The 726th Bombardment Squadron is a former

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

unit. It was last assigned to the

451st Bombardment Group 451st may refer to: *451st Air Expeditionary Wing, a provisional United States Air Force Air Combat Command unit, currently in Afghanistan *451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC) is a subordinate command of 79th Sustainment Support Command * ...

Dow Field Bangor Air National Guard Base is a United States Air National Guard base. Created in 1927 as the commercial Godfrey Field, the airfield was taken over by the U.S. Army just before World War II and renamed Godfrey Army Airfield and later Dow Ar ...

, Maine, where it was inactivated on 26 September 1945. The squadron was activated during

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 ...

as one of the original squadrons of the

. After training in the United States, it served in the

Mediterranean Theater of Operations The Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army (MTOUSA), originally called the North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), was a military formation of the United States Army that supervised all U.S. Army forc ...

, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It earned three

Distinguished Unit Citation The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enem ...

s for its combat actions. After

VE Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...

the squadron returned to the United States, where it was inactivated.

History

Organization and training in the United States

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 first activated at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona as one of the four original squadrons of the

.Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 325-326 Although original plans were for the squadron to be an

Operational Training Unit Royal Air Force Operational Training Units (OTUs) were training units that prepared aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. OTUs ; No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF (1 OTU): The Unit was formed in ...

at Davis-Monthan, instead a

cadre Cadre may refer to: *Cadre (military), a group of officers or NCOs around whom a unit is formed, or a training staff *Cadre (politics), a politically controlled appointment to an institution in order to circumvent the state and bring control to th ...

of the 451st Group moved to

Dyersburg Army Air Base Dyersburg Army Air Base is an inactive United States Air Force base, approximately 2 miles north of Halls, Tennessee. It was active during World War II as a training airfield. It was closed on 30 November 1945 Dyersburg AAB was the largest c ...

, Tennessee, where the 726th and other elements of the group were filled out by personnel drawn from the

346th Bombardment Group The 346th Bombardment Group is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last assigned to the 316th Bombardment Wing at Kadena Airfield, Okinawa, where it was inactivated on 30 June 1946. The group was originally a heavy bomber train ...

. The squadron commander, Capt Charles C. Haltom, and a model crew joined other members of the group for advanced tactical training with the

Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Orlando Army Air Base Orlando Executive Airport is a public airport three miles (6 km) east of downtown Orlando, in Orange County, Florida. It is owned and operated by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) and serves general aviation. Overview Orlando ...

, Florida. This cadre joined the remainder of the squadron at

Wendover Field Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...

, Utah, for training with the

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

. The squadron continued its training at

Fairmont Army Air Field Fairmont State Airfield is three miles south of Fairmont, in Fillmore County, Nebraska. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''general aviation'' facility. It has no scheduled airline service. ...

, Nebraska, starting in September. On 18 November, the air echelon of the squadron departed Fairmont for staging at

Lincoln Army Air Field Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

, Nebraska to ferry their aircraft via the Southern Ferrying Route to the

. The ground echelon left on 26 November for the port of embarkation at

Camp Patrick Henry Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

, Virginia, for transportation by ship.

Combat operations

The squadron arrived at Gioia del Colle Airfield, Italy at the beginning of January, although the air echelon remained at Telergma Airfield, Algeria until 20 January to conduct additional training. The squadron functioned primarily as a

strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...

unit, attacking targets like oil refineries,

marshalling yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...

s, aircraft factories and

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

s in Italy, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Greece and Albania. It earned a

during

Big Week Big Week or Operation Argument was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Strategic bombing during World War II#US bombing in Europe, European strategic bombin ...

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...

's campaign against German aircraft manufacturing plants, for an attack on a

Messerschmitt Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in partic ...

aircraft factory at

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

, Germany on 25 February 1944. It added oak leaf clusters to this award for an attack on oil refineries and marshalling yards at Ploesti, Romania on 5 April 1944 and on Markersdorf-Haindorf Airfield near

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria on 23 August 1944. On each of these missions the squadron was opposed by large numbers of enemy

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are cap ...

and heavy

flak Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

, but fought its way through to inflict serious damage on the targets and destroy many enemy aircraft. When returning from the Regensburg attack, runway conditions at Gioia del Colle were so poor that the aircraft of the 451st Group were unable to land there, but spread out among a number of bases in Italy. These poor conditions continued and on 8 March the squadron moved to

San Pancrazio Airfield San Pancrazio Airfield is an abandoned Second World War military airfield in Italy, located approximately 4 km northeast of San Pancrazio Salentino in the province of Brindisi in Apulia, on the south-east Italy coast. Built in 1943 by U ...

, Italy. The 451st Group's 724th Bombardment Squadron was also relocated there On 6 April, the 726th moved to

Castelluccio Airfield The Foggia Airfield Complex was a series of World War II military airfields located within a radius of Foggia, in the Province of Foggia, Italy. The airfields were used by the United States Army Air Force Fifteenth Air Force as part of the strat ...

, where it joined the remainder of the group. From its new base, the squadron also flew

air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement ...

and

interdiction Interdiction is a military term for the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area. A distinction is often made between strategic and tactical interdiction. The former refers to operations whose ...

missions. It helped prepare the way for

Operation Dragoon Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15August 1944. Despite initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, th ...

, the invasion of southern France in August 1944. The following month its bombers transported supplies to forces operating in Italy, It also supported

Operation Grapeshot The spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allied attack during the Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. The attack into the Lombard Plain by the 15th Allied Army Group started on ...

the final advance of

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

armies in northern Italy. The squadron flew its last mission on 26 April 1945 against marshalling yards at

Sachsenburg Sachsenburg is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, Austria. Geography The municipal area stretches along the valley of the Drava river, where it enters the Lurnfeld plain between the Kreuzeck group of the Hohe Tau ...

, Austria.History of the 451st Group, p. 33 The squadron left Italy in June 1945. The air echelon ferried their planes back to the United States, while most of the ground echelon sailed on the to

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

, Virginia.History of the 451st Group, p. 35 The squadron assembled later in the month at

, Maine, where it was inactivated on 26 September 1945. Personnel that were not discharged from the service on return to the United States were transferred to

Air Transport Command Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces. It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies and ...

units at Dow.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 726th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 6 April 1943 : Activated on 1 May 1943 : Redesignated 726th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 10 May 1943 : Inactivated on 26 September 1945

Assignments

* 451st Bombardment Group, 1 May 1943 - 26 September 1945

Stations

* Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, 1 May 1943 * Dyersburg Army Air Base, Tennessee, 4 June 1943 * Wendover Field, Utah, c. 19 July 1943 * Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska, c. 11 September – 16 November 1943 * Gioia del Colle Airfield, Italy, 2 January 1944 * San Pancrazio Airfield, Italy, 8 March 1944 * Castelluccio Airfield, Italy, c. 6 April 1944 – c. 4 June 1945 * Dow Field, Maine, 18 June – 16 September 1945

Aircraft

* Consolidated B-24 Liberator 1943–1945

Awards and campaigns

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{USAAF 2d Air Force World War II Bombardment squadrons of the United States Army Air Forces World War II strategic bombing units Military units and formations established in 1943