Research help

The film A Welcome to Britain presents a guide to British society, behaviour and wartime conditions and was made for American troops arriving in the UK prior to the Normandy Landings.

Over two million American servicemen passed through Britain during the Second World War. In 1944, at the height of activity, up to half a million were based there with the United States Army Air Forces.

The American Air Museum commemorates the 30,000 American servicemen and women who died while flying from Britain. Their names appear on our Roll of Honour, which draws information from our archive onto the museum's walls.  

Roger Freeman was a farmer’s son who lived close to Boxted airfield in Essex during the Second World War. His teenage enthusiasm for the Eighth Air Force developed into a life-long interest.

Over the course of the Second World War, the strategic bombing campaign developed from a limited force into a weapon of immense destructive power, with hundreds of cities subjected to air attack alongside military targets.

The arrival of American troops in Britain during the Second World War highlighted many differences between the two nations, including the institutionally-mandated racism that gave some American citizens fewer rights than others: segregation

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress dropped more bombs than any other US aircraft in the Second World War. A lot of these aircraft flew out of bases in England, but what was it like to fly?

The P-51 Mustang could fly and fight with British and American bombers all the way to Berlin and back again. By 1944, the aircraft helped the Allies gain aerial superiority over Western Europe.