91st Bomb Group

The 91st Bomb Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and was known unofficially as "The Ragged Irregulars" or as "Wray's Ragged Irregulars", after the commander who took the group to England. During its service in World War II the unit consisted of the 322nd, 323rd, 324th, and 401st Bomb Squadrons. The 91st Bomb Group is most noted as the unit in which the bomber '' Memphis Belle'' flew, and for having suffered the greatest number of losses of any heavy bomb group in World War II.

The 91st Bomb Group conducted 340 bombing missions with the Eighth Air Force over Europe, operating out of RAF Bassingbourn. Inactivated at the end of the war, the group was brought back in 1947 as a reconnaissance group of the United States Air Force, and then had its lineage and honors bestowed on like-numbered wings of the Strategic Air Command, the Air Force Space Command and the Air Force Global Strike Command.

From 1 July 1947, until its drawdown in February 1952, the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Group provided worldwide surveillance, flying RB-29s, RB-45s and RB-47s as a subordinate component of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, consisting of the 322nd, 323rd, and 324th Strategic Recon Squadrons, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron (Medium). The group was inactivated on 28 May 1952, as part of an SAC-wide termination of groups as an organizational echelon, while the wing and all subordinate units remained active until 8 November 1957.

The group was activated in 1991 as the 91st Operations Group. Between 1991 and 1994, and since 1996, the 91st Operations Group, initially as part of the 91st Space Wing, and since renamed the 91st Missile Wing, maintains the alert force of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles maintained at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Its three missile squadrons, however, have no traditional link to the 91st Bomb Group and were previously part of the 455th Strategic Missile Wing and 455th Bomb Group.

Organization of the 91st Bomb Group (H)

The 91st Bomb Group, (Heavy) was activated on 14 April 1942, by General Order 31 of the Third Air Force.

Wartime command staff

¹Lt. Col. Sheeler, while Operations Officer, was also acting group commander from 15 November 1944, to 30 December 1944, in the absence of Col. Terry.

Squadron commanders

Four heavy bomb squadrons were constituted 16 May 1942, and assigned to the group.

¹Major Myers, the Group's S-3, was also acting 401st BS commander because of casualties.

Component support organizations

* Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron (Lt. Col. Louis H. Magee, Adjutant)
* 364th Service Squadron
* 39th Service & Support Group (detachment)
* 161st Quartermaster Company (detachment)
* 863rd Chemical Company
* 982d Military Police Company
* 1076th Ordnance Company
* 1204th Quartermaster Company (detachment)
* 1696th Ordnance Company

Training history and movement overseas

Established 28 January 1942, and activated on 14 April 1942 at Harding Army Air Base, Louisiana, the 91st Bomb Group consisted of a small administrative cadre without subordinate units until 13 May 1942, when it was moved to MacDill Field, Florida. There Lt. Col. Stanley T. Wray took command of the group, and the four flying squadrons assigned to the group were activated. The 91st received air crews and began phase one training with just three B-17's available. On 26 June 1942, the group (now consisting of 83 officers and 78 enlisted men) was transferred to the Second Air Force and moved to Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington to complete phase two training, with two squadrons operating from satellite fields at Pendleton and Baker Army Air Base, Oregon.

The 91st received orders to deploy overseas and on 24 August 1942, the ground echelon entrained for Fort Dix, New Jersey, where it remained until 5 September, embarking on the RMS Queen Mary. Arriving at Greenock, Scotland, on 11 September, the ground echelon moved by train to RAF Kimbolton, a war expansion airfield in the English Midlands.

Part of the air echelon moved on 24 August 1942, to Gowen Field, Idaho, where it received six new B-17F aircraft. From there it flew by pairs, making frequent stops, to Dow Army Airfield, Maine. The remainder of the air crews relocated to Dow by train, arriving 1 September. Between 4 and 24 September the group flew training missions while it received 29 additional B-17's from air depots in Middletown, Pennsylvania; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado, and conducted phase three training.

The 91st Bomb Group moved by squadrons to the United Kingdom, beginning with the 324th Bomb Squadron on 25 September, flying to Gander, Newfoundland. The 324th made a non-stop flight along the North Ferry Route on 30 September, landing at Prestwick, Scotland. The 322d Bomb Squadron moved to Gander on 30 September, and Prestwick on 1 October, followed by one day by the 401st Bomb Squadron. The group lost one of its 35 bombers during transit when a 401st B-17 crashed in fog into a hillside near Cushendall, Northern Ireland, killing 8 of the crew and a flight surgeon.

