Patch: 20th Air Force

The Twentieth Air Force was constituted on April 4, 1944, and activated the same day in Washington , D.C. , as an element of the Army Air Forces. Though operating from bases around the Pacific Ocean , the organization remained under the direct control of the commanding General of the Army Air Forces through the summer of 1945. Some combat elements moved from the United States to India in the summer of 1944, where they carried out very heavy bombardment operations against targets in Japan , Formosa , Thailand , and Burma . Other combat elements began moving late in 1944 from the United States to the Marianas, being joined there early in 1945 by the elements that had been in India . Headquarters, which had remained in the United States , was transferred to Guam in July 1945. From the Marianas the Twentieth conducted a strategic air offensive that reached a climax with attacks using the world's first atomic weapons against two Japanese cities. COMMANDS: VII Fighter: 1945. XX Bomber: 1944