Become a Member!

The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum introduces new membership levels for active duty military and their families!  An individual active duty military membership is now $25.00 and a family with at least one adult serving in the armed forces is $60.00.  We have also added new benefits for the Squadron Leader and Wing Commander members.  Become a member today and help support "one of the world's most powerful museum experiences." As a member of the Mighty Eighth, you are entitled to unlimited admission for one year, subscription to the Museum e-newsletter, a 10% discount at the Museum Gift Store, a personalized membership card, and access to the Mighty Eighth's Members Only Online Forum. Memberships range from $25 to $1,000 for individuals and families! For more information, please visit our membership website: http://mightyeighth.org/support-the-museum/membership/ 

Membership Coordinator

912-748-8888 ext. 101

[email protected]

Please also consider having your employer become a corporate member! Corporate Membership information can be found at: http://mightyeighth.org/corporate-membership-page/ 

After this long, hot summer, the cool fall air is a welcome relief. We have college football on Saturday and pro football on Sunday. So pour yourself your favorite beverage in your Tervis Tumbler. We have 16 oz, 24 oz and coffee mugs with the 8th logo. These mugs have a lifetime guarantee. They will keep your beverage hot or cold. Be sure to order one today.

Ladies check out our new Fifinella ladies t-shirts. They are selling fast and look great. Choose from small, medium, large or extra large for only $15.99.

Also on our hot seller list are the new 8th logo jackets. These jackets are available in navy/red, navy/yellow or tan/green. They are incredibly priced at $44.99. You'll be glad you have it on those cool fall nights.

Halloween is coming soon. We have our pilot suits that come with a great looking helmet. New this fall is our camo suit for our little soldiers. This suit comes with a hat and belt. Choose either suit for only $49.99. These are well made suits and your children will enjoy wearing them anytime, not just on Halloween!

Remember with every $50 or more purchase you will receive a free tote.

Happy Fall.   

 

New Mighty Eighth Weather Tex Jacket

 Follow this QR Code for extra savings!

Shop the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Gift Store Today!

John "Skip" Schwanfelder grew up in Branford, Connecticut.  As a youth he enjoyed cheering on his favorite hockey team, the New York Rangers, and playing ice hockey.  In the spirit of a true defenseman and goalie, he lost his front teeth in a game. 

After graduating from high school, Skip joined the Navy and worked as a cryptographer from 1963 to 1966.  As a cryptographer, he dealt with electronic intelligence and worked to encode and decode messages.  He remained in the Navy Reserves from 1967-1969 while he worked on his undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut.  He completed his graduate degree from Southern Connecticut State University and taught social studies at Walsh Intermediate School from 1971-1999.  During this time he joined the Army National Guard and was an armored reconnaissance scout from 1976-1980.  Skip was made Dean of Students at Branford High School in 1999 and remained in that position until he retired in 2005.

Ready to get out of the harsh winters, Skip headed south to Florida.  After building a home in a retirement community, Skip realized one very important thing:  He wasn't ready to retire after all.  He worked briefly at Epcot and as a substitute teacher.  After meeting his wife, Pam McCoy, they decided to move to Savannah, somewhere that had always interested Skip from a historical perspective.  Pam, a former employee of Lockheed, took a job at Gulfstream and they relocated to Pooler, Georgia. 

Skip started volunteering here at the Museum in 2009 doing the mission experience and guided tours.  He and Pam were married in the chapel almost two years ago.  Skip also volunteers for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center on Tuesdays.  He enjoys mountain biking and kayaking, in addition to photography and working outside on his yard and garden.  He also enjoys reading, especially historical fiction and mysteries.  Skip and his wife have 6 kids between the two of them and 8 grandkids - with one more due in a few weeks.  

Operation Typhoon  (October - December 5, 1941)

With Leningrad encircled and his armies triumphant in the Ukraine, Hitler was ready to resume the assault on Moscow.  In an address on October 2, he described the Wehrmacht's drive on the capital as "the last large-scale decisive battle of this year" [which would] "shatter the USSR."  But it was perilously late in the season.  The price of Germany's advances elsewhere was that the Russians had been given time to strengthen their defensive lines around Moscow.  Six German armies - 1.9 million men, 14,000 guns, 1,000 tanks and 1,390 aircraft - participated in Hitler's Operation Typhoon, the assault on Moscow.  Defending against it, Stalin could field 800,000 men in 83 divisions, but no more than 25 divisions were fully effective. [Hastings, p.156]

Gen. Heinz Guderian and his panzer group opened the attack on October 2 against a series of elaborate defense lines.  "Once more they swept forward, and once more the Russians suffered vast losses: 8 Soviet armies reeled in the path of the offensive, many units broke, many more were cut off" consigning another 660,000 Red Army troops to captivity.  Moscow's first line of defense had been shattered.  Stalin had not anticipated that the Germans would launch an offensive so late in the year.  However the weather then came to his aid.  Autumn rains were part of Russia's natural cycle, but those that began on October 8, 1941 astonished the commanders of the all-conquering Wehrmacht.  In a vast country with few and poor roads - only 40,000 miles of tarmac, less than 50,000 of rail track - they failed to anticipate the impact of weather upon mobility.  Suddenly the racing panzer spearheads found themselves checked, tank tracks thrashing ineffectually in a morass.  The German supply system floundered under the strain of shifting food and ammunition across hundreds of miles in weather that deteriorated daily.  [Hastings, p.157-9]

Continue Reading