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Lineagegeek (talk | contribs) Training in the US |
Lineagegeek (talk | contribs) Edited movement to Middle East, added citation |
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The [[squadron (aviation)|squadron]] was first activated as the ''25th Reconnaissance Squadron''' at [[MacDill Field]], Florida and attached to the [[98th Bombardment Group]]. The 24th soon moved to [[Barksdale Field]], Louisiana, where it began to train as a [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator]] squadron under [[Third Air Force]]. In April, it was converted to a [[heavy bomber]] unit and redesignated the '''415th Bombardment Squadron''' and was assigned, rather than attached to the [[98th Bombardment Group]].<ref name=415FTFfacts/><ref name=Maurer98BG>Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 169-170</ref>
The squadron's training was short and it deployed to Egypt in July 1942<ref name=415FTFfacts/> over the [[South Atlantic Ferrying Route]] transiting from [[Morrison Field]], Florida though the Caribbean Sea to Brazil. It made the Atlantic crossing from Brazil to Liberia, then transited east across central Africa to Sudan. The air echelon of the group reformed with the ground echelon which traveled by
====Combat in the Middle East====
[[File:415th Bombardment Squadron - B-24 Liberator.jpg|thumb|left|415th Bomb Squadron B-24D<ref group=note>Aircraft is Consolidated B-24D-45-CO Liberator serial 42-40322 "Cornhusker". This plane was shot down over the Ionian Sea by [[Me109]]s from IV/[[JG 27]] while returning from the 1 August 1943 low-level mission to Ploiești, Romania. All 10 crew members were KIA. MACR 178. Photo taken at Tobruk or Benina Airfield, Libya.</ref>]]
Assigned to the newly formed [[IX Bomber Command]], the squadron operated from airfields in Egypt; [[Libya]] and [[Tunisia]] supporting the [[British Eighth Army]] in the [[Western Desert Campaign]]. Also staged long-range strategic bombardment of enemy military and industrial targets in [[Sicily]]; [[Italy]] and the Southern [[Balkans]], including attacking the Nazi-controlled oilfields at [[Ploiești]], [[Romania]].<ref name="9AF">Rogers, {{page needed|date=May 2017}}</ref>
Reassigned to [[Fifteenth Air Force]] in southern [[Italy]]; continuing strategic bombardment raids on [[Occupied France]]; Southern [[Germany]]; [[Austria]] and targets in the Balkans. In the summer of 1944, the squadron participated in the invasion of southern France, assisted in the Soviet advance into the Balkans, and supported the partisans and guerrillas in [[Yugoslavia]] and neighboring countries.<ref name="15AF">Dorr, Robert F. B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force. Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2000. {{ISBN|1-84176-081-1}}.</ref>
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* [[Page Field]], Florida, 31 March 1942
* [[Drane Field]], Florida, 15 May-3 July 1942
*
* [[RAF Fayid]], Egypt, 12 November 1942
* [[Tobruk Airport|Tobruk Airfield]], Libya, 26 January 1943
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* {{cite book|editor=Maurer, Maurer|title=Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II|origyear=1969|url= http://media.defense.gov/2010/Dec/02/2001329899/-1/-1/0/AFD-101202-002.pdf|edition= reprint|year=1982|publisher=Office of Air Force History|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0-405-12194-6|oclc=72556|lccn=70605402|pages= }}
* {{cite book|last=Ravenstein|first=Charles A.|title=Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947-1977|url= http://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/21/2001330257/-1/-1/0/AFD-100921-047.pdf|accessdate= December 17, 2016|year=1984|publisher=Office of Air Force History|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0-912799-12-9|pages=}}
* {{cite web |url= http://www.afhra.af.mil/Portals/16/documents/Studies/101-150/AFD-090522-044.pdf |last1=Rogers|first1=Edith|title=The AAF in the Middle East: A Study of the Origins of the Ninth Air Force, USAF Historical Study No. 108|date=June 1945|publisher=Assistant Chief of Air Staff Intelligence, Historical Division|deadurl=no |accessdate=May 25, 2017}}
* {{cite book|last=Schake|first=Col Kurt W.|title=Strategic Frontier: American Bomber Bases Overseas, 1950-1960|url= http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/ADA353633.pdf |accessdate=July 27, 2015|year=1998|publisher=Norwegian University of Science and Technology|location= Trondheim, Norway|isbn=978-8277650241}}
* {{cite book|last=Schultz|first=Duane|title=Into the Fire: Ploesti, the Most Fateful Battle of World War II|url= |accessdate=|year=2008|publisher=Westholme Publishing|location=Yardley, PA|isbn=978-1594160776}}
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