World War II Bombardment training The
group was established in October 1943 at
Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico as a
Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber unit, drawing its
cadre from the
859th Bombardment Squadron, a former
antisubmarine squadron located at
Blythe Army Air Base, California. Its other original squadrons were the
856th,
857th and
858th Bombardment Squadrons. In December, the 859th moved from Blythe to join group
headquarters and the other three squadrons. After only 89 days of combat, the 492nd had lost 52 aircraft to enemy action, with 588 men killed or missing. In the words of one veteran, "the whole group was wiped out". On 5 August, the decision was made to withdraw the 492nd Group from combat. Rather than try to rebuild the shattered group, the group was stood down and the surviving members were reassigned to other units in theater.
Special operations (Operation Carpetbagger) Subsequently, the 492nd was transferred without personnel or equipment, to
RAF Harrington on 5 August 1944 and assumed the personnel, equipment, and the Carpetbagger
special operations mission of the 801st Bombardment Group (Provisional) that was discontinued. With black-painted aircraft configured with engine flame dampers and optimized for night operations, the group operated chiefly over southern France with B-24's and C-47's, transporting agents, supplies, and propaganda leaflets to patriots. The liberation of most of France and Belgium brought an effective end to these missions on 16 September 1944. The group's aircraft were used to transport fuel and other supplies to the
US Third Army in France, whose advance had outpaced its supply base. This operation resulted in the aircraft carrying 80 octane fuel in their wing fuel tanks, and having it pumped out to waiting storage tanks and tanker trucks at the advanced airfields in France. Unfortunately, the 80 octane fuel resulted in the wing tanks being chemically degraded so that they could no longer carry aviation fuel. This drastically decreased the range of the aircraft. It being too expensive to change out the wing tanks, the aircraft were flown to a depot area and the entire group was issued new B-24 aircraft. In December 1944, the 859th Squadron was detached to the
Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it supported
guerilla operations. Throughout 1944 the group's missions intermittently included attacks on airfields, oil refineries, seaports, and other targets in France, the Netherlands and Germany. These operations continued until February 1945. In addition, in October 1944 the group began training for night bombardment operations. These operations concentrated on marshaling yards and goods depots in Germany, which the group undertook from February through March 1945. In September 1944 until mid winter 1945 a small detachment of men from the group, mainly from the 856th Bombardment squadron, was sent on a personnel recovery mission in Southeast France near the Swiss border to recover USAAF crews who had been interned in Switzerland that had started coming across the border into France to the American Lines during the Invasion of Southern France. Two of the Squadrons continued night bombardment missions into 1945. The main OSS/Carpetbagger operations over Germany and German-occupied territory had been handed over to the 856th Bombardment Squadron from the
25th Bombardment Group, which used B-24, A-26, and British Mosquito aircraft for "Red Stocking" missions to drop leaflets, demolition equipment, and agents. The 856th Squadron received a
Distinguished Unit Citation for operations during March and April 1945, performed at night despite adverse weather and vigorous opposition from enemy ground forces. It was also cited by the French government for similar operations over France in 1944. It flew its last Carpetbagger mission in April 1945 and then ferried personnel and equipment to and from the Continent until July. The group left England in July 1945 and was stationed at
Kirtland Field, New Mexico in August. The group became a very heavy bomb group on arrival at Kirtland. The 492nd was programmed for
Boeing B-29 Superfortress operations in the Pacific, but apparently was not equipped when Japan surrendered. It was inactivated on 17 October 1945.
Expeditionary unit In June 2002, the group was converted to provisional status as the
492nd Air Expeditionary Group and assigned to
Air Mobility Command (AMC) to activate or inactivate as needed for contingency operations. AMC activated the unit once, at
Lajes Field in the Azores from March through May 2003 during the
2003 invasion of Iraq.
Return to special operations In May 2017, the group was withdrawn from provisional status and returned to its old designation for one day. It became the
492nd Special Operations Wing and was activated on 17 May at
Hurlburt Field, Florida, where it replaced the
Air Force Special Operations Air Warfare Center. In addition to its assigned units, the wing is responsible for the training of two
Air National Guard squadrons, the
209th Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron and the
280th Combat Communications Squadron. ==Lineage==