It was a mission which started just like any other: but it ended when the B-17 Flying Fortress "Little Boy Blue" crashed into a farmer's field in Suffolk, England. Eight of the ten air crew were killed that day – and 80 years on, we join their families in that very same field to honour their memory. We speak to Brian Cracknell – one of the last rem…

Just how much of a game changer was the North American P-51 Mustang fighter plane in the battle for air supremacy in the skies over Europe? We find out in this episode, with a visit to Bottisham Airfield Museum – home to the 361st Fighter Group in Cambridgeshire. We look at the development of the Mustang – and how an American airframe matched with …

In this episode, we tell the story of the Night of the Intruders, when Luftwaffe fighters followed a stream of American B-24 Liberator bombers back to England and shot them out of the sky as they tried to land. It was a disastrous end to Mission 311, which took place on 22 April, 1944, less than two months before D-Day. The raid saw 824 Mighty Eigh…

In this episode, we tell the story of the first American daylight bombing raid over Berlin, which took place on March 4, 1944. The mission was led by the 95th Bomb Group – the only Eighth Air Force Bomb Group to receive the Distinguished Unit Citation three times. We visit the Red Feather Club at Horham in Suffolk – including the Blue Lounge dance …

In this episode, we visit the American Air Museum at Duxford for a hotly contested debate: which was the best WW2 heavy bomber? Was it the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or was it the Consolidated B-24 Liberator? The museum is home to the biggest collection of American military aircraft on public display outside the USA. And it is the only place in th…

The 100th Bomb Group is probably the most famous bomb group of them all – and the focus of the Stephen Spielberg / Tom Hanks TV mini-series Masters of the Air. Nicknamed the Bloody Hundredth, it had a 'bad luck' reputation, sustaining heavy losses of men and planes on numerous disastrous missions. But just how unlucky was the 100th Bomb Group? What…

The 'maximum effort' mission on Christmas Eve 1944 was the biggest ever by the Eighth Air Force. This was the Mighty Eighth's 760th mission – with 2,046 heavy bombers and 853 fighters taking to the sky. It meant "everything that can fly, will fly" as the USAAF entered the Battle of the Bulge to protect Allied troops from the Nazi war machine. It wa…

In this episode, we visit the crash site of a top-secret B-17 Flying Fortress which went down soon after take-off in November 1943. The B-17F Flying Fortress 42-5793 was among the most secret aircraft of its kind – one of the first American bombers fitted with a new type of radar. The plane crashed only minutes into what should have been a flight f…

It was the Mighty Eighth's most ambitious mission yet: a twin-strike into the heart of Nazi Germany. This dual-pronged raid on August 17, 1943, saw more than 350 B-17 bombers despatched to bomb the cities of Schweinfurt and Regensburg. The goal was to strike a major blow against the Nazi war machine by taking out three ball-bearing factories at Sch…

In this episode, we pay tribute to the thousands of Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War Two while fighting for freedom. We do so by visiting Cambridge American Cemetery in eastern England, which commemorates almost 9,000 American personnel. We tell the stories of some of those men and women who are buried here – and those lis…

Just how do you put hundreds of B17 Flying Fortresses into the sky, send them on a bombing mission over occupied Europe – and then bring them home again? In this episode, we find out during a visit to USAAF Station 153 (Framlingham) – home to the 390th Bomb Group during World War Two. We visit the Control Tower – home to Parham Airfield Museum, whi…

Welcome to the Mighty 8th Podcast – the podcast about the people, planes and places of the United States Eighth Army Air Force. In this very first episode, we visit Grafton Underwood – where B-17 bombers took to the skies for the very first America-led mission over occupied Europe in World War Two. The first American-led mission using USAAF Flying …