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IX Fighter Command
Patch9thusaaf
World War II Emblem of Ninth Air Force
Active 1942–1945
Country United States
Branch United States Army Air Forces
Role Fighter Command and Control
362fg-fisher

Captain Edwin O. Fisher, 362d Fighter Group, 7 aerial victories; 3 V-1 Flying Bombs; 25 enemy vehicles and 5 locomotives.

The IX Fighter Command was a United States Army Air Forces formation. Its last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force, based at Erlangen, Germany. It was inactivated on 16 November 1945.

IX Fighter Command was the primary tactical fighter air arm of Ninth Air Force in the Western Desert Campaign in North Africa during 1942-1943. Reassigned to England, it became the dominant tactical air force over the skies of Western Europe during the 1944 Battle of Normandy and the Western Allied invasion of Germany in 1945.

After its inactivation, the majority of its (along with Twelfth Air Force) units were incorporated into the postwar United States Air Force Tactical Air Command.

History[]

North Africa[]

Entered combat in Egypt during January 1943 as command and control organization for Ninth Air Force fighter units assigned to Western Desert Campaign in Libya and Tunisia. Although subordinate wings assigned to command, combat groups attached to Royal Air Force Western Desert Air Force.

Command reassigned to England in November 1943 as tactical fighter component for Ninth Air Force as part of Normandy invasion planning. Assigned units reassigned to Twelfth Air Force

Western Europe[]

During the winter of 1943/44 IX Fighter Command expanded at an extraordinary rate so that by the end of May 1944, its complement ran to 45 flying groups operating some 5,000 aircraft. Initial missions from England consisted of fighter sweeps over troop concentrations and attacks on enemy positions and airfields, primarily on German Fifteenth Army units in the Pas-de-Calais region of France as well as around Normandy and Cotentin Peninsula. On D-Day IX Fighter Command units carried out massive air attacks on German forces in Normandy area with P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers. Air cover during the morning amphibious assault by Allied forces on the beaches of France was flown by P-38 Lightnings.

With the beaches secure, grups began deploying to France on June 16, 1944, ten days after the Normandy invasion by moving P-47 Thunderbolts to a beach-head landing strip. During the Battle of Normandy, its tactical air units then provided the air power for the Allied break-out from the Normandy beachhead in the summer of 1944 during the Battle of Cherbourg, Caen, and the ultimate breakout from the beachhead, Operation Cobra.

By early August most IX Fighter Command groups were transferred to bases in France and assigned to the U. S. Twelfth Army Group. Command then reorganized, with units transferred to three Tactical Air Commands and which directly supported Army ground units, along with an air defense command to defend Allied-controlled areas.

After units reassigned, remained as command organization until after VE-Day when performed occupation duty in Germany.

Lineage[]

  • Constituted as IX Interceptor Command on 19 January 1942
Activated on 1 February 1942
Redesignated IX Fighter Command in May 1942
Inactivated on 16 November 1945
Disbanded on 8 October 1948

Assignments[]

Components[]

North Africa[]

Attached to: Western Desert Air Force, 21 February 1943
Attached to: Desert Air Force, c. April 1943
Attached to: 7 South African Air Force, 21 May–22 August 1943

Attached to: Western Desert Air Force, 18 November 1942
Attached to: Desert Air Force, c. April–1 August 1943
Attached to: Western Desert Air Force, 23 December 1942
Attached to: Desert Air Force, c. April–1 August 1943

Western Europe[]

365th Fighter Squadron Republic P-47D-28-RA Thunderbolt 42-29259

358th Fighter Group Republic P-47D-28-RA Thunderbolt 42-29259

370th Fighter Group P-38 Lightning Lonray Airfield France 1944

370th Fighter Group P-38 Lightning

Wings

Groups

Attached to VIII Fighter Command entire period
Attached to XXIX Tactical Air Command, 28 January–21 June 1945

Squadrons

Stations[]

  • Charleroi Airfield (A-87), Belgium, September 1944
  • Verviers, Belgium, October 1944
  • Bruhl, Germany, March 1945
  • Weimar Airfield* (R-7), Germany, April 1945
  • AAF Station Fritzlar, Germany, July 1945
  • AAF Station Erlangen*, Germany, September–November 1945

* Grass airstrip used for liaison and courier aircraft only

See also[]

References[]

  • PD-icon This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.
  • Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
  • Johnson, David C. (1988), U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO), D-Day to V-E Day; Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
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