331st Air Expeditionary Group

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331st Bombardment Group
Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II
Insignia
331st Bombardment Group emblem approved 22 December 1942)[1]

The 331st Bombardment Group is an inactive

Northwest Field, Guam
. It was inactivated on 15 April 1946.

During

B-29 Superfortress
operations against Japan.

History

Heavy bomber replacement training

The 331st Bombardment Group was first activated in July 1942 at

Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were not proving to be well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit,[3] while the groups and squadrons acting as replacement training units were disbanded or inactivated.[4] This resulted in the 331st, along with other units at Casper, being inactivated in the spring of 1944 and being replaced by the 211th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Station, Heavy), which assumed the 331st Group's mission, personnel, and equipment.[1][5][6][7][8]

Bell-Atlanta B-29B-60-BA Superfortress "Pacusan Dreamboat" (44-84061)

Very heavy bomber operations

Redesignated 331st Bombardment Group (Very Heavy). Activated on 12 July 1944 at Dalhart AAFld, Texas. Assigned to Second Air Force. Trained for combat with B-29B's initially at Dalhart, then to McCook AAFld, Nebraska.

The 331st was assigned the B-29B model. This model was built at Bell-Atlanta. The B-29B was a limited production aircraft, built solely by Bell-Atlanta. It had all but the tail defensive armament removed, since experience had shown that by 1944 the only significant Japanese fighter attacks were coming from the rear. The tail gun was aimed and fired automatically by the new AN/APG-15B radar fire control system that detected the approaching enemy plane and made all the necessary calculations. The elimination of the turrets and the associated General Electric computerized gun system increased the top speed of the Superfortress to 364 mph at 25,000 feet and made the B-29B suitable for fast, unescorted hit-and-run bombing raids and photographic missions.

Moved to Northwest Field, Guam, April–June 1945, and assigned to the

Distinguished Unit Citation
for the missions.

After the war the group dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners of war in Japan. Inactivated on Guam on 15 April 1946.

Hurricane Ike (2008)

The unit was reactivated at

Randolph AFB, Texas, in 2008 as the 331st Air Expeditionary Group, a special unit formed to support Hurricane Ike relief efforts. Units and personnel assigned to the 331st came from both the active and reserve components of the Air Force and Navy.[9]

Lineage

  • Constituted as the 331st Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 1 July 1942
Activated on 6 July 1942
Inactivated on 1 April 1944
  • Redesignated 331st Bombardment Group, Very Heavy and activated on 12 July 1944
Inactivated on 15 April 1946[1]
  • Converted to provisional status and allocated to Air Combat Command to activate or inactivate any time after 10 September 2008
  • Redesignated 331st Air Expeditionary Group and activated 10 September 2008
Inactivated on 16 September 2008

Assignments

Attached to
17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing (Very Heavy)
, 12 July 1944 – 6 April 1945
Attached to 1 AF-Air Forces North (AFNORTH), 10–16 September 2008

Components

  • 461st Bombardment Squadron, 6 July 1942 – 1 April 1944[5]
  • 462d Bombardment Squadron, 6 July 1942 – 1 April 1944[6]
  • 463d Bombardment Squadron, 6 July 1942 – 1 April 1944[7]
  • 464th Bombardment Squadron, 6 July 1942 – 1 April 1944[8]
  • 355th Bombardment Squadron
    1944–1946 (B-29B)
  • 356th Bombardment Squadron
    1944–1946 (B-29B)
  • 357th Bombardment Squadron
    1944–1946 (B-29B)
  • 461st Bombardment Squadron 1942–1944 (B-29B)

Stations

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b c Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 211–212
  2. ^ Craven & Cate, Introduction, p. xxxvi
  3. ^ Goss, p. 75
  4. ^ Maurer, Combat Units, p. 7
  5. ^ a b c Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 568
  6. ^ a b Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 568–569
  7. ^ a b Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 569–570
  8. ^ a b Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 570–571
  9. ^ Staff Sgt. Matthew Bates (13 September 2008). "Rescue personnel fly first flights from Randolph". U.S. Northern Command. Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

Bibliography

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

Goss, William A. (1955). "The Organization and its Responsibilities, Chapter 2 The AAF". In Craven, Wesley F.; Cate, James L. (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II (PDF). Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
OCLC 704158
. Retrieved 17 December 2016.

External links

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