414th Fighter Group (USAAF)

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History

The 414th Fighter Group (USAAF) was a fighter unit that entered combat as a ground attack group with the Twentieth Air Force late in the Second World War.

The group was constituted on 5 October 1944 and activated on 15 October 1944. It was equipped with the P-47 Thunderbolt, which it retained for the rest of the war.

The group moved to the Pacific theatre in June-August 1945. The long term plan was for it to be assigned to XXI Bomber Command to serve as a B-29 escort squadron, but in the short term it was assigned to AAFPOA (Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas), which became USASTAF (US Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific) before the group arrived.

The air echelon was based on Guam for two attacks on Truk, on 13 July and 22 July, carried out to give the group some experience of combat against a badly weakened opponent.

The group was then united on Iwo Jima, and became operational from its new base towards the end of July. Its first raid was an attack on a radar base on Chichi Jima. Once on Iwo Jima it came under the operational command of XXI Bomber Command.

In August the group was mainly used to attack airfields on the Japanese Home Islands, but it also attacked barracks, ordnance dumps, trains, marshalling yards and shipping.

In December 1945 the group moved to the Philippines, where it joined the Thirteenth Air Force. The group was inactivated there on 30 September 1946.

Books

Pending

Aircraft

1944-1946: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt

Timeline

5 October 1944 Constituted as 414th Fighter Group
15 October 1944

Activated

June-August 1945 To Asiatic-Pacific Theatre and Twentieth Air Force
13 July 1945 Combat debut from Guam
December 1945 To Philippines and Thirteenth Air Force
30 September 1946 Inactivated

Commanders (with date of appointment)

Lt Col Robert C Bagby: 28 Oct 1944
Col Henry G Thorne Jr: 6 Dec 1944-unkn. Col

Main Bases

Seymour Johnson Field, NC: 15 Oct 1944
Selfridge Field, Mich: 15 Nov 1944
Bluethenthal Field, NC: 19 Mar-11 May 1945
North Field, Iwo Jima: 7 Jul 1945
Clark Field, Luzon: 23 Dec 1945-30 Sep 1946

Component Units

413th: 1944-1946
437th: 1943-1946
456th: 1944-1946

Assigned To

1944-45: 301st Fighter Wing; Twentieth Air Force
1946: XIII Fighter COmmand; Thirteenth Air Force

How to cite this article: Rickard, J (6 September 2018), 414th Fighter Group (USAAF) , http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/USAAF/414th_Fighter_Group.html

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