The Museum will be closing at 2pm on December 24th for Christmas Eve. We will be closed December 25th for Christmas Day. 

The Museum will be closing at 2pm on December 31st for New Years Eve. We will be closed on January 1, 2012 for New Years Day.

The second annual Flying Fortress 5K was held November 12, 2011 to benefit the restoration of the Museum's B-17, the "City of Savannah". 

1^st Place Overall Female          Nicole Larson 

1^st Place Overall Male             Jesse Campbell

1^st Place Master Female          Amanda Plotner

1^st Place Master Male              Mick Danielson

Each year the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum displays the "Honor Tree" in the Museum's Rotunda. The giant lighted tree is filled with photographs of Veterans and Active Duty Military. To honor your loved one who is currently serving in the military or is a veteran, send us a picture by emailmarketing@mightyeighth.org or mail a copy of the photo (the photograph will not be returned) to the Museum:  

These Military Bears are musical.

Let the Mighty 8th be a part of your legacy

Support the Mighty Eighth

Follow the directions to view this video by B-24 Pilot Paul Grassey (Duration 2 minutes)

Step 1. Go to the App Store on your smartphone and download a QR Scanner for FREE!

Step 2. Scan the QR Code with your smartphone to view video.

*This video is also available on the Museum's website at www.mightyeighth.org

The newly redesigned Website of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum aims to extend the reach of all the Museums programs by serving a broad audience of museum-goers, members, and the general public. The new web site features expanded content, museum exhibits, tour packages as well as special exhibits. The redesign incorporates bold colors and graphics and completely new navigational tools. Access the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum's new web site at www.mightyeighth.org 

Restoration Project Update

Jimmy DeLoach

Jimmy DeLoach was born and raised in Bulloch County, Georgia.  He graduated from Nevills High School in 1949 and married Virginia, whom he met through a mutual friend.  Jimmy joined the Reserves in 1951 and began a life that would always have an emphasis on public service.  He served four years with the 117^th Aircraft Control Warning Squadron as a communication center specialist.

After his time in the Air Force Reserves, Jimmy started working for Savannah Electric in 1956, where he would work for the next 40 years (and ten months!).  He and his wife had four children, two boys and two girls.  Throughout the years, they remained very active in the community - Mrs. DeLoach was a teacher and then a principal until she retired.  The DeLoaches are members of the Garden City First Baptist Church, where Jimmy taught Sunday School for 52 years.  Jimmy also served 2 years on the Garden City City Council, 6 years as the Mayor of Garden City, 12 years as a county commissioner and 4 years as vice-chairman of the county commissioners.

Jimmy was enthusiastic and supportive of the building of this museum from the beginning.  He was a member of the Savannah wing of the 8^th Air Force Society and later joined the Birthplace Chapter when it was created.  While serving as County Commissioner for the 7^th District, Jimmy was approached by a friend and fellow Reservist, Wilbur Bell, about getting some property off the interstate to use to build a museum to honor the men of the 8^th Air Force.  Jimmy immediately thought of the 13 acres of land that had recently been given to the City of Pooler and took this idea to the rest of the County Commissioners.  They agreed and Chatham County donated the land for the construction of the museum.  The City of Pooler was given other land in exchange for the 13 acres donated to the museum.  Jimmy has volunteered from the day the museum doors opened in May, 1996.

When Jimmy decided not to seek re-election, the County Commissioners wanted to do something for him to thank him for his years of service.  He had often voiced the need for a major road in the West Chatham area and once plans were made for one to be built, the Commissioners decided to name it the 'Jimmy DeLoach Parkway' in his honor. 

Jimmy is very modest and humble about his contributions to this area over the years.  In addition to volunteering here at the museum, he also enjoys working with his two sons in their landscaping business, Tidewater Landscaping.  This past summer, his wife of over 60 years, Virginia, was asked to be principal of Woodville/Tomkins School and she accepted, continuing their tradition of having active and meaningful roles in the community.  The DeLoaches most treasure spending time with their four children and nine grandchildren.  

MISS SOPHIE: I'm thankful for...

Teri Bell

I'm thankful for ...

Zygmunt Wujek's American Aviator

Walter and Mary Grotz arrive at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum with Zygmunt Wujek's American Aviator

After a very long journey from Zygmunt Wujek's studio in Poland, this bronze statue arrived at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum on 14 November 2011 in the careful care of Eighth Air Force veteran and former POW, Walter Grotz. 

