- The start of the bomber enterprise here in Europe
began at the beginning of the Cold War.
(radio static)
- [Announcer] In the Netherlands,
the foreign ministers of five nations began a conference
on what to do next
about the Soviet starvation blockade of Berlin.
The last of America's Armada of 60 superports
has reached England
and is ready to begin what army leaders have said
are practice maneuvers.
Yet, who can doubt that the real reason
for the presence of the B-29s
is to show Russia we are not backing down.
(plane engine)
- We had just demobilized after World War II.
We, the United States,
along with our British and French partners
were doing occupation duty,
but we didn't intend on maintaining a large,
true presence here in Europe.
When tensions rose with the Soviet Union,
especially with the Berlin blockade
and the subsequent airlift,
we didn't have the forces in theater to necessarily respond
on the ground, so to speak.
So one of the ways we could do that
was with strategic air power,
and leaders in America, in the UK,
decided we needed that reassurance.
We needed some capability in Europe to be able to respond
if tensions with the Soviet Union escalated.
The initial B-29 strategic bombers
that were brought to the UK
were here on a rotational basis.
First, they were here for 30 days,
and then they realized they needed them longer, so 60 days,
and then pretty soon 90 days.
And from that point forward,
then both the American and British governments agreed
that they could be here indefinitely.
The United States began looking
at other locations in Europe.
So by the middle of the 1950s,
we have this huge bomber enterprise
all across the continent.
After the end of the Cold War, key operations that bombers
from Europe were involved in,
in the 1990s in particular
were the Gulf war in 1991.
You see them used again during Kosovo operations in 1999.
And then a little bit later
during operation Iraqi freedom in 2003.
So those operations were using those bombers
that we had agreed that we would continue to rotate over.
(upbeat music and plane engines)
One of the very clear reasons for bringing bombers
to Europe was that deterrence mission
that still remains a key part of
what they do here on the continent.
Many of the units that still fly over here today,
were some of the very ones that began 70 years ago.
So in that essence,
I think they should be proud
of a legacy that they're carrying on with.