479th Antisubmarine Group

479th Antisubmarine Group
479th Antisubmarine Group
Active	1943
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army Air Forces
Role	Antisubmarine Warfare

The 479th Antisubmarine Group was a group of the United States Army Air Forces. Throughout its existence it was assigned to the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command. It was last based at RAF Podington, England. It was inactivated on 11 November 1943.

The group comprised existing squadrons reassigned from

Langley Field, Virginia and deployed to RAF St Eval in Cornwall England. Its mission was to fly killer hunts against German U-boats in the Bay of Biscay off the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border. Along this part of the occupied French coast were major Kriegsmarine U-boat bases at Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle (La Pallice) and Bordeaux

.

At RAF St Eval, the group operated under the control of

Focke-Wulf Fw 200; Messerschmitt Bf 109

; Messerschmitt Bf 110) in combat. The 479th ASG lost four Liberators and twenty nine men had been killed in action.

The 479th AG moved to

RAF Dunkeswell in Devon during early August 1943 and ended operations in October 1943 after the aerial antisubmarine mission was turned over to the United States Navy

. B-24s reassigned to Navy Patrol Bomber Squadron VPB-103, Fleet Air Wing 7 at Dunkeswell and were redesignated as PB4Ys.

Four years after the group was disbanded, the new United States Air Force assumed control over all USAAF units, active or inactive. The group was reconstituted by the USAF in 1985, but not activated.