Word: eaker
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...combined operations-night & day bombing, saturation and precision raids-became possible with the organization in Britain of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. The Eighth's Bomber Command, its backbone and most potent unit, was born on a grey day in February 1942 when Brigadier General Ira Clarence Eaker stepped from a transatlantic Clipper onto British soil. Eaker had with him a handful of aides, a paper commission and a plan. The plan foresaw the day when the Eighth, with Britain's R.A.F., would be able to overwhelm Ger man defenses and hollow out the German war effort from...
...months ago the Eighth had no planets, no airfields, no crews. It was five months before U.S. flyers could take part in a British-staged raid on Nazi airfields in The Netherlands. It was six months before the first All-American Flying Fortress raid, led by General Eaker himself, could take off to drop 18½ tons of bombs on railroad yards at Rouen in France. It was nearly a year before Eaker could stage the Eighth's first raid against targets in Germany...
Thunderbolts have been in action only three months. But in that time they have made 5,238 operational sorties, in fighter sweeps and escorting high-flying Fortresses over France and the Low Countries. Their records have led Major General Ira Eaker, commander of the Eighth Air Force, to boast that the Army now has an airplane which can outfight the Focke-Wulf 190, top German high-altitude fighter...
...only the weather that was keeping the heavy bomber forces of the Allies on the ground. Both the U.S. Eighth Air Force and the R.A.F. were gathering strength for new blows in the systematic reduction of German industry and defenses. Said Major General Ira C. Eaker, the Eighth's commander: Since March the Eighth has more than doubled its strength (mostly in heavy bombers for the strategic bombing of Germany), is now increasing at the rate of 15 to 30% each month. The day after General Eaker spoke, the lull ended. More than 200 U.S. heavy bombers soared...
...Test. The U.S. raids were a test of General Eaker's theory that simultaneous attacks against different targets are more effective and bring fewer losses than single thrusts of massed bombers against one objective. The big bombers flew unescorted by fighters-one reason, perhaps, why the losses were so heavy. It was too soon to say definitely whether General Eaker was right, but the attacks proved that the Germans are still able to muster heavy defenses against points threatened by daylight assaults...