Gen. Ira C. Eaker

General Ira Clarence Eaker (1896 – 1987) was named commander of the Eighth Air Force on December 1, 1942. He was the architect of the Allied strategic bombing force that ultimately numbered forty groups of 60 heavy bombers each, supported by a subordinate fighter command of 1,500 aircraft, most of which was in place by the time he relinquished command at the start of 1944.

Eaker then took overall command of four Allied air forces based in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, and by the end of World War II had been named Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces.

He worked in the aerospace industry following his retirement from the military, then became a newspaper columnist.

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Monte Cassino -- An Afterword, August 1968 | Vol. 19, No. 5

The former Commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean in 1944 repliles.

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