Boeing B-17 flying fortress B-17 bomber Airplanes Flight Boeing bombers Boeing airplanes Bombers Airplanes, Military Clouds United States. Army Air Forces. Air Force, 8th Photograph of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. By August 1942 the Mighty Eighth Air Force was flying missions in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The Eighth Air Force was organized in Savannah, Georgia on January 28, 1942. The largest force of its kind at the time, the Mighty Eighth comprised forty-eight bomber groups, twenty-one fighter groups, and three photo reconnaissance groups. Each of these groups, in turn, were composed of a number of squadrons. Later in 1942 the Eighth's headquarters, as part of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), moved to England, where its base of operations remained until the war's end in 1945. New Georgia Encyclopedia Black-and-white photographs http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-7691 http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2692 Forms part of: New Georgia Encyclopedia 1942 Courtesy of Family of Lt. Patrick A. Walls.