866th Bombardment Squadron

The 866th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was as the 866th Technical Training Squadron with the 1st Missile Division at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, where it trained for overseas deployment the SM-78 Jupiter. It was inactivated on 25 May 1962.

The squadron was first activated in late 1943 for service during World War II. After training in the United States, it deployed to the Pacific, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Japan. It returned to the United States and was inactivated in 1946. In 1958, it was redesignated the 866th Strategic Missile Squadron and conducted intermediate range ballistic missile training until again inactivating.

History

World War II

Organization and training in the United States

The squadron was first activated as the 866th Bombardment Squadron at Wendover Field, Utah on 1 December 1943 as one of the original squadrons of the 494th Bombardment Group, the last heavy bomber group formed by the Army Air Forces.Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 363–364 It trained with Consolidated B-24 Liberators at Wendover and at Mountain Home Army Air Field, Idaho. In January and February 1944, a cadre of the squadron trained under simulated combat conditions at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida with the Army Air Forces Tactical Center, with aircrews filling out the squadron in March. The air echelon began to receive new B-24Js in May and they began departing for Hawaii on 28 May. The ground echelon began its move to Hawaii on 1 June 1944.

Combat in the Pacific

The squadron remained at Barking Sands Army Air Field for additional training and modifications to its planes to meet theater standards until late September 1944, when it deployed to Angaur Airstrip in the Palau Islands. The squadron's ground echelon was initially involved with the construction of the base on Angaur. Although some unit aircrews flew combat missions with the 30th Bombardment Group from Saipan, the air echelon only began to arrive on Angaur on 24 October 1944, after the Seabees and Army engineers had prepared the airstrip for heavy bomber operations. The squadron finally conducted its first mission on 3 November, when it attacked Japanese airfields on Yap and Koror. It conducted attacks on Japanese military that had been bypassed as American forces had advanced in the Central Pacific. It also attacked the Philippines, hitting gun emplacements, bivouacs, and storage depots on Corregidor and Caballo Islands at the entrance to Manila Bay. It also attacked radio communications installations and power plants at Japanese bases in the Philippines; and attacked airfields, including Clark Field on Luzon. Early in 1945, the 866th struck ammunition and supply dumps in the Davao Gulf and Illana Bay areas of Mindanao and airfields on the island.

The squadron moved to Okinawa in June 1945. From its base at Yontan Airfield it engaged primarily in attacks against enemy airfields on Kyūshū and around the Inland Sea of Japan until V-J Day. It also struck airfields in China and Korea. The unit also participated in incendiary raids and dropped propaganda leaflets over urban areas of Kyūshū. On a combat mission to sink the last remaining Japanese battleship, the '' Haruna'', moored off Etajima Island near Kure Harbor, Honshu, Japan, two of thirty-three B-24 bombers were brought down by flak over the target. Led by Emil Turek, first the ''Taloa'', piloted by 1st Lt. Joseph Dubinsky, then the ''Lonesome Lady'', piloted by 2nd Lt. Thomas C. Cartwright, were brought down near Hiroshima. Decades of research by Japanese historian Shigeaki Mori revealed that 12 American POWs, including men from Dubinsky's and Cartwright's crews were killed by the blast, fires, and radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Cartwright and his tail gunner, William Abel survived and were liberated from Ōmori and Ōfuna prisoner-of-war camps. After the war's end, the 866th transported personnel and supplies from Manila to Tokyo. In December, the squadron returned to the United States, where it was inactivated at the Vancouver Barracks Port of Embarkation on 7 January 1946.

Jupiter missile training

The squadron was redesignated the 866th Strategic Missile Squadron and activated at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama in September 1958. Because the squadron's mission would be to train on the SM-78 Jupiter missile, it was stationed at the arsenal, which was the location of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which had developed the Jupiter, even though the 866th's parent organization, the 1st Missile Division of Strategic Air Command (SAC) was located thousands of miles away at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Although the Air Force had been given responsibility for the Jupiter by the Department of Defense. It became clear that it would not operate the missile, and in January 1960, the squadron became the 865th Technical Training Squadron. The squadron was inactivated 25 May 1962, when responsibility for Jupiter missiles was turned over to Turkey.SAC Missile Chronology, p. 35 Plans had been developed to establish Jupiter units in the Turkish Air Force, but as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States agreed not to deploy Jupiter missiles to Turkey.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 866th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 14 September 1943
: Activated on 1 December 1943
: Redesignated 866th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy c. 1944
: Inactivated on 6 January 1946
* Redesignated 866th Strategic Missile Squadron on 17 June 1958
: Activated on 1 September 1958
: Redesignated 866th Technical Training Squadron on 1 January 1960
: Inactivated on 25 May 1962

Assignments

* 494th Bombardment Group, 1 December 1943 – 4 January 1946
* 704th Strategic Missile Wing, 1 September 1958 (attached to 1st Missile Division after 1 November 1958)
* 1st Missile Division, 1 July 1959 – 25 May 1962

Stations

* Wendover Field, Utah, 1 December 1943
* Mountain Home Army Air Field, Idaho, 14 April 1944 – 1 June 1944
* Barking Sands Army Air Field, Hawaii, 15 June 1944
* Angaur Airstrip, Angaur, Palau Islands, 30 September 1944
* Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, 24 June 1945 – 19 December 1945
* Vancouver Barracks, Washington, 4–7 January 1946
* Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, 1 September 1958 – 25 May 1962

Aircraft

* Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 1944–1945

Awards and campaigns

References

Notes

; Explanatory notes

; Citations

Bibliography

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{{United States Air Force

Strategic bombing squadrons of the United States Army Air Forces
Military units and formations established in 1943