91st Bomb Group

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy)


caption=91st Bomb Group B-17 "Shoo Shoo Baby"
dates= April 14, 1942
country= United States of America
allegiance=
branch= United States Army Air Forces
type= Heavy bombardment group
role= Strategic bombardment
size= 50-60 B-17 aircraft, 2000 personnel
command_structure=Eighth Air Force
current_commander=
garrison=RAF Bassingbourn, UK
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=DUC: Hamm, March 4, 1943 Schweinfurt, August 17, 1943 DUC: Oschersleben, January 11, 1944 340 combat missions
anniversaries=The 91st Bomb Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and was known unofficially as "The Ragged Irregulars" or as "Wray's Ragged Irregulars", after the commander who took the group to England. [Havelaar, Marion H., and Hess, William N., "The Ragged Irregulars of Bassingbourn: The 91st Bombardment Group in World War II". ISBN 0-88740-810-9] During its service in World War II the unit consisted of the 322nd, 323rd, 324th, and 401st Bomb Squadrons. The 91st Bomb Group is most noted as the unit in which the bomber "Memphis Belle" flew, and for having suffered the greatest number of losses of any heavy bomb group in World War II.

The 91st Bomb Group conducted 340 bombing missions with the Eighth Air Force over Europe, operating out of RAF Bassingbourn. Inactivated at the end of the war, the group was brought back in 1947 as a reconnaissance group of the United States Air Force, and then had its lineage and honors bestowed on like-numbered wings of the Strategic Air Command and the Air Force Space Command.

From July 1, 1947, until its drawdown in February 1952, the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Group provided worldwide surveillance, flying RB-29s, RB-45s and RB-47s. The 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron supported the Korean War from a base in Japan. The group also included the 322nd, 323rd, and 324th Straetgic Recon Squadrons, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron. The group was inactivated on May 28, 1952, as part of an SAC-wide termination of groups as an organizational echelon.

The group was activated in 1991 as the 91st Operations Group. Between 1991 and 1994, and since 1996, the 91st Operations Group, as part of the 91st Space Wing, maintains the alert force of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles maintained at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Its three missile squadrons, however, have no traditional link to the 91st Bomb Group and were previously part of the 455th Strategic Missile Wing and 455th Bomb Group.

Organization of the 91st Bomb Group (H)

The 91st Bomb Group, (Heavy) was activated on April 14, 1942, by General Order 31 of the Third Air Force.

Wartime command staff

The 91st Bomb Group had at least 392 B-17's assigned to it at some point of the war. Of these, 40 were transferred to other commands, 37 were retired as unsuitable for further operations, and 71 were on hand at the end of hostilities. The rest were lost: 197 in combat, 37 written off, and 10 in training crashes. Of the combat losses, the 401st and 323rd Squadrons each lost 55, the 322nd Squadron lost 49, and the 324th Squadron 38.

Approximately 5,200 crewmen flew combat missions for the 91st from 1942 to 1945. 19% were killed or missing (887 KIA and 123 MIA) and 18% (959) became prisoners of war. 33 others were killed in flying accidents. Of the 35 original crews to arrive at Bassingbourn, 17 were lost in combat (47%). Daily records indicate that for the first six months of operations, 22 of 46 listed crews were lost (48%).

The fatalities in the 91st Bomb Group, equivalent to an infantry regiment in numbers of combat personnel, exceeded the killed-in-action of more than half (47) of the Army's ground force divisions, and equalled or exceeded the rate of killed-in-action in the infantry regiments of 35 others. Only seven divisions (all infantry) had killed-in-action rates higher than the 91st BG. [The seven divisions were the 3rd, 4th, 9th, 29th, 1st, 45th, and 29th Infantry Divisions.]

Aircraft losses from Havelaar, total from USAAF via Freeman. Personnel losses from both. Crew losses from 91st BG daily logs.

