WWII Air War: Air Force Planes Dogfight Against Nazi Luftwaffe

by Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

They engaged in air-to-air combat against Hitler’s Nazi forces, flew dangerous missions over fortified enemy territory against North Korea in the 1950s, and mobilized for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. We’re talking about the members of the Air Force Reserve, a long-time element of the U.S. armed forces, recently hit its 70th anniversary.

The Air Force Reserve recently commemorated their 1948 transition from Reserve Air Power to Air Force Reserve Command; reserve units began serving as far back as 1916 when a National Defense Act created Reserve Air Power.

In 1917, the first Reserve unit deployed to France, and by 1939 reserve forces had grown to 1,500 members when Hitler’s military invaded Poland. Called “Citizen Airmen,” more than 3,000 reservists were fighting by 1941. Once World War II ended, the Air Force didn’t want to lose such an imposing force, especially as the Cold War emerged.

 “The Air Reserve fell under the signal corps and it remained under the umbrella of the Army. In 1948, Truman made the Air Force Reserve a separate component,” Dr. Donald Boyd, Air Force Reserve Command historian, told Warrior Maven in an interview.

The famous aviator Charles Lindbergh was himself a reservist in 1927 when he flew across the Atlantic, Boyd added.

EXPANDED MISSIONS

The Air Force Reserve has had some major impacts on the history of the Air Force as a whole, including when they used their jungle flying skills to deliver supplies in humanitarian missions in South America in the 1950s. Their missions wound up laying the foundation for the highly revered AC-130 gunship used for close-air warfare during the Vietnam War – an attack aircraft which came to be affectionately known by soldiers as “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

“Following these missions in South America, the military came up with the idea of a gunship with fixed gunnery, inspiring deadly weapons used in Vietnam,” Boyd said.