“Jimmy knew full well when he applied for the permission to go overseas what the odds were. And you had better chances of coming home if you're on the beaches of Iwo Jima with the Marines than in a B-24 with the 8th Air Force.”
The Aerospace Advantage · Geopolitics & World Affairs · October 2026
Context
Asked how Jimmy Stewart fought his way into combat, the director of a new film about him describes the 8th Air Force's unescorted daylight bombing runs in 1943 and their heavy losses.
Transcript
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Okay, Aaron, help us understand. I mean, after all, Jimmy Stewart had to fight to fight.
So early in 1943, when the 8th Air Force first went over, you're talking about their doctrine. You guys know more about this. I'm sure I do. But it's the daylight precision bombing runs that the Army Air Corps was insisting on, rather than just going over and dumping bombs on what. We can hit. Their strategic mission was to hit strategic places. But that came at this tremendous cost because you don't have the long-range fighter support that you would get later in the war. And you didn't have anything like air superiority. So as the 8th Air Force first goes over, Jimmy's flying training missions back home. And these guys get absolutely shocked to bits. And their best, many of their best pilots, their best commanders, are wiped out in the first months that the 8th Air Force gets there. And so as Jimmy's flying these training missions, there was what was called a static hold order on his file. And history doesn't necessarily tell us who pulled that off and gave him permission to go. But Jimmy knew full well when…
Aaron, I honestly, I could not have said that better. Your description is not only technically accurate, but it's so evocative of what these airmen went through and experienced personally. And I love how you give credit to the fact that these airmen who had to fly through flat clouds and endure…
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