Honors and campaigns

ignificant members of the 91st Bomb Group

*1st Lt. William J. Crumm, 324th Bomb Squadron:Lt. Crumm was an original member of the group and flew eleven of its first seventeen missions. He and his crew were the first to return from combat, assigned on February 14, 1942, to return to the United States to prepare a training manual for bomber crews. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, Crumm later commanded the 61st Bomb Squadron, 39th Bomb Group of the Twentieth Air Force, operating B-29s against Japan. He went on to become a major general in the United States Air Force and died in the mid-air collision of two B-52 bombers on July 6, 1967, returning from a mission to South Vietnam.
*M/Sgt. Rollin L. Davis, 323rd Bomb Squadron :M/Sgt. Davis was a maintenance line chief in charge of B-17 42-31909, nicknamed "Nine-O-Nine" (pictured above), which completed 140 missions between February 25, 1944 and the end of the war, at least 126 in a row without turning back because of mechanical failure, for which Sgt. Davis received the Bronze Star.
*LtCol. Immanuel J. Klette, 324th Bomb Squadron:Colonel Klette flew 91 bomber missions as a co-pilot and pilot with the 306th Bomb Group, and as a command pilot with the 91st. Over 30 of his missions were as group, wing, division, or air force mission commander while serving with the 91st BG. His 91 sorties are the most by any Eighth Air Force pilot in World War II.
*Capt. Robert K. Morgan, 324th Bomb Squadron :Captain Morgan, an original member of the group, piloted the "Memphis Belle" in combat and returned it to the United States.
*1st Lt. Bert Stiles, 401st Bomb Squadron (author)

91st Bomb Group in film and literature

*"", a 1944 documentary film
*"Memphis Belle", a 1990 film
*Bert Stiles, "Serenade to the Big Bird", a 1944 memoir
*John Hersey, "The War Lover", a 1959 novel and film (the novel uses the fictional base "Pike Rilling" as its locale and an unnamed group, but all details of the novel are taken directly from 91st BG daily records)
*The tail markings of the 91st were used as those of the fictional 918th Bomb Group in the film and television series "Twelve O'Clock High". At least one incident, a mission to Hamm on 4 March 1943 in which all the other groups except the 91st turned back for bad weather, was also portrayed in the film.

91st Bomb Group B-17's on exhibit

Two 91st B-17's survive, both currently at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Dayton, Ohio.

*B-17F serial 41-24485-10-BO, 324th BS, marked DF A, "Memphis Belle", combat November 7, 1942 to May 19, 1943. Currently undergoing restoration after being received by the museum in October 2005.

*B-17G serial 42-32076-35-BO, 401st BS, marked LL E, "Shoo Shoo Baby", in combat March 24, 1944 to May 29, 1944, crash-landed Malmö Airport, Sweden. Repaired in Sweden, it had been used as a civilian transport and recovered in 1972, where it was dismantled, taken to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for restoration, and turned over to the museum on October 13, 1988. Due to the amount of skin work required to restore its wartime appearance, it is finished in olive drab and grey, instead of bare-metal as it was during its USAAF service, and has been restored to its original name, "Shoo Shoo Baby".

Notes

References

*Bishop, Cliff T. "Fortresses of the Big Triangle First" (1986). ISBN 1-869987-00-4

*Bowman, Martin W., "USAAF Handbook 1939-1945", ISBN 0-8117-1822-0

*cite book|author=Freeman, Roger A.|title=The Mighty Eighth War Manual|year=1991|pages=|id=ISBN 0-87938-513-8

*_______. "The Mighty Eighth" (1993 edition). ISBN 0-87938-638-X

*_______. "The Mighty Eighth War Diary" (1990). ISBN 0-87938-495-6

*Getz, Lowell L. [http://hdl.handle.net/2142/184 "Mary Ruth" Memories of Mobile... We Still Remember: Stories from the 91st Bomb Group] (2001).

*Havelaar, Marion H., and Hess, William N., "The Ragged Irregulars of Bassingbourn: The 91st Bombardment Group in World War II". ISBN 0-88740-810-9

*Ravenstein, Charles A., "Air Force Combat Wings 1947-1977", Office of Air Force History (1984). ISBN 0-912799-12-9
* [http://www.91stbombgroup.com/ 91st Bomb Group Association website]
* [http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1973/jan-feb/holder.html Holder, William G. "The Return of Shoo-Shoo Baby" Air University Review]