Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organizational military unit , generally subordinate to the air force of a country . Many countries have a " Bomber Command " , although the most famous ones were in Britain and the United States . A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing ( although at times , e . g . during the Normandy Landings , may be used for tactical bombing ) , and is composed of bomber s ( i . e . planes used to bomb targets ) . RAF Bomber Command . RAF Bomber Command was formed in 1936 to be responsible for all bombing activities of the RAF . It found especial fame during World War II , when its aircraft were used for devastating night - time air raids on Germany and occupied Europe , principally the former , their bombing raids causing tremendous destruction of urban areas and factories . Much of its personnel was drawn from outside the United Kingdom . Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan , many Commonwealth countries contributed squadrons or individuals to British air and ground staff . For example , No . 6 Group , which represented about one - sixth of Bomber Command ' s strength , was a Royal Canadian Air Force unit . Some non - British personnel came from occupied European countries . At its height , Bomber Command under Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur " Bomber " Harris could put over 1 , 000 aircraft into the air over Germany . Over 12 , 000 Bomber Command aircraft were shot down during World War II , and 55 , 500 aircrew were killed , the highest attrition rate of any British unit . The planned campaign medal for Bomber Command was never struck . The decision not to award a medal for all members of Bomber Command occurred during the short gap between the wartime coalition and Attlee ' s Labour Government , whilst Churchill was still P . M . This caused Harris to turn down Attlee ' s subsequent offer of a peerage in protest at this snub ; a principled stand which Harris had taken , and declared , at the time the decision not to award a separate campaign medal was made . The Command ' s raids had tied up huge amounts of Germany ' s defensive resources - which might have been diverted to the Eastern and Western Fronts and elsewhere - and the physical destruction of war material was considerable . Nevertheless Churchill , much to Harris ' s chagrin , made virtually no mention of Bomber Command ' s campaign in his victory speech on V . E . day . Harris , who was promoted to Marshal of the RAF by the Labour Government in 1946 , was persuaded to accept a baronetcy when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister again in 1951 , after Attlee ' s Labour Government was voted out of office . The battle for a campaign medal continues . Various aircraft were used , from the obsolete and horrendously vulnerable Fairey Battle in 1939 to the command ' s most numerous and successful aircraft , the Avro Lancaster . Bomber Command used not only British aircraft but also American - built machines such as the B - 17 Flying Fortress and B - 24 Liberator ( although less than 2 % of Bomber Command ' s wartime sorties were flown by US - built aircraft ) ; in the case of the former they were the first to be put into battle and gave useful information on improvements before the US entered the war . RAF Bomber Command was merged into RAF Strike Command in 1968 . USAAF . Whereas the Bomber Command in the RAF was a single organisation , reporting directly to the Chief of the Air Staff , there were many American Bomber Commands . They were subordinate formations , reporting in general to various numbered Air Forces around the world . Out of those organisations , four were tasked with strategic bombing of Germany and Japan . VIII Bomber Command , XV Bomber Command , XX Bomber Command and XXI Bomber Command . VIII Bomber Command . VIII Bomber Command was the UK - based strategic bomber arm of the Eighth Air Force and contributed a substantial part of Operation Pointblank , the day - night bombing campaign by the RAF and USAAF to eliminate the Luftwaffe in preparation for the invasion of Europe . Two aircraft , the B - 17 Flying Fortress , and the B - 24 Liberator , were the mainstays of this command . The B - 17 was more highly regarded , but the Liberator had a greater range and a larger bomb load . VIII Bomber Command , known as " Pinetree " , began strategic operations in Europe on 17 August 1942 , with daylight missions on the precept that daylight attacks were more accurate than night attacks . However the RAF and the Luftwaffe had both tried daylight bombing early in the war and abandoned it in the face of serious losses . Until June , 1943 , VIII Bomber Command could not mount missions of more than 100 aircraft and consequently limited targets to those in Occupied France and the Low Countries , and to shallow penetrations of Germany . Attempts to attack the German aircraft industry during the summer and fall of 1943 , beyond the range of escort fighters , resulted in critical losses of aircrew . Not until long range escort fighters such as the P - 51 Mustang became available in sizeable numbers did daylight bombing become effective . In January 1944 , VIII Bomber Command was re - designated the 8th Air Force when the United States Strategic Air Forces came into being to coordinate the combined efforts of the 8th and the 15th Air Force in Italy . IX Bomber Command . IX Bomber Command was part of the Ninth Air Force and had started life as the heavy bomber unit contingent of the U . S . Army Forces in the Middle East ( USAFIME ) fighting in the Egypt - Libya Campaign during 1942 . When in 1943 , the Ninth Air Force moved from the Mediterranean Theater of Operations to the United Kingdom to become a tactical air force in the European Theater of Operations , the B - 24s transferred to Twelfth Air Force , then to the newly created Fifteenth . IX Bomber Command equipped with Martin B - 26 medium bombers and Douglas A - 20 light bombers in preparation for the Normandy Invasion . XX Bomber Command . XX Bomber Command was part of the Twentieth Air Force and flew missions from China against mainland Japan in Operation Matterhorn . The forward airbases in China were supplied out of India by the flying supplies over the Hump from India . The key development for bombing Japan was the Boeing B - 29 , with an operational range of 1500 miles ( 2 , 400 km ) ; almost 90 % of the bombs dropped on Japan ' s Home Islands ( 147 , 000 tons ) were delivered by B - 29s . The first mission from China was on June 15 , 1944 , from Chengdu , over 1500 miles away . This first attack was not particularly damaging to Japan . Only forty - seven of the sixty - eight B – 29s airborne hit the target area in Tokyo ; four aborted with mechanical problems , four crashed , six jettisoned their bombs because of mechanical difficulties , and others bombed secondary targets or targets of opportunity . Only one B – 29 was lost to enemy aircraft . Bombing from China was never a satisfactory arrangement because not only were the Chinese forward airbases difficult to supply via " The Hump " ( as the Himalayas ' foothills were called ) , but the B - 29s operating from them could only reach Japan if they substituted some of the bomb load for extra fuel tanks in the bomb - bays . When Admiral Chester Nimitz ' s island - hopping campaign captured islands close enough to Japan to be within the range of B - 29s , XXI Bomber Command commanded Twentieth Air Force units flying from the islands in a much more effective bombing campaign of the Japanese home islands . XXI Bomber Command . In the Pacific , XXI Bomber Command was also part of the Twentieth Air Force . It was the main instrument of destruction used against Japan . Its B - 29 Superfortress es , operating from the Marianas , were the longest range and most modern bomber in service in the world at the time , although not developed until almost the end of the war . Again , as in Europe , the USAAF tried daylight precision bombing . However , it proved inconclusive because of poor weather conditions , jet stream over Japan that severely affected both aircraft and bomb drops , and inadequately trained crews . Twentieth Air Force commander and AAF Commanding General Henry H . Arnold grew impatient with a lack of discernible results , and replaced General Haywood S . Hansell with General Curtis LeMay as commander of XXI Bomber Command on January 21 , 1945 . After six weeks of further attempts at precision bombing , LeMay acceded to command pressures for area bombing and switched in March to mass firebombing attacks by night from low level . The Japanese economy was uniquely vulnerable to this sort of attack , the cities being closely packed and largely built of wood , and manufacturing being 90 % cottage industry . The Pacific attacks included the most devastating single air raid in history . It was not , as some might think , the result of dropping one of the two atomic bombs . It was a firebombing raid on Tokyo on the night of 9 – 10 March 1945 , which created a firestorm and killed 100 , 000 people .