417th Bombardment Group - Operational History

Operational History

After activation with the Third Air Force the 417th trained on Douglas A-20 Havocs in Louisiana and Oklahoma. It moved to New Guinea between December 1943 and January 1944, and was assigned there to the Fifth Air Force. It began combat in March 1944, operating in support of ground forces on New Guinea and striking airfields, bridges personnel concentrations, installations, and shipping in that area.

Most sorties were flown at low level, since Japanese flak was not very intense. During these low level bombing operations, it was found that there was little need for a bomb aimer. Consequently, the bomb aimer was often replaced by additional forward-firing machine guns mounted in a faired-over nose. The A-20's heavy firepower, maneuverability, speed and bombload made it an ideal weapon for pinpoint strikes against aircraft, hangars, and supply dumps. In formation, their heavy forward firepower could overwhelm shipboard anti-aircraft defenses and at low level the A-20s could skip their bombs into the sides of transports and destroyers with deadly effect. Some A-20s had their heavy forward-firing armament supplemented by clusters of three Bazooka-type rocket tubes underneath each wing. These tubes each held an M8, T-30 4.5-inch (110 mm) spin-stabilized rocket. These rocket launcher tubes turned out to be heavy and complicated, and were generally more trouble than they were worth and were not often used.

The unit operated from Noemfoor between September and December 1944, attacking airfields and installations on Ceram, Halmahera, and western New Guinea. Moved to the Philippines in December 1944 at the end of the New Guinea campaign. Until June 1945 supported ground forces and attacked enemy airfields, transportation, and installations on Luzon, Cebu, Negros, and Mindanao. Received a DUC for attacking Japanese convoys at Lingayen, 30 December 1944 – 2 January 1945, an action that not only impaired enemy shipping and supply strength, but also helped to clear the way for the American invasion of Luzon. Flew its last missions in July, dropping propaganda leaflets to Japanese troops on Luzon. After the Philippines were secured, the group turned its attention to Japanese targets on Formosa in early 1945. Moved to Okinawa in August 1945 and to Japan in November to be inactivated there on 15 November 1945.