133d Operations Group

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133d Operations Group
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Commanders
Current
commander		Col Peter Ament[1]
Notable commanderBrig Gen Edwin S. Chickering (commander from November 1944 until inactivation)
Insignia
133d Operations Group emblem (Approved 9 July 1954)[2][note 1]

The 133rd Operations Group is the flying component of the

133d Airlift Wing, stationed at Minneapolis–Saint Paul Joint Air Reserve Station, Minnesota. If activated to federal service, the group is gained by Air Mobility Command of the United States Air Force
.

The

Belgian Fourragere
for its actions. It returned to the United States in the fall of 1945 and was inactivated on 7 November 1945.

In May 1946, the group was allotted to the

Air Defense Command
.

The group was returned to the

133d Tactical Airlift Wing
. It was reactivated in 1994 and resumed its role as the operational component of the 133d Wing.

Mission

The

group commands units that support federal and state requirements for the airlift of troops, cargo, and medical patients anywhere in the world. It performs missions tasked by other headquarters within its capabilities. It monitors standardization of all flying and support unit operating procedures and insures units maintain an environment conducive to safe training activities.[1]

History

World War II

Training in the United States

P-39D as used by the group for training

The 367th Fighter Group was first activated at

368th Fighter Groups.[7] The group staged through Camp Shanks, and sailed for England aboard the SS Duchess of Bedford.[8] The "Drunken Duchess"[note 4] docked at Greenock, Scotland on 3 April and the group was transported by train to its airfield at RAF Stoney Cross, England.[7]

P-38 transition and combat operations from England

392d Fighter Squadron P-38[note 5]

Having trained on single engine aircraft, the group's pilots were surprised to find

55th Fighter Group.[10] The change from single engine to twin engine aircraft required considerable retraining for both pilots and ground crew.[9] Although some pilots entered combat with as little as eight hours of flying time on the P-38, in late April the group was reinforced by fourteen pilots who had trained on the Lightning in the States and were more experienced on the type.[11] However, the lack of instrument training in the P-38 took its toll on the group as weather, not enemy action, caused the loss of pilots and airplanes.[12]

On 9 May, the group flew its first combat mission, a fighter sweep over

dive bombing, missions and suffered its first combat losses.[14]

On

Messerschmitt Me 410 flying near the assigned target.[16]

By mid June

German ground forces had withdrawn to defend a perimeter around Cherbourg, a major port whose capture had become more important to the allies with the destruction of Mulberry A, one of the artificial harbors constructed near the Normandy beachhead. An attack by VII Corps on 22 June was to be preceded by low level bombing and strafing attack by IX Fighter Command. Briefed by intelligence to expect a "milk run" The 367th flew at low altitude through what turned out to be a heavily defended area. Within two to three minutes after beginning the attack the 394th Squadron lost five pilots. Seven group pilots were killed in action. Nearly all surviving group aircraft received battle damage and the 367th was out of action for several days.[9][17]

387th Bombardment Group was moved to Stoney Cross, forcing the 367th to vacate their station and move the short distance to RAF Ibsley.[18] From Ibsley the group struck railroads, marshaling yards, and trains to prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching the front during the Allied breakthrough at Saint Lo in July 1944.[2]

Operations on the European Continent

Starting on 19 July the group's forward echelon crossed the

Third Army. In late August, the group attacked German Seventh Army convoys which, to prevent being surrounded, were withdrawing eastward from the Falaise pocket. Five convoys and 100 Tiger Tanks were destroyed on one day.[9] By mid August the group and its squadrons were able to operate from a single base, Cricqueville Airfield.[20]

On 22 August the group attacked three Luftwaffe airfields near Laon. The 392d Squadron dive bombed and destroyed two hangars on one airfield but were jumped by twelve Focke-Wulf Fw 190s as they completed their attack. Eighteen Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Fw 190s engaged the 393d Squadron as it reformed from its dive bomb run. After bombing its target, the 394th Squadron turned to reinforce the 392d. The group claimed fourteen enemy aircraft against a loss of one Lightning.[9]

