824th Bombardment Squadron

824th Bombardment Squadron
824th Bombardment Squadron
	Emblem of the 824th Bombardment Squadron
Active	1943–1945; 1963–1967
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Bombardment

The 824th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 484th Bombardment Wing and was stationed at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia.

It was inactivated on 25 March 1967.

History

Established in late 1943 as a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber squadron, it trained under the Second Air Force. It deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in April 1944, being assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force in Southern Italy.

Despite its designation, the squadron did not perform pathfinder missions. Instead it engaged in very long range strategic bombardment missions against targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans until April 1945. It bombed aircraft factories, assembly plants, oil refineries, storage areas, marshalling yards, airdromes and other objectives until the German capitulation in May 1945.

The unit was attached to Air Transport Command in May 1945; it used its B-24s as transport aircraft, flying personnel from locations in France and Italy to Casablanca in French Morocco. It also engaged in transport operations from North Africa to the Azores or Dakar in French West Africa where personnel were eventually transported to Florida. The squadron inactivated in place in French Morocco during July 1945.

Reactivated under Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1963, it replaced a provisional B-52D Stratofortess squadron at Turner AFB, Georgia. It carried out intercontinental training and deployments, also standing nuclear alert. In early 1966, the squadron deployed personnel to forward bases in the Western Pacific, where they engaged in combat missions over Indochina as part of Operation Arc Light. The unit was inactivated in 1967 with the closure of Turner AFB and a reduction in the B-52 force, their role taken over by ICBMs.

Lineage

Constituted as the 824th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 14 Sep 1943

Activated on 20 Sep 1943

Redesignated the 824th Bombardment Squadron (Pathfinder) on 14 Feb 1944

Redesignated the 824th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 11 Nov 1944

Inactivated on 25 Jul 1945

Activated on 15 Nov 1962

Organized on 1 Feb 1963; receiving aircraft/personnel/equipment as a redesignation of the 336th Bombardment Squadron

Inactivated on 25 Mar 1967

Assignments

484th Bombardment Group, 20 Sep 1943 – 25 Jul 1945
Strategic Air Command, 15 Nov 1962
484th Bombardment Wing, 1 Feb 1963 – 25 Mar 1967

Stations

Harvard Army Airfield, Nebraska, 20 September 1943 – 2 March 1944
Torretto Airfield, Italy, April 1944
Casablanca-Anfa Airport, French Morocco, c. 25 May – 25 July 1945
Turner AFB, Georgia, 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967

Aircraft

B-24 Liberator, 1943–1945
B-52 Stratofortress, 1963–1966, 1966–1967

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.