795th Bombardment Squadron

The squadron was first organized at Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas on 1 August 1943 as one of the four original squadrons of the 468th Bombardment Group. It was intended to be a Boeing B-29 Superfortress squadron, however due to the lack of B-29 availability, it was initially equipped with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The squadron completed its training and deployed from the United States to India in March 1944, flying across the South Atlantic and Africa to reach its combat station.[1][2]

The squadron arrived at Kharagpur Airfield, Bengal in mid-April. Its initial missions were transporting supplies and equipment to staging airfields in China, and it did not fly its first combat mission until 5 June, when it participated in a raid on railroad repair facilities near Bangkok, Thailand. Ten days later, it participated in the first attack on the Japanese Home Islands since the Doolittle Raid two years earlier.[2]

The unit staged through bases not only in China for attacks on Japan, but from other bases in India and Ceylon. It conducted mining operations off the coasts of French Indochina, near Saigon and China, near Shanghai. It attacked Japanese targets in Southeast Asia, including aircraft factories, naval installations, transportation facilities and iron works, and it flew sorties to targets as distant as Indonesia. In August 1944, the squadron struck a steel factory in Yawata, Japan, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation. In October 1944, the Army Air Forces reorganized its very heavy bombardment groups to have only three operational squadrons, and the 795th was disbanded.[1][2]

• 468th Bombardment Group, 1 August 1943 – 12 October 1944[1]

• Smoky Hill Army Airfield, Kansas, 1 August 1943 – 12 March 1944
• Kharagpur Airfield, India, c. 13 April–12 October 1944[1]

• Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1943
• Boeing B-29 Superfortress, 1943-1944[1]

Explanatory notes

Citations

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

• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• 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.