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Category: Air support

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Allied Aircraft of WW2

The Magnificent Seven.

These are seven aircraft types that played a close supporting role with the  Australian troops in the Pacific war. 

The war in the jungle required a different approach to the problems of re-supply, troop insertion and extraction and air to ground support as well as bombing.

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) all played a part and they flew many different types and models of aircraft.

These seven have been included because of the close association of these models with our troops on the ground.

No pretence is made that these were the only types used. For all the types go to the page called

 All RAAF Aircraft

Click on the navigation bar or the thumbnails to see an enlarged photo with details

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USAAF shoulder patch

 

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The USA did NOT have an Air Force as we know it.

You'll have an easier time of understanding the situation if you know about the American Army-Air Force's structure during WWII.

What most people think of as "the Air Force" was a branch of the United States Army (i.e. it was not a separate military unit) known at the beginning of the War as the "United States Army Air Corps' (USAAC) and after 9 March 1942 as 'The United States Army Air Force" (USAAF). 

The table below presents a rundown of the different name changes and structural changes the American 'Air Force' has undergone with the WWII names in red.

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1 August 1907 United States Army Signal Corps Aeronautical Division
18 July, 1914 United States Army Aviation Section
24 May 1918 United States Army Air Service
1926-1941 United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
9 March 1942 United States Army Air Force (USAAF)
26 July 1947 United States Air Force (USAF)

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Digger History:  an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces