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I dont know that a precise number is possible. The 8th Air Force was the organization which flew the heavy bombers from England to bomb Germany and occupied France. This was a huge part of the US war effort. Over two million men served in the 8th AF - there were only sixteen million Americans in uniform - so, one out of eight was in the 8th AF engaged in the strategic bombing effort of Europe. Only a tiny percentage of this two million were actual combat crews, of course - the rest were armorers and supply clerks, cooks and parachute riggers and so on. At its peak the 8th AF had about twenty-four heavy bomb groups, each with its own airfield, and each with about seventy-two bombers assigned, maybe forty-five or fifty of which would be mechanically able to go on any given day. But say all seventy-two planes from twenty-four groups did go on a hypothetical mission. These bombers were B-17s and B-24s, both of which had a ten man crew. So that would be 17,280 airmen on such a mission, and they never managed any 1700 plane raids. They did get in a few 1000 plane raids, which would have 10,000 men "in combat" on those.

For the war the 8th AF lost about 2000 heavy bombers - each with a ten man crew. Not all were killed of course - some bailed out.

For the entire war the 8th AF, out of two million men, had 27,000 killed. Some of these would have been fighter pilots, who were assigned to the fighter groups of the 8th AF to escort the bombing raids.

There were other bomber outfits besides the 8th AF. The 9th AF was also in the UK, but flew medium bombers at smaller targets, and in direct support of ground troops. The 12th AF was in Italy, flying heavy bombers into Germany from the south. The 14th AF and the 20th AF were in the Pacific, bombing Japan.

The US had about 405,000 men killed in the war, in all branches. Over 300,000 of these were in the US Army, and the overwhelming majority of these were the lowly foot soldiers, who had the most dangerous job. Very, very few of the soldiers from the rifle platoons who were on the job when the war started were still around when it ended.

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14y ago
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15y ago

Approximately 130,000 US Navy, US Marine, US Army AF/AC Airmen were killed/wounded during WW2.

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12y ago

Over 5,000 B-17 bombers were lost in combat missions in world war II

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Q: How many US bomber airmen lost their life in World War 2?
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