379th Bombardment Squadron

379th Space Range Squadron

Group B-25J Mitchells dropping 1,000 pound bombs over the Brenner Pass in Northern Italy, 1944
Active 1942-1945; 1947-1949; 1952-1965; 2012-present
Country  United States
Branch  United States Air Force
Role Range management
Part of Air Force Reserve Command
Garrison/HQ Schriever Air Force Base
Decorations Distinguished Unit Citation
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Insignia
Patch with 379th Bombardment Squadron emblem[1][note 1]
World War II tail markings[1] Yellow horizontal stripe (310th Group) with narrower white horizontal stripe below (for 379th Squadron)

The 379th Space Range Squadron is an Air Force Reserve unit. It is assigned to the 926th Wing, and is located at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.

For most of its existence the unit was designated the 379th Bombardment Squadron, and was most recently stationed under that name at Shilling Air Force Base, Kansas, where it was inactivated on 25 March 1965.

History

World War II

Activated in mid-1942 at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona as a North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber squadron, but moved on paper the same day to Jackson Army Air Base, Mississippi. The squadron trained under Third Air Force in the southeastern United States. It was deployed initially to England in September 1942 and flew some missions under VIII Bomber Command over German-occupied France; attacking enemy troop formations, bridges and airfields. It was part of Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in November 1942, being deployed to the new Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The squadron was assigned to the Twelfth Air Force in French Morocco in November, when it was engaged primarily in support and interdictory operations, bombing marshalling yards, rail lines, highways, bridges, viaducts, troop concentrations, gun emplacements, shipping, harbors and other objectives in North Africa.

The squadron also engaged in psychological warfare missions, dropping propaganda leaflets behind enemy lines. It took part in the Allied operations against Axis forces in North Africa during March–May 1943, the reduction of Pantelleria and Lampedusa islands during June and the invasion of Sicily in July. It was also involved in the landing on the Italian mainland at Salerno in September, the Allied advance toward Rome during January–June 1944, Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944 and Allied operations in northern Italy from September 1944 to April 1945. It was inactivated in Italy after the German capitulation in September 1945.

Air Force Reserve

It was reactivated as part of the Air Force Reserve in 1947, although it is unclear whether or not the squadron was manned or equipped. It was inactivated in 1949.

Strategic Air Command

Reactivated in 1952 as a Strategic Air Command squadron, the unit received Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombardment training from the 90th Bombardment Wing between April and August 1952. It acted as a training squadron until 1954 when it replaced the propeller-driven B-29s with new Boeing B-47E Stratojet swept-wing medium bombers. These aircraft were capable of flying at high subsonic speeds and were primarily designed for penetrating the airspace of the Soviet Union. By the early 1960s, the B-47s were considered to be reaching obsolescence, and were being phased out of SAC's strategic arsenal. They were sent to AMARC at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in early 1965. The squadron was inactivated in March.

Lineage

Activated on 15 March 1942
Inactivated on 12 September 1945
Activated in the reserve on 9 August 1947
Inactivated on 27 June 1949
Activated on 28 March 1952[2] (not operational until 4 March 1952)[3]
Discontinued and inactivated on 25 March 1965[4] (not operational after 25 February 1965)[3]
Activated on 1 April 2012[4]

Assignments

Stations

RAF Hardwick, England, September – November 1942 (air echelon)

Aircraft

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ This emblem was replaced on 21 January 1958. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 468-469
Citations
  1. 1 2 Watkins, pp. 80-81
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lineage, including assignments, aircraft and stations through 1963 in Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 468-469
  3. 1 2 3 Ravenstein, pp. 158-159
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Research Division, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Air Force Organization Change Status Report, April 2012, Maxwell AFB, AL
  5. ↑ Mueller, p.221
Bibliography

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

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