The squadron was first activated in June 1942 as the 447th Bombardment Squadron, a medium bomber unit. After training in the United States, it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it engaged in combat until April 1945. It was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations for its actions over Athens, Greece in 1944 and Toulon, France in 1944. Following V-E Day, it remained in Italy, until it was inactivated in September 1945.
The squadron was briefly activated in the reserve from 1947 to 1949, but does not appear to have been fully manned or equipped with operational aircraft. It was activated in 1953 as a Strategic Air Command bomber unit, serving until 1961, when its Boeing B-47 Stratojets were replaced by Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses. It was organized in February 1965 as the 447th Strategic Missile Squadron.
After five months of training, the ground echelon of the squadron departed for the Port of Embarkation at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on 21 January 1943.[1][5] It boarded the USS Elizabeth C. Stanton on 7 February.[6] The air echelon of the squadron remained at DeRidder Army Air Base until 12 February, when it flew to Morrison Field, Florida for staging via the South Atlantic ferry route.[5] It departed Morrison for overseas on 15 February 1943.[7]
Combat in the Mediterranean Theater
Squadron B-25J Mitchell at Solenzara Airfield, Corsica in late 1944[d]
The ground echelon landed at Oran, Algeria on 21 February 1943.[8] The air echelon arrived in Algeria at Oujda Airfield on 2 March 43.[9] On 9 March most of the ground and air echelon was united at Oujda.[10] The squadron arrived at its first combat station, Ain M'lila Airfield, Algeria, in March 1943, with the air echelon established there on 12 March.[11] The squadron flew its first combat mission, an attack on a landing ground near Mezzouna Tunisia on 15 March.[12] It initially engaged primarily in air support and interdiction missions, bombing marshalling yards, rail lines, highways, bridges, viaducts, troop concentrations, gun emplacements, shipping, harbors, and other objectives in North Africa. Later, objectives spread into France, Italy, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece. It also engaged in psychological warfare missions, dropping propaganda leaflets behind enemy lines.[4]
The squadron provided air support for the Allied advance toward Rome between January and June 1944 and Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944. On 18 August, its attacks on Toulon harbor earned the squadron a second DUC.[4] The enemy had concentrated shipping in the harbor to augment harbor defense artillery. Adverse weather conditions caused other groups to turn back, but the 321st Group continued to the target. The squadron pressed its attack despite "heavy, intense, accurate" flak on the bomb run. Post strike reconnaissance showed the 321st Group heavily damaged a battleship, and sunk a cruiser and a submarine.[14]
After September 1944, it supported Allied operations in northern Italy, including Operation Strangle, the effort to choke off supplies for Axis military in Italy through air interdiction and Operation Grapeshot, the Spring 1945 offensive in Northern Italy from September 1944 to April 1945. It remained in Italy after V-E Day, reducing in size as individuals returned to the United States, being reduced to a mere cadre by August 1945[15] and was inactivated at Pomigliano Airfield on 12 September 1945.[1][4]
Reserve operations
The squadron was reactivated as a reserve unit under Air Defense Command (ADC) on 22 June 1947 at Lunken Field, Ohio.[1] It is not clear whether or not the squadron was fully staffed or equipped with operational aircraft during this period.[16] In July 1948 Continental Air Command (ConAC) assumed responsibility for managing reserve and Air National Guard units from ADC.[17] President Truman’s reduced 1949 defense budget required reductions in the number of units in the Air Force,[18] and the 447th was inactivated[1] and not replaced as reserve flying operations at Lunken Field ceased.
