World War II In the spring of 1943, the
42nd Bombardment Group deployed to the Pacific. However, two of its squadrons, the
76th and
406th Bombardment Squadrons had been detached from the 42nd Group while it was in the United States and did not move to the Pacific with it. To make up for this deficiency, two
squadrons, the
69th and
70th Bombardment Squadrons were transferred to the group from the
38th Bombardment Group to bring it up to full strength. To replace the lost squadrons, the
822nd and
823rd Bombardment Squadrons were activated in Australia in April 1943, and assigned to the 38th Group. However, the 823rd was not manned until about 20 June 1943, when it moved to
Port Moresby, New Guinea and equipped with
North American B-25 Mitchells. The squadron moved from New Guinea to the
Moluccas in October 1944. From its new station, it attacked enemy installations in the southern Philippines to support
the American invasion of Leyte. On 10 November, it struck a large enemy
convoy near
Ormoc Bay, for which the squadron was awarded its third DUC. In January 1945, the squadron moved to
Lingayen Airfield on
Luzon, from which it continued to support ground forces in the Philippines, but also mounted attacks on industrial targets in Taiwan and struck shipping along the coast of China. It temporarily moved to
Palawan to attack enemy installations in preparation for the planned invasion of Borneo. The squadron's missiles were located at Site 2 "Invent" at
Enkenbach SSE of Sembach at . It remained as a tactical missile unit until 25 September 1966, when USAFE withdrew its missiles from Sembach and the 38th Wing and its squadrons at Sembach were inactivated, as the A model of the Mace was retired and the last missiles were shipped to
Eglin Air Force Base. Florida to be used as targets. ==Lineage==