti-tank bazooka with the attempt of striking 8 AF bomber aircraft using direct fire rocket munitions.