The 324th Bomb Squadron flew as a unit from Prestwick to Kimbolton on 1 October, followed by the 322nd on 2 October and the 401st on 6 October. On 10 October, the remaining squadron, the 323rd, flew to Gander from Dow. It did not reach Prestwick until 14 October, by which time the 91st had changed bases.

VIII Bomber Command had assigned the 91st to Kimbolton intending it to be its operational base. The installation was of war-time construction and had not yet been reconstructed to Class A airfield specifications. Intended as a light or medium bomber field, its runways were not suitable for the combat weights of B-17s fully loaded with bombs and fuel. Three practice missions in as many days indicated to the staff of the 91st that the runway would quickly deteriorate and Colonel Wray immediately consulted Col. Newton Longfellow, VIII BC commander, who suggested Wray inspect the RAF Bomber Command OTU base at RAF Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire (), to see if it might be suitable.

Wray traveled to RAF Bassingbourn, located four miles (6 km) north of Royston. Not only was the base more appealing from its closer proximity to London, but it had been constructed in 1938 and was considerably more comfortable, with permanent brick buildings, including barracks for enlisted personnel (in contrast to the Nissen huts at Kimbolton), landscaped grounds with curbed roadways (Kimbolton, like many war-time fields, was noted for muddy conditions); and had already been re-constructed to a Class A airfield.

Wray contacted his staff and ordered them to prepare for immediate relocation. On 14 October, without prior approval, the 91st moved itself and all of its equipment to Bassingbourn in one day and took possession of the station.

Combat operations and tactics

The combat history of the 91st Bomb Group can be ordered into three phases. The first, from 4 November 1942 to 1 May 1943, saw the 91st develop operational experience as one of the four "pioneer" B-17 groups, creating doctrine and tactics. The second, from 1 May 1943 to 1 January 1944, had the 91st in a leadership role of the Eighth Air Force at a time when the expanding Bomber Command struggled to establish air superiority without adequate fighter support. The final phase, from 1 January 1944 to 27 May 1945, was as one part of a massive, systematic campaign supported by a large force of escort fighters that brought to fruition the strategic bombing concept.

First phase of operations

The 91st Bomb Group began combat operations on 4 November 1942, when it received a field order for a mission to bomb the submarine pens at Brest, France, later changed to an attack on the Luftwaffe airfield at Abbeville. Thirty minutes before takeoff the mission was cancelled ("scrubbed" in the parlance of that time) because of poor weather. These circumstances were typical of those encountered daily by all the heavy bomber groups in the autumn of 1942 as they pioneered the concept of strategic bombing by daylight.

On 4 November the Eighth Air Force consisted of just nine groups. Four (91st, 97th, 301st and 303d) had been earmarked for the Twelfth Air Force in support of Operation Torch and were in England to acquire combat experience and stage for forward movement to North Africa. Two (97th and 301st) had already been withdrawn from operations to prepare for imminent transfer to Algeria and another (92nd) to act as an operational training unit (OTU) for replacement combat crews. Of the six remaining units only the 93rd Bomb Group (a B-24 unit) and the 306th Bomb Group were operational, and the 306th had flown only two missions. As late as 15 December the impending transfer of the 91st BG to Algeria was postponed because of logistics difficulties and a shortage of airdromes in North Africa.

The group's first mission was to Brest, France, on 7 November. The target was the Kriegsmarine submarine base, and was the first of 28 missions against the U-boat force in the following eight months. In all, eight missions were flown in November 1942, seven of them against the sub pens. The last of these, on 23 November, resulted in the disastrous loss of two squadron commanders, the group navigator, the group bombardier, and three of the five airplanes attacking.

In December 1942 VIII Bomber Command issued two-letter squadron identification codes to be painted on the fuselages of the bombers:
* 322nd BS – LG
* 323rd BS – OR
* 324th BS – DF
* 401st BS – LL

The 91st was made a part of the 101st Provisional Bomb Wing on 3 January 1943. Its first mission to a target in Germany occurred 27 January, and it earned the first of two Distinguished Unit Citations on 4 March when it continued an attack against the marshalling yards at Hamm, Germany, after all the other groups had turned back because of poor weather conditions. On 17 April the group led the Eighth Air Force on its first mission against the German aircraft industry, attacking Bremen. German fighter reaction was intense and sustained, and the Eighth lost twice as many bombers as on any previous mission. The 91st had six B-17s shot down, all from the 401st Bomb Squadron.