Strategic bomber unit
B-47 Stratojet at McCoy AFB
The squadron was reactivated on 15 December 1953 at Pinecastle Air Force Base, Florida,[1] an Air Training Command (ATC) base, where ATC's 3540th Flying Training Wing conducted transition training on Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers.[19] On 1 January 1954, the base and B-47 training mission were transferred to Strategic Air Command (SAC).[20][e] Under SAC's dual deputy organization, the squadron was assigned directly to the 321st Wing, with the group level organization eliminated. Over the next six months, the B-47 training mission at Pinecastle was phased out and was replaced by the 447th and other operational units of the 321st Bombardment Wing, and the squadron became operational in late May 1954.[1][21]
The squadron trained in global strategic bombardment operations with the B-47. It deployed with the 321st Wing to RAF Lakenheath, England from
December 1954 until March 1955 and to Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco From April through July 1956.[21] Starting in 1957, overseas deployments of entire wings to stand alert were replaced by Operation Reflex. Reflex placed Stratojets and Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters from multiple wings at bases closer to the Soviet Union for 90 day periods, although individuals rotated back to home bases during unit Reflex deployments.[22] From 1958, SAC B-47 units began to assume an alert posture at their home bases, reducing the amount of time spent on alert at overseas bases, with an 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.[23]
By 1961, SAC was relying on dispersed Boeing B-52 Stratofortress units as the backbone of its bomber force. The squadron and the rest of the 321st Wing became nonoperational on 15 September 1961 and were replaced by the 4047th Strategic Wing, a B-52 unit. The squadron was inactivated in late October 1961.[1][21]
Intercontinental ballistic missile operations
On 1 November 1963 the squadron was redesignated the 447th Strategic Missile Squadron, a SAC intercontinental ballistic missile squadron, but it was not organized at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota until 1 February 1965.[1] The squadron was the first to be equipped with LGM-30F Minuteman II missiles.[24] The squadron's first missile arrived at Grand Forks on 5 August 1965 and was placed in its sile two days later. Squadron members trained on the new missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California during the second half of the year.[25] On 10 October, SAC accepted the first flight of ten Minutemen for the 447th. In January 1966, the squadron placed its first missiles on alert.[26]
The squadron was declared fully operational on 25 April 1966 and placed all its missiles on alert in May.[27] In early December1966, it passed an Operational Readiness Inspection as the entire 321st Wing became operational.[28]
LGM-30 Minuteman Missile Alert and Launch Facilities
In September 1991, SAC implemented the Air Force's Objective Wing Organization. With this restructuring, the squadron was assigned to the new 321st Operations Group,[1] along with the 321st Wing's other missile squadrons and a support squadron.[citation needed] With this change came a new name, the 447th Missile Squadron, as the Air Force dropped the terms "Strategic" and "Tactical" from the names of its units.[1] The following June, SAC was disestablished and the squadron was transferred to Air Combat Command, along with other intercontinental missile units. This arrangement lasted only a year, for on 1 July 1993, these missile units became part of Air Force Space Command.[31]
^Approved 7 May 1956. Description: On a medium sky blue shield, over a white cloud formation, a chimerical flying reptile red, his body entwined around a silver-gray bomb, with red marking.
^Aircraft is North American B-25J-10-NC Mitchell. Note squadron marking III on tail. On 11 November 1944 the aircraft was part of an 18 aircraft formation which attacked three enemy troop convoys with fragmentation bombs in the Brenner Pass. The aircraft was hit by ground fire and about 60% of its right vertical tail was blown off. However, the Mitchell was able to return to its base on Corsica with only a single working rudder. Serial given as 43-27425, but this serial was assigned to a Northwestern built Waco CG-4A-NW. Baugher, Joe (1 September 2023). "1943 USAF Serial Numbers". Joe Baugher. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
^Despite its mission of training bomber crews, the 3540th was designated as the 3540th Flying Training Wing (Fighter). Manning, p. 87. With the transfer to SAC, the 3540th became the 4240th Flying Training Wing and the fighter parenthetical was eliminated.
^This headquarters is not related to Eleventh Air Force, but was briefly active at Olmsted Air Force Base, Pennsylvania and responsible for managing reserve and National Guard air force units in the Middle Atlantic during the 1940s.
^No byline (29 September 2015). "Factsheets: 20th Air Force". Twentieth Air Force, Commander's Action Group. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
Watkins, Robert A. (2009). Insignia and Aircraft Markings of the U.S. Army Air Force In World War II. Vol. IV, European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations. Atglen, PA: Shiffer Publishing, Ltd. ISBN978-0-7643-3401-6.
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