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The 508th Fighter Group (USAAF) was a P-47 group that trained as a long range escort group, but never got further forward than Hawaii.
The group was constituted on 5 October 1944 and activated on 12 October. It was equipped with the P-47, and trained as a very long range bomber escort unit. It was allocated to XXI Bomber Command, as part of a long term plan to increase the number of heavy bomber groups operating from the Mariana Islands.
In January 1945 the group moved from Nebraska to Hawaii, but this was as close as it would get to the front line. The group became part of the air defence force for Hawaii. It was also used as a replacement training unit, helping to fill gaps in combat units, as a repair unit for P-47s and P-51s damaged in combat, and a ferry unit, flying aircraft to the front.
The group was inactivated on Hawaii on 25 November 1945.
Pending
1944-1945: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
5 October 1944 | Constituted as 508th Fighter Group |
12 October 1944 | Activated |
January 1945 | To Hawaii |
25 November 1945 | Inactivated |
Col Henry G Thorne Jr:
9 Nov 1944
Col Frank H Mears: 27 Nov
1944
Col Oswald W Lunde: 4 May-25 Nov 1945
Peterson Field, Colo: 12 Oct
1944
Pocatello AAFld, Idaho: 25 Oct
1944
Bruning AAFld, Neb: 15 Nov-18
Dec 1944
Kahuku, TH: 6 Jan 1945
Mokuleia, TH: 25 Feb 1945
Bellows Field, TH: 16 Sep-25 Nov 1945
466th: 1944-1945
467th: 1944-1945
468th: 1944-1945
72nd Fighter Wing (training organisation)