 However, Landry left the actual operational direction of the group to Schilling.After his return to the 56th, Zemke was important in helping turn the tide of the air war in Europe by espousing tactics that allowed U.S. fighters to break from close escort and attack enemy planes before they could get to the bombers, known as the "Zemke Fan", in which fighters rendezvoused at a prominent landmark in their escort zone while flying ahead of the bomber formations, then with the elements of fighters scattering and fanning out by flights in a 180° arc.The Eighth Air Force as a whole adopted a modified "Zemke Fan" in early 1945 for all its groups.