93d Operations Group

The 93rd Operations Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 93rd Air Control Wing, stationed at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. The unit was inactivated on 1 October 2002.

During World War II, the group's predecessor unit, the 93rd Bombardment Group was the first VIII Bomber Command Consolidated B-24 Liberator group to bomb targets in Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. It flew from RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire. The group became operational with a mission over Occupied France on 9 October 1942.

In the postwar era, the 93rd Bombardment Group was one of the original ten USAAF bombardment groups assigned to Strategic Air Command on 21 March 1946. Equipped with low-hour Boeing B-29 Superfortress surplus World War II aircraft, the group deployed to Far East Air Forces during the early part of the Korean War, and flew combat missions over Korea. The group was inactivated in 1952 when the parent wing adopted the dual deputy organization and assigned all of the group's squadrons directly to the wing.

It was reactivated as the 93rd Operations Group in 1991 when the wing adopted the USAF objective organization.

History

: ''For related history and lineage, see 93rd Air-Ground Operations Wing''

World War II

The 93rd Bombardment Group was activated on 1 March 1942. It initially prepared for combat with Consolidated B-24 Liberators. Engaged in antisubmarine operations over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea as part of the III Bomber Command, May– July 1942.

The group moved to England, August– September 1942, and was assigned to Eighth Air Force. It was assigned to the 2d Combat Bombardment Wing. The group flew its B-24 Liberator aircraft with a tail code of "Circle B". The 93rd was the first Liberator-equipped bomber group to reach the Eighth Air Force. The group became operational with the B-24 on 9 October 1942 by attacking steel and engineering works at Lille France. Until December, the group operated primarily against submarine pens along the French coast along the Bay of Biscay.

While the 93rd was at RAF Alconbury, His Majesty, King George VI paid his first visit to an Eighth Air Force base on 13 November 1942. During the visit, he was shown the B-24 "Teggie Ann", then considered to be the 93rd's leading aircraft.

On 6 December 1942 most of the group was transferred to Twelfth Air Force in North Africa to support the Operation Torch landings. The group receiving a Distinguished Unit Citation for operations in that theatre, December 1942 – February 1943, when, with inadequate supplies and under the most difficult desert conditions, the detachment struck heavy blows at enemy shipping and communications. The detachment returned to England in February 1943, where its personnel were featured on the cover of the 26 July 1943 issue of ''Life Magazine'' and the unit dubbed "Ted's Traveling Circus" after its first commander, Col. Edward J. Timberlake.

The balance of the 93rd BG was moved to RAF Hardwick (Station 104), in Norfolk where B-24 groups were being concentrated. From February 1943 and until the end of June the group bombed engine repair works, harbors, power plants, and other targets in France, the Low Countries, and Germany.

A detachment returned to the Mediterranean theatre during June and July 1943 to support the Allied invasion of Sicily and to participate in the famous low-level attack on enemy oil installations at Ploesti on 1 August. Having followed another element of the formation along the wrong course to Ploesti, the 93rd hit targets that had been assigned to other groups, but it carried out its bombing of the vital oil installations despite heavy losses inflicted by attacks from the fully alerted enemy and was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for the operation.

After the detachment returned to England in August 1943, the group flew only two missions before the detachment was sent back to the Mediterranean to support the Fifth Army at Salerno during the invasion of Italy in September 1943.

The detachment rejoined the group in October 1943, and until April 1945 the 93rd concentrated on bombardment of strategic targets such as marshalling yards, aircraft factories, oil refineries, chemical plants, and cities in Germany. In addition it bombed gun emplacements, choke points, and bridges near Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in June 1944. It attacked troop concentrations in northern France during the Saint-Lô

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