The 482d Attack Squadron is a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

unit, stationed at

Shaw Air Force Base Shaw Air Force Base (Shaw AFB) is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located approximately west-northwest of downtown Sumter, South Carolina. It is one of the largest military bases operated by the United States, and is under the jurisdict ...

, South Carolina, where it is an operational squadron of the 25th Attack Group, operating the

General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Unit ...

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

. The first predecessor of the squadron was organized in 1917 as the 70th Aero Squadron. After being redesignated as the 482d Aero Squadron, it deployed to France as a construction unit, returning to the United States in 1919, where it was demobilized. The second predecessor of the squadron was the 482d Bombardment Squadron, which was constituted in the

Organized Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 2020 ...

in 1924. The two units were consolidated in 1936 and, along with other reserve units disbanded in May 1942, shortly after the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1944, the 482d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy was activated and assigned to the 505th Bombardment Group. Shortly after it was activated, the two 482d Bombardment Squadrons were consolidated. After serving as a strategic bombing unit in the Pacific with

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

es, it was inactivated at Clark Field, Philippines in June 1946.

History

World War I

The first predecessor of the

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...

was established at

Kelly Field Kelly Field (formerly Kelly Air Force Base) is a Joint-Use facility located in San Antonio, Texas. It was originally named after George E. M. Kelly, the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting. In ...

, Texas in August 1917 as the 70th Aero Squadron.A second 70th Aero Squadron was organized at the end of February 1918 at

Ellington Field Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base is a joint installation shared by various active component and reserve component military units, as well as aircraft flight operations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the aegis ...

. Texas. It was redesignated Squadron B, Ellington Field in July 1918 and Flying School Detachment, Ellington Field in December. The detachment was demobilized in September 1919 and later (27 July 1932) consolidated with the 70th Service Squadron. While at Camp Morrison, Virginia, the squadron was renumbered along with other construction units as the 482d Aero Squadron. The squadron was a civil engineering organization at the Western Front constructing airfields and related facilities in the Zone of Advance from its arrival in France in March 1918 until the Armistice on 11 November. It remained in France until early 1919 when it returned to the United States and was demobilized at

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

Organized reserves

The 482d Bombardment Squadron was organized at

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, Maryland as a

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unit in March 1925. It was inactivated in July 1929. The unit was consolidated with the 482d Aero Squadron in 1936, but remained in inactive status until the end of May 1942, when it was disbanded along with all other

units.

B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan

The second 482d Bombardment Squadron was activated at

Dalhart Army Air Field Dalhart Army Air Base is a former World War II military airfield complex near the city of Dalhart, Texas. It operated three training sites for the United States Army Air Forces from 1943 until 1945. The majority of the namesake city of Dalhart, ...

, Texas in March 1944 as a

very heavy bombardment squadron. The following month, it was consolidated with the reserve squadron that had been disbanded in 1942. When training was completed moved to

North Field (Tinian) North Field is a former World War II airfield on Tinian in the Mariana Islands. Abandoned after the war, today North Field is a tourist attraction. Along with several adjacent beaches on which Allied forces landed during the Battle of Tinian, t ...

in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific Area in January 1945 and assigned to

XXI Bomber Command The XXI Bomber Command was a unit of the Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands for strategic bombing during World War II. The command was established at Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas on 1 March 1944. After a period of organization an ...

Twentieth Air Force The Twentieth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) (20th AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. 20 AF's primary mission is Interco ...

. Its mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands and the destruction of its war-making capability. Flew "shakedown" missions against Japanese targets on Moen Island, Truk, and other points in the Carolines and

Marianas The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

. The squadron began combat missions over Japan on 25 February 1945 with a firebombing mission over Northeast Tokyo. The squadron continued to participate in wide area firebombing attack, but the first ten-day blitz resulting in the Army Air Forces running out of incendiary bombs. Until then the squadron flew conventional strategic bombing missions using high explosive bombs. The squadron continued attacking urban areas with incendiary raids until the end of the war in August 1945, attacking major Japanese cities, causing massive destruction of urbanized areas. Also conducted raids against strategic objectives, bombing aircraft factories, chemical plants, oil refineries, and other targets in Japan. The squadron flew its last combat missions on 14 August when hostilities ended. Afterwards, its B 29s carried relief supplies to Allied prisoner of war camps in Japan and

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

. Squadron was largely demobilized on Tinian during the fall of 1945. Remained in Western Pacific, assigned to Twentieth Air Force. Moved to Clark Field in the Philippines in March 1946. Inactivated at Clark Field on Luzon on June 15, 1946; its low-hour aircraft flown to storage depots in the United States.

Lineage

; 482d Aero Squadron * Organized as the 70th Aero Squadron on 13 August 1917 : Redesignated 482d Aero Squadron (Construction) on 1 February 1918 : Demobilized on 8 February 1919 : Reconstituted and consolidated with the 482d Bombardment Squadron on 2 December 1936Clay,p.1520 ; 482d Bombardment Squadron * Constituted as the 482d Bombardment Squadron on 31 March 1924 and allotted to the reserve : Activated in March 1925 : Inactivated 23 July 1929 : Consolidated with the 482d Aero Squadron on 2 December 1936 : Disbanded on 31 May 1942 * Reconstituted and consolidated with the 482d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 21 April 1944 ; 482d Attack Squadron * Constituted as the 482d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 28 February 1944 : Activated on 11 March 1944 * Consolidated with the 482d Bombardment Squadron on 21 April 1944 : Inactivated on 30 Jun 1946 * Redesignated 482d Attack Squadron on 13 February 2018 : Activated on 2 October 2018

Assignments

* Unknown, 15 August 1917 – March 1918 * Advance Section, Service of Supply, March 1918 – December 1918 * Unknown, December 1918 – 8 February 1919 * Allotted to Third Corps Area, 31 March 1924 – 31 May 1942 * 347th Bombardment Group, March 1925 – 23 July 1929 * 505th Bombardment Group, 11 March 1944 – 30 June 1946 * 25th Attack Group, 2 October 2018 – present

Stations

* Kelly Field, Texas, 13 August 1917 * Camp Morrison, Virginia, 21 December 1917 - 4 March 1918 *

Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome : ''see also: Organization of the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force'' When the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917, the Air Service of the United States Army existed only as a branch of the Signal Corps, and was kno ...

, France, 27 March 1918 *

Autreville Aerodrome Autreville Airdrome was a temporary World War I airfield in France. It was located S of Toul, at the northern tip of the Vosges Departments of France, department in northeastern France, near the large depot of Colombey les Belles. Overview Autr ...

, France, 28 March 1918 * Trampot, France, c. 9 July 1918 * Longeaux Aerodrome (Haute-Marne), France, 22 September 1918 * Trampot, France, c. 24 October 1918 * Braux, France, c. 22 November 1918 * Pont Rousseau, 25 December 1918 – unknown * Garden City, New York, c. 8 – 18 March 1919 * Baltimore, Maryland, c. March 1925 – 23 July 1929 * Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas, 11 March 1944 *

Harvard Army Air Field Harvard State Airport (Harvard State Airfield) is two miles northeast of Harvard, in Clay County, Nebraska. It has no airline flights. History Harvard Army Airfield was built in 1942 as a United States Army Air Forces training airfield. It is ...

, Nebraska, 12 March – 6 November 1944 *

, 24 December 1944 – 5 March 1946 * Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines, 14 March – 30 June 1946 *

, South Carolina, 2 October 2018 – present

Aircraft

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

, 1944 *

, 1944–1946

References

Notes

; Explanatory notes ; Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

{{USAAF 20th Air Force World War II Attack squadrons of the United States Air Force