The IV Bomber Command is a disbanded

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 ...

headquarters. It was established in September 1941, shortly before the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

to command bomber units assigned to

4th Air Force The Fourth Air Force (4 AF) is a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). It is headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, California. 4 AF directs the activities and supervises the training of more than 30,000 Air Force Reserv ...

. Following the entry of the United States into

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 ...

, it flew patrols off the Pacific coast. However, its main efforts soon began organizing and training bomber units and aircrews. It was disbanded at

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California on 31 March 1944.

History

Background and organization

GHQ Air Force (GHQ, AF) had been established with two major combat functions, to maintain a striking force against long range targets, and the

air defense 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, ...

of the United States. In the spring of 1941, GHQ, AF reorganized its Southwest Air District as

. To carry out its mission of training and maintaining a strike force, 4th Air Force organized a provisional Bomber Command, 4th Air Force at

March Field March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Ma ...

by April 1941. In September, the provisional command was replaced by 4th Bomber Command at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona in September 1941. The command moved to Hamilton Field, California, after the

. The new command drew much of its initial

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 ...

from the

1st Bombardment Wing The 1st Bombardment Wing is a disbanded United States Army Air Force unit. It was initially formed in France in 1918 during World War I as a command and control organization for the Pursuit Groups of the First Army Air Service. Demobilized after ...

, which had been stationed at Davis-Monthan since May.

Operations

Shortly after the command became organized, the

caused the command to relocate to move to Hamilton Field and concentrate its efforts on antisubmarine patrols off the southern Pacific coast, reinforcing units of the Western and

Northwestern Sea Frontier Sea Frontiers were several, now disestablished, commands of the United States Navy as areas of defense against enemy vessels, especially submarines, along the U.S. coasts. They existed from 1 July 1941 until in some cases the 1970s. Sea Frontiers ...

s of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. However, it shortly became apparent that there was little threat from Japanese

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. and the command shifted its focus to the training of bomber units and crews. Simultaneously, the AAF moved almost all its

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...

training in

Second Air Force The Second Air Force (2 AF; ''2d Air Force'' in 1942) is a USAF numbered air force responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and non-flying officers. In World War II the CONUS unit defended ...

, while Fourth Air Force focused on

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

, training, so the command did not grow. In late 1943, some

training was moved from

, which had been the primary command for that training, to the command in order to enable combined training between

fighters Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to: Combat and warfare * Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict * Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplan ...

and bombers. In conjunction with this transfer, the command adopted the three phase training system for its training units: Phase I (individual training); Phase II (crew training) and Phase III (unit training). In the spring of 1944, the AAF reorganized its training units to provide more flexibility in manning, rather than continuing to use rigid table of organization units. In this reorganization, the command was disbanded on 31 March 1944 and its personnel absorbed into the 400th AAF Base Unit (Headquarters, Fourth Air Force).

Lineage

* Constituted as the 4th Bomber Command on 1 September 1941This command is not related to a previous Bomber Command, 4th Air Force, apparently a provisional organization, that was organized at

from the

on 11 April 1941 and discontinued on 19 September 1941. 1Maurer indicates that the unit was constituted as the "IV" Bomber Command. However, the unit was constituted and activated with an

arabic number Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers such as c ...

in its name. The use of

roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

s to designate Army Air Forces combat commands did not begin until September 1942. : Activated on 19 September 1941 : Redesignated IV Bomber Command on 18 September 1942 : Disbanded on 31 March 1944

Assignments

* Fourth Air Force, 1 September 1941 – 31 March 1944

Components

Groups *

14th Pursuit Group The 14th Operations Group is the flying component of the 14th Flying Training Wing, assigned to the United States Air Force's Air Education and Training Command. The group is stationed at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. The group was fir ...

, 19 September 1941 – 26 January 1942 (attached to

4th Interceptor Command Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

, 17 October – December 1941)Haulman says assignment began on 5 September. According to Maurer, the command was not activated until the 19th of the month. Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 441-442 *

19th Bombardment Group 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics 19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...

, 19 September– c. 23 October 1941 *

30th Bombardment Group 030 may refer to: * Motorola 68030 * BR-030 * Geographical telephone calling prefixes ** Greater Accra area code, Ghana ** Utrecht, Netherlands ** Berlin, Germany ** Bar Municipality and Ulcinj Municipality of Montenegro ** Province of Brescia ...

, 20 January 1942 – 11 October 1943 * 41st Bombardment Group, 19 September 1941 – October 1943 *

42d Bombardment Group 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, 25 January 1942 – 14 March 1943 *

47th Bombardment Group 47th may refer to: Chicago Transit Authority stations * 47th station (CTA Green Line) 47th is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's "L" system, located in the Grand Boulevard community area of Chicago, Illinois and serving the Green ...

, attached 17 December 1941 – 15 February 1942 * 51st Pursuit Group, 19 September 1941 – c. 11 January 1942 (attached to

after 14 October 1941) *

399th Bombardment Group 399th may refer to: * 399th Bombardment Group, inactive United States Air Force unit * 399th Bombardment Squadron or 99th Air Refueling Squadron, part of the 6th Air Mobility Wing at Birmingham Air National Guard Base, Alabama *399th Fighter Squadr ...

, 3 December 1943 – 31 March 1944 *

456th Bombardment Group Activated in June 1943 as a heavy bombardment group. Trained with B-24 Liberators for duty overseas. Moved to Italy, December 1943 – January 1944. Began combat with Fifteenth Air Force in February 1944, operating chiefly against strategic tar ...

, c. 2 October 1943 – January 1944 *

470th Bombardment Group The 470th Electronic Warfare Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last active as a crew training unit during World War II as the 470th Bombardment Group at Tonopah Army Air Field, Nevada, where it was disbanded on 31 March 1 ...

, 6 January–31 March 1944 *

483d Bombardment Group 483rd or 483d may refer to: * 483d Bombardment Squadron or 303d Air Refueling Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 483d Tactical Airlift Wing, tactical airlift and composite wing assigned to Pacific Air Forces during the Vietnam War S ...

, 20 September–7 November 1943 Squadrons * 32nd Bombardment Squadron (attached 26 January – 16 March 1942) *

38th Reconnaissance Squadron The 38th Reconnaissance Squadron is a United States Air Force unit. It is a part of the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. It operates the Boeing RC-135 aircraft conducting reconnaissance missions. Mission The mission of the 38th R ...

, 19 September – 16 December 1941 (attached to

Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 524

Stations

* Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, 19 September 1941 * Hamilton Field, California, c. 8 December 1941 *

, California, 5 January 1942 – 31 March 1944

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{USAAF 4th Air Force World War II 04 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944