On 26 November 1944 Walter Grotz and his crew bailed out of their 445th BG B-24 near Hannover, Germany.  The pilot and co-pilot were both killed in action, and the others were taken prisoner.  Walter Grotz was sent to Stalag Luft IV near Koszalin, Poland.  In addition to the hardships of camp life, more than 6,000 Allied airmen held in Stalag Luft IV began a forced march in subzero temperatures without adequate clothing, shoes or food on 6 February 1945.  They remained on the move until 2 May 1945 when the main group met Allied forces east of Hamburg.  Of those who started on the march approximately 1,500 died from disease, starvation, or at the hands of German guards while attempting to escape. 

Over sixty years later Walter Grotz and his wife Mary returned to Poland to visit the site of Stalag Luft IV and attend the ceremony dedicating it as a Polish War Memorial.  At this 2006 ceremony the noted Polish sculptor, Zygmunt Wujek, gave Walter Grotz this only exact copy of his bronze statue included as part of the monument he had designed for Stalag Luft IV in 1992.  Wujek had used a personal photograph sent by Joseph O'Donnell as his model.  O'Donnell, like Grotz, had been a POW in Stalag Luft IV.   On 10 May 1944 O'Donnell and seven of his crew bailed out of their 483rd BG B-17 after bombing an aircraft factory in Wiener Neustad, Austria.  His pilot and the right waist gunner were killed in action. 

It took Grotz five years to make the necessary import arrangements, and on 14 November 2011 he delivered Zygmunt Wujek's American Aviator to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum which will be its permanent home.  Wujek presented it on behalf of the people of the Pomerania region of Poland as a Thank You to Eighth Air Force Veterans, all Veterans and the people of the United States.

20,000 Men Flying at 20,000 Feet in the Sky: The Eighth Air Force and The Battle of the Buldge

By Heather Thies

On July 25, 1944 the BBC announced that the Allied Forces would accept nothing less than total, unconditional surrender from Germany to end the war.  Adolph Hitler now knew that it was all or nothing when it came to the Third Reich and Nazi Germany.  During this time he was recovering from an attempt on his life from fellow Germans in the Nazi party hoping to end his rule and the war to save Germany from further destruction. 

(Alex Kershaw p. 7)  Hitler had to contend with a heavy loss of German controlled territory with France, Belgium and large areas of Eastern Europe falling back into Allied hands.  General Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army, swept through France after Normandy to Orleans on the Loire and then toward the Seine River south of Paris.  Paris was liberated from four years of Nazi control after General Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry entered the city on August 24, 1944. General Montgomery led his Canadian First Army and British Second Army for two hundred miles in four days from the Seine into Belgium.  Germany was in full retreat towards its own borders.  (Shirer pp. 1085-86)  Over two million Allies, approximately ninety five divisions, were fighting in Western Europe while the Wehrmacht had lost over one million men total on all fronts between June and September of 1944. These men were injured, killed, missing in action or taken prisoner by the Allies.  The German Army had also lost invaluable military equipment, and the Luftwaffe had lost the air war due to plane, pilot and fuel losses.  The war at sea had been lost as well and the U-boats no longer wreaked havoc in the Atlantic.  (Ian Kershaw p 717 & 722) Germany had approximately 55 divisions still fighting in Western Europe. Hitler did not acknowledge these problems or shortcomings.  On August 31 he gave an inspirational speech to his generals to motivate them to fight on and win.  

Read Further

Dec. 7, 1941. Units of the Japanese Imperial Navy conduct devastating attacks across Oahu. This date appropriately labeled a "Day of Infamy" by President Roosevelt.

Dec. 9, 1941. Germany lifts all restriction on U-boat attacks against the US Navy and merchant vessels. President Roosevelt agrees that execution of the war against Germany holds first priority. On December 15th, the Air War Plans Division (AWPD) team, lead now by Colonel Orville Anderson, generates a new "Air Estimate of the Situation and Recommendation for the Conduct of the War."

Dec 1, 1942.  Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker takes command of the 8th Air Force, replacing Spaatz. 

Dec 20, 1942. Sixty B-17s and twelve B-24s out of one hundred and one dispatched hit German air depot at Romilly-sur-Seine. Six B-17s were lost to German fighters. 

Dec 30, 1942. Forty of seventy-seven B-17s dispatched by the 91st, 303rd, 305th, and 306th Bomb Groups hit U-boat pens at Lorient. All but one 306th aircraft turned around before the start point.