382d Bombardment Group explained

Unit Name:382d Bombardment Group
Dates:1942–1944; 1944–1946
Role:Heavy bomber
Battles:Pacific Theater

The 382d Bombardment Group is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last stationed at Camp Anza, California, where it was inactivated on 4 January 1946. The group was active from 1942 to 1944 as a heavy bomber training unit. It was reorganized as a very heavy bomber unit and trained for deployment overseas. However, it arrived at its overseas station too late to see combat, and returned to the United States, where it was inactivated.

History

Heavy bomber training unit

The group was first activated at Salt Lake City Army Air Base in November 1942, with the 536th, 537th, 538th and 539th Bombardment Squadrons assigned.[1] [2] [3] [4] The group moved to Davis–Monthan Field, Arizona in January 1943 and began to operate as an Operational Training Unit (OTU) for Consolidated B-24 Liberator units. The OTU program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups".[5] In April 1943, the group moved to Pocatello Army Air Field, Idaho, where its mission changed to acting as a Replacement Training Unit (RTU) for Liberator aircrews. RTUs were also oversized units, but their mission was to train individual pilots or aircrews.[5]

However, the Army Air Forces (AAF) was finding that standard military units like the 382d, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were not well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly the AAF adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit, whose manning and equipment was tailored to the base's mission.[6] As a result of this reorganization, the 382d was inactivated, and along with other units at Muroc Army Air Field, California, replaced by the 421st AAF Base Unit (Bombardment Replacement Training Unit-Heavy).[7]

B-29 operations

The group was again activated in late August 1944 at Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, unit, although until 19 September it had no squadrons assigned and was commanded by a second lieutenant. On that date, a new set of squadrons, the 420th, 464th, and 872d Bombardment Squadrons, were assigned to the group as its combat elements. These squadrons had each been active as training units earlier, but had been assigned to other groups.[8] [9] [10]

The group trained with Superfortresses until the summer of 1945. Its ground echelon deployed to Guam and Tinian by ship in early August 1945 while the air echelon remained at Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas after V-J Day. The ground echelon remained in the Marianas supporting other units' aircraft. The air echelon inactivated in Kansas in August 1945. The ground echelon returned to the United States in December 1945 and was inactivated after transit through the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation in January 1946.[11]

Lineage

Activated on 3 November 1942

Inactivated on 31 March 1944

Inactivated on 4 January 1946

Assignments

Components

Stations

Aircraft

Campaigns

Campaign StreamerCampaignDatesNotes
American Theater without inscription3 November 1942 – 31 March 1944, 25 August 1944 – 8 July 1945
Asiatic–Pacific Theater without inscription8 September 1945 – 30 December 1945

See also

References

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 643
  2. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 643-644
  3. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 644
  4. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 645
  5. Craven & Cate, Introduction, p. xxxvi
  6. Goss, p. 75
  7. See Mueller, p. 126 (simultaneous inactivation of units and organization of 421st AAF Base Unit).
  8. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 515-516
  9. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 570-571
  10. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 792
  11. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 515-516, 570-571, 792.
  12. Web site: Factsheet 17 Air Division. Staff historian . Air Force Historical Research Agency . https://web.archive.org/web/20121030115712/http://www.afhra.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=10070 . October 4, 2007. October 30, 2012. April 9, 2014.
  13. Web site: Factsheet 316 Air Division. October 12, 2007. Staff historian. Air Force Historical Research Agency. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20121030120155/http://www.afhra.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=10137 . October 30, 2012. May 16, 2018.
  14. Web site: Factsheet 63 Intelligence Squadron (AFRC). Haulman. Daniel. December 4, 2017. Air Force Historical Research Agency. February 27, 2020.

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