During this phase the group received a substantial number of aircraft to replace those lost or written off. However replacements for lost crewmen were few and made by transfer of individuals. The influx of replacement crews from the Combat Crew Replacement Center at Bovingdon did not begin until March 1943 when the personnel requirements of Operation Torch were largely fulfilled. As the 91st developed combat experience, it experienced a decrease in aircraft commanders, apart from missing aircraft and wounds, from moving pilots into command and staff positions. Without an adequate pool of replacements, many co-pilots were upgraded to aircraft commanders.

Second phase of operations

The second phase of combat operations, coinciding with the implementation of the Pointblank Directive to target German airpower, began in May 1943. The Eighth developed in the next three months into a force of sixteen B-17 groups and began attacking industrial targets deep inside Germany beginning at the end of July. Col. Wray left the 91st on 22 May to become commander of a new wing, the 103rd Provisional Combat Bomb Wing. He was replaced by the group deputy commander, Lt. Col. William Reid, formerly of the 92nd Bomb Group. Lt. Col. Baskin Lawrence, who had been the deputy commander of the 91st from its date of activation, had left the group 1 May to command the 92nd.

On 25 June 1943, a wholesale shifting of command officers between the two groups occurred. Col. Lawrence departed the 92nd to become commander of a new "Pathfinder" group drawn from a squadron of the 92nd, and was replaced by Col. Reid, who left the 91st to command his old group. The 91st received its third commander, Lt. Col. Clemens Wurzbach, who had been Lawrence's deputy commander.

During this transition period the 91st also had its first crews finish their required combat tours and return to the United States, including the crew of the '' Memphis Belle''. Of the original roster of combat crews, 32% completed their tours, 15% were reassigned to other commands, and the rest became casualties. At the end of June it also acquired its most recognizable symbol, the "Triangle A" group tail marking often used in films about B-17s.

On 17 August 1943, the 91st Bomb Group led a mission to bomb the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany, losing 10 aircraft. This was the first of several missions between then and 14 October 1943, in which the Eighth Air Force, flying beyond the range of its fighter escorts, suffered severe losses of aircraft and crews. The 91st had 28 aircraft shot down during this period, the most of any group in the Eighth. The remainder of the second phase of operations saw a suspension of deep penetration missions until long-range escort fighters became available.

Until 22 September 1943, the 91st BG had been equipped entirely with B-17F aircraft that had not been modified for longer-range Tokyo tanks. On that date it received is first B-17G, which would become the standard bomber of the Eighth Air Force in 1944–1945. It continued to receive B-17F replacement aircraft, along with the B-17G's, until 24 December 1943.

Col. Wurzbach completed his tour of duty on 12 December 1943, and was replaced by Col. Claude E. Putnam, a former commander of the 324th Bomb Squadron, who returned to his old group from duty as the commander of the 306th Bomb Group, where he had been pilot of the lead aircraft on the first mission to Germany nearly a year before. Wurzbach had commanded the group for 44 missions; Putnam would command it for 63.

Final phase of operations

The 91st Bomb Group won its second DUC as part of the six-group task force attacking the AGO Flugzeugwerke assembly factory (license-building the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A) at Oschersleben, Germany, on 11 January 1944. This attack marked the renewal of the heavy bomber offensive against targets in all areas of the German Reich. Although losses were heavy (34 from the Oschersleben task force and 60 overall), three targets were struck by over 600 bombers and a group of P-51 Mustangs was part of the escort force.

From 20 to 25 February 1944, known as "Big Week", the United States Strategic Air Forces conducted Operation Argument, a campaign against the German aircraft industry with the goal of achieving air superiority over Europe by drawing the German fighter force into combat. 800 to 1000 bombers, escorted by 700 to 900 fighters, struck multiple targets daily from both England and Italy. The 91st flew all five days, losing ten aircraft, and on 24 February attacked Schweinfurt for the third time.

The first attack by the 91st on Berlin came on 6 March, when it led the entire Eighth Air Force at a loss of 69 bombers (6 of them from the 91st), followed by half a dozen more to the German capital in the next two months. On 12 May the Eighth Air Force began a costly campaign against oil and synthetic oil production facilities that continued to the end of the war. On 17 May, Col. Putnam completed his tour as commanding officer of the 91st Bomb Group and Col. Henry W. Terry took command, which he would retain for 185 missions to the end of hostilities in Europe. Aided by the use of radar-equipped Pathfinder force bombers, the 91st BG averaged a mission every other day for the remainder of the war.

In addition to bombing strategic targets, often at great loss in aircraft and crews, the 91st also made tactical strikes in support of the Allied landings in France, in the battles for Caen

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