The
395th Bombardment Group was organized at
Ephrata Army Air Base, Washington on 16 February 1943. Its original components were the 588th, 589th, 590th and 591st Bombardment Squadrons. The
group served as an
Operational Training Unit (OTU) for
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress units preparing for overseas deployment. The OTU program was patterned after the unit training system of the
Royal Air Force. It involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide
cadres to "satellite groups" The parent unt then assumed responsibility for their training and oversaw their expansion with graduates of
Army Air Forces Training Command schools to become effective combat units. The
398th,
401st and
447th Bombardment Groups were formed at Ephrata during the group's period as an OTU there. A detachment of the group, referred to as the 395th Heavy Bombardment Crew Detachment, conducted Phase I training, acting, in effect, as a fifth squadron of the group. Phase I training concentrated on individual training in
crewmember specialties. The 589th and 590th Squadrons conducted Phase II training, each being organized as a provisional group for this purpose. While the 483d Group was organizing, the 21st Squadron was attached to the 395th Group. However, the AAF found that standard military units like the 395th Group, based on relatively inflexible
tables of organization were not proving well adapted to the training mission, particularly the training of replacements. Accordingly, the AAF adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. The group was inactivated on 1 April 1944, along with its components and support elements at Ardmore, and replaced by the 222d AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Station, Bombardment, Heavy). ==Lineage==