864th Bombardment Group

The 864th Bombardment Group was one of three B-24 Liberator squadrons formed to create the 494th Bombardment Group, the last Liberator group to leave the United States during the Second World War. The three new squadrons were joined by the 867th Bombardment Squadron, which under three different designations had taken part in the anti-submarine war since early in 1942, and after spending most of 1944 in training the new group left for Angaur at the end of September 1944.

The B-24s of the 866th Bombardment Squadron were left in their natural metal finish and could be distinguished by a black arrowhead painted in black on the tail.

After its arrival on Angaur the squadron took part in a series of attacks on Japanese island bases in the Palau islands and further afield, but for the first six months most missions were flown against the Japanese garrison of the Philippines. In June 1945 the squadron moved to Okinawa, and on 5 July took part in the first B-24 Liberator raid over the Japanese home islands from that island. Attacks on the home islands continued for the remaining two months of the war, alongside attacks on Japanese occupied China and Korea.

Aircraft

Books

B-24 Liberator Units of the Pacific War, Robert F. Dorr. The B-24 played a major part in the war in the Pacific, serving as the main heavy bomber for the USAAF in the Pacific from the start of the war until the late arrival of the B-29. The Pacific campaign was fought on a vast scale, over theatres as varied as the jungles of Burma and the icy Aleutian islands. Dorr splits this volume into five parts - one looking at the early period of the war, when small numbers of B-24s took part in desperate attempts to stop the Japanese advance, one chapter each for the Fifth, Seventh and Thirteenth Air Forces, and a final chapter for the combined Far East Air Force.

Timeline

Duties

Campaigns

Air Offensive, Japan
Eastern Mandates
Western Pacific
Leyte
Luzon
Southern Philippines
Ryukyus
China Offensive
Air Combat, Asiatic-Pacific Theater

Main Bases

Wendover Field, Utah: 1 December 1943
Mountain Home Army, Idaho: 14 April-1 June 1944
Barking Sands, Hawaii: 15 June 1944
Angaur: 30 September 1944
Yontan, Okinawa: 24 June-13 December 1945
Vancouver, Washington: 3-6 January 1946

Assigned To

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How to cite this article: Rickard, J (15 July 2008), 864th Bombardment Group, http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/USAAF/864th_Bombardment_Squadron.html

14 September 1943	Constituted as 864th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy)
1 December 1943	Activated
6 January 1946	Inactivated