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 ...
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. It was inactivated on 31 March 1946.
It engaged in patrol operations from Hawaii from January 1942. On the night of 22-23 December 1942, twenty-six
Consolidated B-24D 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 ...
s of the
307th Bombardment Group
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
staged through Midway Island for a strike on
Wake Island
Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of To ...
with 135 500-pound general purpose bombs and 21 incendiaries. The attack may have taken the Japanese by surprise, as neither searchlights nor antiaircraft fire were encountered until after the bombing had begun. All planes returned safely, with only slight damage to two.
After late 1943, VII Bomber Command served in combat in the Central and Western Pacific.
Lineage
* Constituted as the 7th Bomber Command on 23 January 1942Maurer indicates that the unit was constituted as the "VII" 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 29 January 1942
* Redesignated VII Bomber Command c. 18 September 1942
: Inactivated on 31 March 1946
: Disbanded on 8 October 1948
Commanders
*Brig Gen
Willis H. Hale
Willis may refer to:
Places
United States
* Willis, Florida, an unincorporated community
* Willis, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Willis, Kansas, a city
* Willis, Michigan, an unincorporated community
* Willis, Nebraska, an unincorporat ...
(29 January 1942 – 19 June 1942)
*Col Albert F. Hegenberger (20 June 1942 – 25 June 1942)
*Brig Gen William E. Lynd (25 June 1942 – November 1942)
*Brig Gen
LaVerne G. Saunders
LaVerne George Saunders (21 March 1903 – 16 November 1988) was a brigadier general (United States), brigadier general in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. A 1928 graduate of the West Point, he was an assistant coach of the c ...
(8 January 1943 – January 1943)
*Brig Gen Truman H. Landon (January 1943 – 10 December 1944)
*Brig Gen Lawrence J. Carr (11 December 1944 – October 1945)
Task Force 59
Task may refer to:
* Task (computing), in computing, a program execution context
* Task (language instruction) refers to a certain type of activity used in language instruction
* Task (project management), an activity that needs to be accomplished ...
, May 1944-unknown), 23 January 1942
* not confirmed, 1 January – 31 March 1946.
Funafuti Airfield
Funafuti International Airport is an airport in Funafuti, in the capital city of the island nation of Tuvalu. It is the sole international airport in Tuvalu. Fiji Airways (trading as Fiji Link) operates between Suva and Funafuti. Air Kiribati pr ...
,
Nanumea
Nanumea is the northwesternmost atoll in the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu, a group of nine coral atolls and islands spread over about of the Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and west of the International Date Line. Nanumea is with a popul ...
Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civilia ...
,
Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...
, March 1944
*
East Field (Saipan)
East Field (also known as Kagman Airfield) is a former World War II airfield on Saipan in the Mariana Islands, part of Naval Advance Base Saipan.
History
Saipan had been occupied by the Japanese since World War I, and by mid-1944, the Americans h ...
, Mariana Islands, August 1944
*
Yontan Airfield
Yontan Airfield (also known as Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield) is a former military airfield located near Yomitan Village on the west coast of Okinawa. It was closed in July 1996 and turned over to the Japanese government in December 2006. Today it i ...
,
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
, July 1945 – March 1946
Components
; Groups
*
5th Bombardment Group
''005'' (pronounced "''double-o five''") is a 1981 arcade video game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings" ...
: 29 January 1942 – 4 January 1943
*
11th Bombardment Group
An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...
: 29 January 1942 – 5 January 1943; 8 April 1943 – 23 November 1945
*
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
...
: 17 October 1943 – 17 March 1945
* 41st Bombardment Group: 16 October 1943 – 27 January 1945
*
90th Bombardment Group
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Arabic digit
In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
: 12 September – November 1942
*
307th Bombardment Group
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
: 1 November 1942– 9 February 1943
* 319th Bombardment Group: c. 2 July – 18 December 1945
*
494th Bombardment Group 494th may refer to:
*494th Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit
*494th Bombardment Wing, inactive United States Air Force unit
*494th Fighter Squadron (494 FS), part of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England
See al ...
: c. 24 June 1944 – c. 8 December 1945 (under operational control of Combined Task Group 95.6 3 November 1944, Fifth Air Force 13 December 1944,
V Bomber Command
The V Bomber Command is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last assigned to Fifth Air Force, based at Irumagawa AB, Japan. It was inactivated on 31 May 1946.
During World War II the unit initially controlled Fifth Air Forc ...
15 December 1944, Thirteenth Air Force 28 January 1945,
XIII Bomber Command
The XIII Bomber Command was an inactive United States Army Air Forces formation. It was last assigned to Thirteenth Air Force, based at Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines. It was inactivated on 15 March 1946.
History
XIII Bomber Command was a Worl ...
20 March 1945, Thirteenth Air Force 18 March – 14 April 1945)
; Squadrons
*
1st Reconnaissance Squadron
The 1st Reconnaissance Squadron is a United States Air Force squadron, assigned to the 9th Operations Group, Beale Air Force Base, California.
The 1st Reconnaissance Squadron is the United States military's oldest flying unit, first establish ...
: attached 10 December 1945 – March 1946
* 163d Liaison Squadron: 1–25 December 1945
*
305th Fighter Control Squadron
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
007
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...