Eaker, Lt-General Ira C.

Eaker, Lt-General Ira C. (1896–1987),US Army Air Force officer who, under Spaatz, commanded 8th US Bomber Command based in the UK and led the first American bomber raid in Europe, on Rouen, on 17 August 1942. In December 1942 Spaatz assumed control of the Allied Air Forces in the North African campaign and in February 1943 Eaker became commander of an expanded Eighth US Army Air Force based in the UK. He was a forceful proponent of daylight precision bombing, and helped plan the Combined Bomber Offensive (also known as the Eaker plan), but the disastrous raid on Schweinfurt, in October 1943, showed that his confidence in the ability of his bombers to protect themselves, when flying beyond the range of escorting fighters, was not well placed. At the end of 1943 he replaced Tedder as C-in-C of Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean, was promoted lt-general, and flew on the first shuttle bombing raid mounted by the Fifteenth USAAF. In April 1945 he returned to the USA to become deputy commander of the Army Air Forces, an administrative post he held until he retired in 1947. See also strategic air offensives.