422d Bombardment Squadron

422d Bombardment Squadron

Emblem of the 422d Bombardment Squadron
Active 1942-1946; 1952-1954; 1958-1961
Country United States
Branch United States Air Force
Type Bombardment
Squadron World War II emblem

The 422d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was as part of the 305th Bombardment Wing, stationed at Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana.

It was inactivated on 15 February 1961.

History

Established in June 1942 as a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombardment squadron; it trained under the Second Air Force. The squadron deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in September 1942, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England. It began flying long-range strategic bombardment missions on 17 November 1942 and attacked such targets as submarine pens, docks, harbours, shipyards, motor works and marshalling yards in France, Germany and the Low Countries. It continued attacks on enemy cities, manufacturing centers, transportation links and other targets until the German capitulation in May 1945.

After combat missions ended, the squadron moved to St Trond Air Base in Belgium in July 1945, where it conducted photo-mapping and intelligence-gathering flights over Europe and North Africa which came under the name Project 'Casey Jones'. On 15 December 1945 it moved to Lechfeld airfield, Germany which it had bombed on 18 March 1944 and which it now used as an occupation base.

The 364th Bomb Squadron was inactivated in December 1946 in Germany.

During the Korean War, Tactical Air Command (TAC) trained aircrews at Langley AFB, Virginia. The three squadrons of the 4400th Combat Crew Training Group performing this mission were Air National Guard units that had been called up for the war. At the start of 1953, these squadrons were released to state control and the 423d Bombardment Squadron took over the mission, personnel, and equipment of the 115th Bombardment Squadron, which returned to the California guard.[1] It was then equipped with obsolete B-45 Tornado light bombers. The squadron was inactivated in 1954.

The squadron was reactivated in 1959 by Strategic Air Command (SAC) at MacDill AFB, Florida as a result of the phasing out of the B-47 Stratojet. Additional squadrons were activated as part of the consolation of Stratojet wings and the replacement of the B-47 by B-52 Stratofortresses. However, the squadron was never equipped or manned, but it was assigned administratively to several bases before being inactivated in 1961.

Lineage

Activated on 1 Mar 1942
Redesignated the 422d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 22 Apr 1942
Inactivated on 25 Dec 1946
Activated on 1 Jan 1953
Inactivated on 23 Mar 1954
Activated on 1 Jan 1959
Discontinued, and inactivated, on 15 Feb 1961

Assignments

Attached to: 405th Fighter-Bomber Wing, 1 May 1953
Attached to: 47th Bombardment Wing, 20 Dec 1953

Stations

Aircraft

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

  1. ↑ See Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. p. 315. ISBN 0-912799-53-6.
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