444th Bombardment Group

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 444th Bombardment Group


caption= 444th Bombardment Group Insignia
dates= 1943 - 1946
country= United States
allegiance=
branch= United States Army Air Forces
type=
role= Bombardment
size=
command_structure= Twentieth Air Force
current_commander=
garrison= Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=


* World War II: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign
(1944-1945)
anniversaries=The 444th Bombardment Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. It was inactivated on 1 October 1946

History

The unit served primarily in the Pacific Ocean theater and China Burma India Theater of World War II as part of Twentieth Air Force. The 444th Bomb Group's aircraft engaged in very heavy bombardment B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan.

Operational Units

* 344th Bombardment Squadron 1945-1946
* 676th Bombardment Squadron 1943-1946
* 677th Bombardment Squadron 1943-1946
* 678th Bombardment Squadron 1943-1946 (Later 10th)
* 679th Bombardment Squadron 1943-1944
* 825th Bombardment Squadron 1945

Aircraft Flown

* Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
* Consolidated B-24 Liberator
* Boeing B-29 Superfortress

Stations Assigned

* Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, 1 Mar - 22 Jul 1943
* Great Bend AAF, Kansas 29 Jul 1943 - 12 Mar 1944
* Charra, India 11 Apr - 1 Jul 1944
* Dudhkundi, India 1 Jul 1944 - 1 Mar 1945
* West Field, Tinian 7 Apr-18 Sep 1945
* Merced AAF, California 15 Nov 1945
* Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, 6 May-1 Oct 1946

Operational History

World War II

The 444th Bombardment Group, Very Heavy was constituted on 15 February 1943 as a B-29 Superfortress group and activated on 1 March 1943 at Davis-Monthan Field near Tuscon, Arizona. It was assigned the 677th, 678th and 679th Bomb Squadrons. After a period of organization and flying B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators, the group was reassigned to Great Bend, AAF, Kansas where it received its B-29s and was assigned to the first B-29 Superfortress wing, the 58th Bombardment Wing. At Great Bend the group engaged in training on the new aircraft and its new mission.

In March 1944, the group left the United States and deployed to a former B-24 Liberator airfield at Charra India, arriving on 11 April In India, the group was assigned to the XX Bombardment Command of the new Twentieth Air Force. During the week of April 15-22, no less than five 58th Bomb Wing B-29s crashed near Karachi all from overheated engines. The entire Wing had to be grounded en route until the cause was found. The cause was traced to the fact that the B-29's R-3350 engine had not been designed to operate at ground temperatures higher than 115 degrees F, which were typically exceeded in India. Modifications had also to be made to the aircraft and after these modifications, B-29 flights to India were resumed.

From India, the 444th Bomb Group planned to fly missions against Japan from airfields in China. However, all the supplies of fuel, bombs, and spares needed to support the forward bases in China had to be flown in from India over "The Hump" (the name given by Allied pilots to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains), since Japanese control of the seas around the Chinese coast made seaborne supply of China impossible. Many of the supplies had to be delivered to China by the B-29s themselves. For this role, they were stripped of nearly all combat equipment and used as flying tankers and each carried seven tons of fuel. The Hump route was so dangerous and difficult that each time a B-29 flew from India to China it was counted as a combat mission,

The first combat mission by the group took place on 5 June 1944 when squadrons of the 40th took off from India to attack the Makasan railroad yards at Bangkok, Thailand. This involved a 2261-mile round trip, the longest bombing mission yet attempted during the war.

On 15 June the group participated in the first American Air Force attack on the Japanese Home Islands since the Doolittle raid in 1942. Operating from bases in India, and at times staging through fields in China, the group struck transportation centers, naval installations, aircraft plants, and other targets in Burma, China, Thailand, Japan, and Formosa. The 444th conducted a daylight raid against iron and steel works at Yawata, Japan, in Aug 1944, being awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for the mission. The 444th evacuated staging fields in China in Jan 1945 but continued operations from India, bombing targets in Thailand and mining waters around Singapore.

The group was reassigned to Tinian, in the Marianas Feb-Apr 1945, for further operations against Japan with the XXI Bomb Command. It participated in bombardment of strategic objectives and in incendiary raids on urban areas for the duration of the war. Received a DUC for attacking oil storage facilities at Oshima, bombing an aircraft plant near Kobe, and dropping incendiaries on Nagoya, in May 1945. Struck light metal industries at Osaka in Jul 1945, receiving another DUC for this action.

Strategic Air Command

The group returned to the United States in November, 1945, being assigned to Merced AAF, California. It was assigned to the Fourth Air Force of Continental Air Forces. Continental Air Forces would later evolve into the Strategic Air Command on 21 March 1946

The 444th Bombardment Group was one of the ten existing bombardment groups assigned to SAC when it was first formed. The group was relocated to Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona and was equipped with B-29s. Demobilization, however, was in full swing and the group turned in its aircraft and was inactivated on 1 October 1946. Many of the wing's personnel and aircraft were reassigned to the 43d Bombardment Wing, which was reactivated at Davis-Monthan on 1 October 1946 as part of the re-established Eighth Air Force.

ee also

* Twentieth Air Force
* 58th Air Division

References

* Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0892010924.

External links

* [http://www.444thbg.org/unithistoryinfo.htm 444th Bomb Group Website]