387th Bombardment Group The
387th Bombardment Group (Medium) was constituted on 25 November 1942, and activated on 1 December 1942 at
MacDill Field near
Tampa,
Florida. The group had four operational squadrons, the
556th,
557th,
558th, and
559th Bombardment Squadrons, and was equipped with the
Martin B-26B/C Marauder. After training at several stateside airfields, the group was deployed to England in June 1943. In England, the 387th was assigned to the
Eighth Air Force's 3rd Bomb Wing and stationed at
RAF Chipping Ongar in Essex. The 387th was the fourth Marauder group to arrive in the UK. The group began combat on 15 August 1943 by joining with three other
B-26 groups attacking coastal defenses on the French Coast near Boulogne in conditions of thick fog. While taking off, one of the B-26 Bombers crashed at the end of the main runway, killing all of the crew except the tail gunner. The group concentrated its attacks on airfields during the first months of operations. In common with other Marauder units of the 3rd Bomb Wing, the 387th was transferred to
Ninth Air Force on 16 October 1943. The group made tactical strikes on V-weapon sites in France in the winter of 1943–1944. The group hit airfields at
Leeuwarden and
Venlo during
Big Week, 20–25 February 1944, the intensive campaign against the
German Air Force and aircraft industry. The group helped to prepare for
Operation Overlord, the
invasion of Normandy, by attacking coastal batteries and bridges in France during May 1944. The 387th AEG bombed along the invasion coast on D-Day,
6 June 1944 and supported ground forces throughout the month by raiding railroads, bridges, road junctions, defended areas, and fuel dumps. The 387th Bomb Group moved to
RAF Stoney Cross in Hampshire on 18 July 1944 when Ninth Air Force moved the 98th Bomb Wing's four Marauder groups into the
New Forest area at the earliest opportunity to place them closer to the French Normandy invasion beaches. On 21 July 1944, the 387th became operational from Stoney Cross, bombing along the invasion coast and supporting ground forces by raiding railways, bridges, road junctions, defended areas, and fuel dumps. By 1 September 1944, the group was able to move across the
English Channel to its Advanced Landing Ground at a former
Luftwaffe airfield at Maupertus, France (A-15). In April 1945 the group ended combat operations, and then on 24 May 1945 was sent to
Rosières-en-Santerre Air Base, France, for several months. The 387th Bomb Group returned to the US in November and was inactivated at Camp Kilmer,
New Jersey, on 17 November 1945.
387th Air Expeditionary Group The
387th Air Expeditionary Group was activated by
Air Combat Command as part of the Global
War on Terror in 2003. The 387th was a blend of attack and reconnaissance forces, consisting of close to 500 103 FW and 104 FW personnel and totaling around 1,300. A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft were assigned to the 131st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from the 131 FS, 104 FW (
Massachusetts Air National Guard), Barnes MAP (11 aircraft) and 118 FS, 103 FW (
Connecticut Air National Guard) from
Bradley Air National Guard Base (7 Aircraft). Together, the deployed A-10 pilots logged 1,119
sorties and 3,821 flying hours (3,100 combat hours during 900 sorties) with no combat losses or battle damage. The missions included 35
combat search and rescue (CSAR) sorties, with the rescue of an aircraft crew and numerous medical evacuations. In 2021, the 387th AEG assisted in the evacuation of over 124,000 Afghan personnel from Hamid Karzai International Airport in what was the largest humanitarian airlift in history. ==Lineage==