page_title: Twelfth Air Force
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Twelfth Air Force / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Patch de la 12th USAAF (12ème force aérienne des Etats-Unis pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale) English: 12th Air Force, USAAF Patch (World War II)
context_page_description: The Twelfth Air Force is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force Air Combat Command. It is headquartered at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
  The command is the air component to United States Southern Command conducting security cooperation and providing air, space, and cyberspace capabilities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
  Established on 20 August 1942 at Bolling Field, District of Columbia, 12th Air Force was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of World War II. It engaged in operations in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Western Europe.
  During the Cold War, 12 AF was one of the Numbered Air Forces of the United States Air Forces in Europe and later Tactical Air Command, Its units engaged in combat operations during the Vietnam War, as well as Operation Desert Storm. As a result of the War on Terror, most Twelfth Air Force units have operated in the United States Central Command AOR.
  Since 1987, Twelfth Air Force trains, equips, and prepares assigned units from Air Combat Command and also serves as the air and space component to United States Southern Command. In August
context_section_description: The origins of Twelfth Air Force are traced back to a series of mid-1942 Allied planners' meetings to develop a strategy for the North African invasion or "Operation TORCH". Because this extensive operation required a new organization to provide enough manpower and equipment, activation plans were prepared simultaneously with the invasion strategy.
  On 20 August 1942, Twelfth Air Force was activated at Bolling AAF, Maryland. On 23 September 1942, Brigadier General Jimmy Doolittle formally assumed 12th AF command with Colonel Hoyt S. Vandenberg as chief of staff. Barely four months after it was conceived, 12th AF made its first contributions to World War II. When D-Day for the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) arrived on 8 November 1942, 12th AF was organized as shown in the table below:
  Initially, 12th AF was a composite organization containing both strategic heavy bombardment groups; and tactical light and medium bombardment, fighter-bomber, and fighter groups. Based in French Morocco and Algeria after Operation Torch, it became very important for 12th AF to coordinate and cooperate with the Royal Air Force which had been fighting in North Africa for two years. Such Allied cooperation was a major concern of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and their staffs at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 where they created the Mediterranean Air Command (MAC) with Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as Air Commander-in-Chief. For planning of the Tunisia Campaign, Tedder's MAC headquarters were adjacent to those of his immediate superior, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower at Algiers, Algeria soon after the new Allied air force reorganization took effect on 18 February 1943.
  The Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) under Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz was the largest component of MAC and its organization was based on the tri-force model (No. 205 Group  strategic, No. 201 Group coastal, and Air Headquarters Western Desert tactical) indicated above. Thus the three major combat commands of NAAF were:
  Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) under former 12th AF Commander Major General James Doolittle
  Northwest African Coastal Air Force (NACAF) under Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Lloyd
  Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF) under Arthur Coningham.
  In keeping with the MAC priority of encouraging USAAF-RAF cooperation, Air Vice-Marshal James Robb was named Spaatz's deputy commander of NAAF and he handled operations.
  Additionally, the following new units were assigned to NAAF:
  Northwest African Air Service Command (NAASC) under Major General Delmar H. Dunton
  Northwest African Training Command (NATC) under Brigadier General John K. Cannon
  Northwest African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing (NAPRW) under the president's son, Colonel Elliott Roosevelt
  Northwest African Troop Carrier Command (NATCC) initially under Colonel Ray Dunn and later under Brigadier General Paul Williams.
  Lieutenant General Lewis Brereton's 9th Air Force was assigned to RAF Middle East although its 12th Bombardment (B-25Cs) and 57th Fighter (P-40Fs) Groups formed a Desert Air Task Force detached to NATAF's Western Desert Air Force under Air Vice-Marshal Harry Broadhurst who replaced Coningham when he was promoted to NATAF commander.
  The 12th AF, the largest air force ever assembled soon after its inception several months earlier, ceased to exist in the new MAC organizational structure. As an operational organization, the 12th AF simply disappeared when its groups were distributed among the various new NAAF commands listed above. The only remaining reference to the 12th AF among these commands was Major General Edwin House's XII Air Support Command which along with Broadhurst's Western Desert Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Sir Laurence Sinclair's Tactical Bomber Force, and Air Vice-Marshal Sir Kenneth Cross' No. 242 Group, became part of Coningham's NATAF. Later, XII Air Support Command became even less obvious when it was detached to No. 242 Group.  The curious status of the 12th AF
caption: 12th United States Army Air Force (USAAF) patch in World War II
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