This is kind of a cool item from the UK’s Daily Mail, for the first time since the two air arms fought each other in the skies over Europe during World War II, an RAF flight lieutenant piloted a Tornado GR4 fighter-bomber on a combat mission over Afghanistan with a Luftwaffe navigator in the rear seat. British and German airmen have flown together on C-130 flights, but this was the first joint combat mission. The fact that the Luftwaffe hasn’t actually flown any out of country combat missions since, what 1945, probably explains why it took so long, rather than any lingering resentment over World War II. Update: As one commenter pointed out, the Luftwaffe flew strike missions in the 1999 Kosovo air war. Okay, maybe it is about lingering resentment.
-- Greg