The 367th received a

strafed a train and convoy after leaving the scene of battle. Captain Larry Blumer of the 393d Squadron destroyed five enemy aircraft becoming an ace on one mission. In the afternoon the 367th destroyed sixteen Junkers Ju 52s while on a long range fighter sweep of more than 800 miles to airfields in the Dijon-Bordeaux area.[2][9][21]

As Allied forces moved forward across France the group began leap-frogging to new bases. In early September they relocated at

Operation Market-Garden by escorting troop carrier aircraft and attacking flak positions. For its attacks that fall, the group was cited in the Order of the Day by the Belgium Army.[9]

In late October, as Ninth Air Force brought its medium bombers to bases in France, the 367th was bumped from its station for the second time by the 387th Bombardment Group, when it moved to Juvincourt Airfield (A-68), north of Reims.[2][22] Juvincourt was a former Luftwaffe base with permanent facilities, in contrast to the advanced landing grounds where the group had been based since moving to France.[23] The group attacked German strong points to aid the Allied push against the Siegfried Line throughout the fall of 1944.[2]

The German

Forward Air Control team to Bastogne to assist the 101st Airborne Division, arriving just an hour before the Wehrmacht cut the last road access to Bastogne. When the weather finally broke, the team was able to direct flights of fighter-bomber aircraft attacking the Germans. During the Battle of the Bulge, the 367th, after escorting C-47s on a resupply drop to encircled troops at Bastogne, conducted an armed reconnaissance of the Trier area. The 394th Squadron was engaged by Fw 190s and a 40-minute air battle ensued in which the group claimed eight destroyed, two probably destroyed and nine damaged.[9]

Transition to the P-47 Thunderbolt

The P-47D of the Group commander, Col. Chickering, in 1945

Early in 1945 a desire to standardize the fighter-bombers in Ninth Air Force, the group transitioned into Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. Pilots flew Lightnings on combat missions while training at the same time with the Thunderbolt. The 393d Squadron was the first to fly combat missions with the P-47s. Using the Thunderbolt the group was again cited in a Belgium Army Order of the Day, earning the Belgian Fourragere.[9]

The 367th received a second Distinguished Unit Citation for action on 19 March 1945. The group's target was the headquarters of Field Marshal Kesselring, the German Commander-ln-Chief, West,[note 8] at Ziegenburg near Bad Nauheim, Germany. Aircraft of the leading 394th Squadron would attack at low level to achieve surprise, carrying a 1,000-pound bomb under each wing. The P-47s of the 392d Squadron would be similarly armed, but would dive bomb from a higher altitude. The bombs were equipped with time-delay fuses intended to crack the concrete roofs of the bunker. The 393rd Squadron carried napalm intended to seep into the bunkers and burn what remained. The attack was scheduled for a time that intelligence reports indicated would find senior staff and commanders at lunch, the only time they would not be in the reinforced tunnels underneath the castle that housed the headquarters. The target was located in mountainous terrain well defended by antiaircraft artillery. Moreover, to avoid alerting the Germans to the pending attack, photographic reconnaissance aircraft had avoided the area, so detailed target photography was not available. The day of the attack the castle was concealed by ground haze which caused the 394th to stray off course at the last minute, preventing them from executing the attack as planned and reducing the element of surprise.[24] Although senior German officers reached the underground bunkers and survived the attack, the group reduced the military complex to ruins, disrupting communications and the flow of intelligence at a critical time.[9]

The group struck tanks, trucks, flak positions, and other objectives in support of the assault across the Rhine late in March and the final allied operations in Germany.[2] It was commended by the commanding generals of XII Corps and the 11th Armored Division for the close air support the group provided for their commands. On 10 April the group moved to Eschborn Airfield on the northwest side of Frankfurt, Germany. The 367th flew its last combat mission, a defensive patrol, one year after entering combat on 8 May.[25]

All hostilities ceased

Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina on 2 November, and the 367th was inactivated there on 7 November 1945.[2][9]

Statistical summary

The 367th participated in seven campaigns. It had flown 14,175 combat sorties destroying 432 enemy aircraft, probably destroying another 28 and damaging 344.[note 9] They had also destroyed or damaged 384 locomotives, 4,672 motor vehicles and 8,288 railroad cars.[9]

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