506th Bombardment Squadron

506th Bombardment Squadron
Emblem of the 506th Bombardment Squadron
Active 1942-1960
Country United States
Branch United States Air Force
Type Bombardment

The 506th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the 44th Bombardment Wing, stationed at Chennault Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was inactivated on 15 June 1960.

History

World War II

Activated in late 1942 as a B-24 Liberator heavy bomb squadron, trained under II Bomber Command in Utah and Colorado. Received deployment orders for the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in February 1943.

Deployed to England in March 1943, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command as a strategic bombardment squadron. Participated in the air offensive over Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe. Engaged in very long range strategic bombing missions to enemy military, industrial and transportation targets in Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany.

Deployed flight of B-24s to IX Bomber Command in North Africa during the summer of 1943 and conducted strategic bombardment operations from airfields in Libya and Tunisia over enemy targets in the Balkans and Italy. Flight detached with aircraft and personnel reassigned to new Fifteenth Air Force in November 1943.

Remaining squadron in England conducted combat operations until German capitulation in May 1945. Personnel demobilized in England during the summer of 1945; squadron returned to the United States and redesignated a B-29 Superfortress Very Heavy unit; programmed for deployment to Pacific Theater and to engage in combat over Japan. Deployment canceled by Japanese capitulation and reassigned to Continental Air Forces Squadron reassigned to 485th Bombardment Group as part of consolidation of units in March 1946, being transferred to Strategic Air Command in late March. Personnel shortages and budget reductions led to squadron inactivation in August 1946, equipment and personnel reassigned to other SAC units.

Strategic Air Command

From 1958, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet wings of Strategic Air Command (SAC) began to assume an alert posture at their home bases, reducing the amount of time spent on alert at overseas bases. The SAC alert cycle divided itself into four parts: planning, flying, alert and rest to meet General Thomas S. Power’s initial goal of maintaining one third of SAC’s planes on fifteen minute ground alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike.[1] To implement this new system B-47 wings reorganized from three to four squadrons.[1][2] The 506th was activated at Lake Charles Air Force Base as the fourth squadron of the 44th Bombardment Wing. The squadron was discontinued when the 44th Wing was inactivated on 15 June 1960.

Lineage

  • Constituted 506th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 24 September 1942
Activated on 1 October 1942
Redesignated 506th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy) on 5 August 1945
Inactivated on 4 August 1946
  • Redesignated 506th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 20 August 1958
Activated on 1 December 1958
Discontinued on 15 June 1960

Assignments

Attached to 308th Bombardment Group for training, 1 October 1942-c. 16 January 1943
  • 485th Bombardment Group, 7 March-4 August 1946
  • 44th Bombardment Wing, 1 December 1958
  • Department of the Air Force, 15 June 1960

Stations

Aircraft

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. 1 2 Schake, p. 220 (note 43)
  2. ↑ "Abstract (Unclassified), History of the Strategic Bomber since 1945 (Top Secret, downgraded to Secret)". Air Force History Index. 1 April 1975. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  • Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.
  • Schake, Col Kurt W. (1998). Strategic Frontier: American Bomber Bases Overseas, 1950-1960 (PDF). Trondheim, Norway: Norwegian University of Science and Technology. ISBN 978-8277650241. Retrieved July 27, 2015.

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