History
Established as an I Bomber Command squadron in late 1942; later assigned to Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command with a mission to conduct antisubmarine patrols over New England coastline using light observation aircraft. Later re-equipped with B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, October 1942-September 1943 when the antisubmarine mission was taken over by the United States Navy.
Re-equipped with B-24 Liberator heavy bombers and reassigned for training at Pueblo Army Air Base, Colorado. Squadron personnel formed the core of the newly-established 493d Bombardment Group, moving to McCook Army Airfield, Nebraska where it completed training as part of the newly formed group.
Was deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England. Assigned to RAF Debach until the end of the European War in May 1945, with a temporary move to RAF Wormingford in early 1945 while runways were being repaired at Debach.Used B-24's until they were replaced with B-17's in September 1944.
Engaged in long-range strategic bombardment of enemy targets in Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe. The squadron operated chiefly against industrial and military installations in Germany, attacking an ordnance depot at Magdeburg, marshalling yards at Cologne, synthetic oil plants at Merseburg, a railroad tunnel at Ahrweiler, bridges at Irlich, factories at Frankfurt, and other strategic objectives. Additional operations included striking airfields, bridges, and gun batteries prior to and during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944; hitting enemy positions to assist ground forces south of Caen and at St Lo in July 1944; bombing German fortifications to cover the airborne attack on Holland in September 1944; attacking enemy communications during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944-January 1945; and assisting the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945.
The squadron redeployed to the United States. in July and August 1945. Reassembled at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota on August 12, however the Japanese Capitulation negated the need for the unit to train in B-29s and re-deploy to the Pacific Theater. The personnel were demobilized and the unit was inactivated there on August 28, 1945.
Read more about this topic: 863d Bombardment Squadron
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)