865th Bombardment Group

History - Aircraft - Books - Time Line - Duties - Campaigns - Main Bases - Assigned To

History

The 865th Bombardment Group was the second 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 backslash painted in black on the tail.

The 866th operated from two main bases during its time in the Pacific - first on Angaur from late in 1944 until June 1945, and then from Okinawa to the end of the war. While based on Angaur the squadron carried out attacks on Japanese held islands in the Palau group and took part in the campaign on the Philippines. The squadron took part in the first B-24 raid on Japan from Okinawa and spent the last two months of the war attacking targets in the south of Japan as well as in China and Korea.

For more details see the 494th Bomb Group (H) Association website

Aircraft

Consolidated B-24 Liberator: 1944-1945

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

Combat in Western and Southwest Pacific: 2 November 1944-12 August 1945

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: 15 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

494th Bombardment Group: 1 December 1943-4 January 1946

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