The War Continues
When the war was over in Europe the planes weren’t here long, because they were expecting another job to do in Japan.
On May 9th, 1945 the men of the 8th USAAF were already back at work. Even though they had helped to achieve victory in Europe war was still be fought on the other side of the globe. For those men who had not completed their tour of duty, they began packing up all of their vital supplies for the journey across the Atlantic back to America where they would retrain to use newer and larger bombers and fighters against the Japanese Empire. Though with the surrender of Japan on August 15th, none of the men reassigned to the Pacific theatre would ever serve there.
Some men became eligible to be discharged from their service immediately after VE Day. A year before D-Day the US Army began plans for how to efficiently and effectively demobilize the millions of men fighting in Europe. They came up with a points based plan using the number of months of enlistment, months abroad, awards and medals earned and even the number of dependent children back home in the USA. For these men, the war was over and the only thing they had to worry about was the voyage home.
As suddenly as they had arrived in 1942, the Yanks departed. The towns and villages of East Anglia grew silent as fewer and fewer planes were seen in the skies above, and the once bustling airfields and bases became ghost towns within weeks.
