"Operation Carpetbagger" Topic

In January 1944, the military launched a top-secret operation called Operation Carpetbagger. The aim was to supply European resistance fighters with weapons, supplies, and secret agents behind enemy lines. The effort required risky night missions flown in specially modified B-24 Liberator Bombers under the direction of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – the forerunner of today's CIA…

Fold3 blog: link

So?

The British SOE had been doing that since 1940.

So?

The British SOE had been doing that since 1940.

Good on them. I'll bet they appreciated an ally helping with risky missions. Especially at a time of heightened resistance activity.

I suppose we shouldn't have bothered then if they already had it covered…
~ , ^

Of course the USAAF contribution was appreciated. But if that blog had been written better, with a proper appreciation of the entirety of Special Duties air operations, it would have mentioned the RAF's long development of the techniques and equipment which the USAAF Carpetbaggers copied.

For example, not enough attention is ever paid to the British and Commonwealth SD squadrons, including quite a few Polish aircrew, who took horrendous risks (and casualties) flying Liberators and Halifaxes from Italy to conduct supply drops to support the Warsaw Uprising. To be fair, 8th AF also conducted one mass Warsaw supply drop, using B-17 bomber groups instead of the dedicated Carpetbagger squadrons.

There is a much better treatment of it, and certainly a fuller one, at the Harrington Museum website. The home page is at harringtonmuseum.org.uk with most of the relevant information being under the History and Carpetbagger headings.

I think that overall, there is as much available on the RAF SD squadrons as there is on the USAAF johhny-come-latelys. An equivalent website to the Harrington one is that for Tempsford at link