Carl Spaatz

General Carl Spaatz commanded the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe and then in the Pacific, and became the first chief of staff of the independent United States Air Force in 1947. He was born in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, of German descent, and added the second 'a' to his surname in 1937 so that people would stop pronouncing it 'spats'. He was nicknamed Tooey. He flew with the Air Service in France in 1918 and shot down three aircraft. Between the wars he was among the officers arguing for an air force independent of the army. He commanded the Eighth Air Force in Britain from 1942 and took over all American strategic bombing in Europe in 1944. The argument that defines his record is about targets. British doctrine under Harris favoured area attacks on cities, and Spaatz pressed instead for the systematic destruction of German oil production, against considerable resistance and a competing plan to hit railways before D-Day. He got his way in mid-1944, and the collapse of German fuel supply that followed grounded much of the Luftwaffe and immobilised its armour. He then moved to the Pacific, where he held operational command of the force that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; he asked for the order in writing before carrying it out. He signed the German surrender at Reims and the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay, the only American general present at both. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal three times. Spaatz Field in Pennsylvania and the annual Spaatz Award of the Civil Air Patrol are named for him, and he served as the first chairman of the Civil Air Patrol's board after retiring.

• Lived: 1891 CE – 1974 CE
• Nationality: American
• Roles: military