[3] Established on 1 November 1943, Fifteenth AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the European Theater of World War II, bombing Europe from bases in southern Italy and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft.

The 15th Air Force began its operations on 1 November 1943, attacking the Rimini Marshalling yard with 28 B-25's assigned to the 321st BG (M).

Strikes on German and fascist Italian targets were carried out and caused widespread damage to Axis forces.

The Americans were facing strong Luftwaffe fighter opposition to their daylight bombing raids over Nazi-occupied Europe, and it was planned to initiate Operation Argument at the earliest possible date.

On 24 February, over 180 Liberators inflicted considerable damage to the Messerschmitt Bf 110 assembly plant at Gotha, losing 28 aircraft in the process.

On 25 February 114 B-17s and B-24s were dispatched to Steyr again, but the force became separated and the Liberators bombed the Fiume oil refinery instead.

The 15th started the offensive on 5 April when it dispatched 235 B-17s and B-24s from Italy to transportation targets in the vicinity of the Ploiești oilfields in Romania.

The P-51 escorts were able to establish an environment of air superiority, enabling the bombers to roam widely across southern and eastern Europe, attacking targets at Brüx in Reichsgau Sudetenland, Bratislava in Slovakia, Budapest, Komárom, Győr, and Pétfürdő in Hungary, Belgrade and other cities in Yugoslavia, and Trieste in north-eastern Italy.

By June 1944, the 15th Air Force was bombing railway networks in southeast Europe in support of Soviet military operations in Romania.

On 2 June, the 15th Air Force flew its first "shuttle" mission when 130 B-17s and P-51 escorts landed in Russian controlled territory after a raid in Hungary.

Between 31 August and 3 September 1944, aircraft from the 15th AF carried out Operation Reunion by airlifting the released Allied prisoners from Romania.

I could see omens of the war’s end almost every day in the blue southern sky when, flying provocatively low, the bombers of the American Fifteenth Air Force crossed the Alps from their Italian bases to attack German Industrial targets.The only 15th AF mission to Berlin was on 24 March 1945 when 666 bombers struck the capital, Munich, and other German targets, as well as Czechoslovakia.

The last major effort came on 25 April when 467 bombers struck rail targets in Austria, severing communications into Czechoslovakia.

With the German surrender in Italy, 15th Air Force aircraft began dropping supplies over Yugoslavia and evacuating Allied prisoners of war.

The plane was greatly improved and soon new models, designated the B-50 Superfortress, began joining the inventory replacing the older aircraft.

The 15 AF returned to a combat-ready role as a result of the 1948 Berlin Crisis, a squadron from the 301st Bombardment Group was deployed with its B-29s at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, Germany.

Later on 28 July, Bombardment Group left Rapid City AFB, South Dakota for RAF Scampton, in the United Kingdom.

As part of this realignment, most SAC bomber forces west of the Mississippi River were reassigned to 15th AF.

On 27 June the United Nations Security Council voted to assist the South Koreans in resisting the invasion.

President Harry S. Truman authorized General Douglas MacArthur (commander of the US occupying forces in Japan) to commit units to the battle.

At that time, the 22 B-29s of the Twentieth Air Force 19th Bomb Group stationed at Andersen Field on Guam were the only aircraft capable of hitting the Korean peninsula, and this unit was ordered to move to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa and begin attacks on North Korea.

When the Korean War ended on 27 July 1953, the B-29s had flown over 21,000 sorties, nearly 167,000 tons of bombs had been dropped, and 34 B-29s had been lost in combat (16 to fighters, four to flak, and fourteen to other causes).

With the end of fighting in Korea, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had taken office in January 1953, called for a "new look" at national defense.

By 1955 the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress would be entering the inventory in substantial numbers, as prop B-36s were phased out of heavy bombardment units rapidly.

During the Cold War, Fifteenth Air Force aircraft stood nuclear alert, providing a deterrence against an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union.

[4] Between the Vietnam War and 1991, 15 AF units and assets consisted of reconnaissance aircraft (SR-71 until 1989, U-2), bombers (B-52D until 1984, B-52G, B-52H and B-1B), aerial refueling (KC-135, KC-10), and intercontinental ballistic missiles (Titan II until 1984, Minuteman II/III, Peacekeeper).

The 15 EMTF provided rapid and flexible transportation support from six major Air Force bases in the United States and 47 locations throughout the Pacific.