The 395th Bombardment Group is an inactive
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
unit. It was part of
Second Air Force, serving as a
heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually Aerial bomb, bombs) and longest range (aeronautics), range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy ...
training unit from February 1943 until it was inactivated on 1 April 1944 in a reorganization of
Army Air Forces training units..
History
The 395th Bombardment Group was organized at
Ephrata Army Air Base, Washington on 16 February 1943.
[ The group drew its original cadre from the 34th Bombardment Group. Its original components were the 588th, 589th, 590th and 591st Bombardment Squadrons.][Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 675][Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 676] The group served as an Operational Training Unit (OTU) for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...
units preparing for overseas deployment. The OTU program was patterned after the unit training system of the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
. It involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups"[Craven & Cate, Introduction, p. xxxvi] The parent unt then assumed responsibility for their training and oversaw their expansion with graduates of Army Air Forces Training Command
The United States Army Air Forces during World War II had major subordinate Commands below the Air Staff level. These Commands were organized along functional missions. One such Command was the Flying Training Command (FTC). It began as Air Cor ...
schools to become effective combat units. The 398th, 401st and 447th Bombardment Groups were formed at Ephrata during the group's period as an OTU there. A detachment of the group, referred to as the 395th Heavy Bombardment Crew Detachment, conducted Phase I training, acting, in effect, as a fifth squadron of the group.[Greer, p. 606] The 589th and 590th Squadrons conducted Phase II training, each being organized as a provisional group for this purpose.[ This phase emphasized the coordination for the crew to act as a team. The final phase (Phase III) concentrated on operation as a unit.][
In late September 1943, the 483d Bombardment Group was formed at Ephrata. The cadre for this group was provided by the 21st Antisubmarine Squadron, which moved from the Gulf Coast when the ]Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
took over antisubmarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations a ...
operations from the Army Air Forces. While the 483d Group was organizing, the 21st Squadron was attached to the 395th Group.[
In October 1943, the group and its squadrons moved to Ardmore Army Air Field, Oklahoma, where its mission changed to acting as a Replacement Training Unit (RTU).][ Like OTUs, RTUs were oversized units, but their mission was to train individual pilots or aircrews.]Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the Bo ...
units, training “fillers” for existing units became more important than unit training. However, the AAF found that standard military units like the 395th Group, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not proving well adapted to the training mission, particularly the training of replacements. Accordingly, the AAF adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. The group was inactivated on 1 April 1944,[ along with its components and support elements at Ardmore, and replaced by the 222d AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Station, Bombardment, Heavy).
]
Lineage
* Constituted as the 395th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 29 January 1943
: Activated on 16 February 1943
: Inactivated on 1 April 1944[
]
Assignments
* II Bomber Command, 1 February 1943 – 1 April 1944
Components
* 21st Antisubmarine Squadron (later 818th Bombardment Squadron): attached 28 September 1943 – October 1943[
* 589th Bombardment Squadron: 16 February 1943 – 1 April 1944][
* 590th Bombardment Squadron: 16 February 1943 – 1 April 1944][
* 591st Bombardment Squadron: 16 February 1943 – 1 April 1944][
]
Stations
* Ephrata Army Air Base, Washington, 16 February 1943
* Ardmore Army Air Field, Oklahoma, 25 October 1943 – 1 April 1944[
]
Aircraft
* Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress[
]
Campaign
References
Notes
Bibliography
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{{USAAF 2d Air Force World War II
Bombardment groups of the United States Army Air Forces
Military units and formations established in 1943