Background In the fall of 1941, the
19th Bombardment Group began moving to reinforce the
Philippine Department Air Force. By the time of the
Attack on Clark Field and the
Attack on Pearl Harbor in December, group headquarters and its assigned
28th and
93d Bombardment Squadrons and attached
14th Bombardment Squadron were located in the Philippines. Its
32nd Bombardment Squadron had begun deploying from the Pacific coast. However, its
38th Reconnaissance Squadron, which arrived at
Hickam Field, Hawaii as it was under attack, was used to reinforce the Hawaiian Islands. The reformed 38th Squadron remained in the United States. In mid-March 1942, the 38th was attached to the
303d Bombardment Group and 5th Air Force was authorized to organize the
40th Reconnaissance Squadron in its place.
Combat in the Southwest Pacific The 40th was organized at
RAAF Base Townsville, Australia in March 1942 combining personnel and equipment already in theater and new arrivals. It initially equipped with
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and
Consolidated LB-30 Liberator heavy bombers. Almost immediately upon formation, the squadron was called upon to provide three of its B-17s to evacuate General
Douglas MacArthur and Philippines President
Manuel Quezon from
Del Monte Field in the Philippine Islands. It raided enemy transportation and communications targets and Japanese ground forces during th invasion of Papua New Guinea. It was awarded a
Distinguished Unit Citation for bombing airdromes, ground installations and shipping near
New Britain and
Rabaul from 7 to 12 August 1942. The squadron was withdrawn from combat in November 1942 and returned to the United States on paper. It stopped its training activities in October 1943, when its personnel were withdrawn. However it remained active as a paper unit until 1 April 1944, when it was inactivated in a general reorganization by the
Army Air Forces of its training activities in the United States. and the squadron was inactivated on 10 May 1944. The squadron trained with Superfortresses until June 1945, when it departed for the Pacific to become an element of
Eighth Air Force, which was organizing on
Okinawa as a second very heavy bomber air force in the Pacific. However, the squadron did not arrive at its combat station,
Kadena Airfield, until it was too late to participate in combat. The squadron flew show-of-force missions and its aircraft helped evacuate prisoners of war from Japan to airfields in the Philippines. The unit was inactivated on 28 May 1946. ==Lineage==