461st Bombardment Squadron

461st Bombardment Squadron

Emblem of the 461st Bombardment Squadron
Active 1942-1946
Country United States
Branch United States Army Air Forces
Type Bombardment

The 461st Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with 346th Bombardment Group stationed at Kadena Airfield, Okinawa. It was inactivated on 30 June 1946.

History

Established as a heavy bombardment squadron in 1942. Mission was as an Operational Training Unit (OTU) under II Bomber Command training B-17 and B-24 replacement pilots and aircrew.

Redesignated a B-29 Superfortress operational squadron in August 1944. Trained under Second Air Force; deployed to the Western Pacific, being assigned to the new Eighth Air Force. Arrived in Okinawa but Japanese Capitulation led to drawdown of Eighth Air Force and the squadron never was engaged in combat.

Flew show-of-force missions over Occupied Japan and aircraft helped evacuate prisoners of war from Japan and China to airfields in the Philippines. Personnel demobilized and aircraft flown to storage in the United States in May 1946 and the unit was inactivated as a paper unit in Okinawa on 30 June.

Lineage

Activated on 6 Jul 1942
Inactivated on 1 Apr 1944
Activated on 18 Aug 1944
Inactivated on 30 Jun 1946

Assignments

Stations

Aircraft

References

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

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