Antisubmarine warfare The
squadron was organized at
Army Air Base, Savannah, Georgia in January 1941 as the
79th Bombardment Squadron, one of the original squadrons of the
45th Bombardment Group and equipped with
Douglas A-20 Havocs (along with a few DB-7s, an export version of the A-20). In June the 80th moved with the
group to
Army Air Base, Manchester, New Hampshire. It also received
Douglas B-18 Bolos, which were later equipped with radar for the antisubmarine mission. Following the
attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron began flying
antisubmarine patrols off the Atlantic coast. The squadron moved to
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina in May 1942 and to
Miami Army Air Field, Florida in September. The command's bombardment group headquarters, including the 45th, were inactivated and the squadron, now designated the
8th Antisubmarine Squadron, was assigned directly to the 26th Wing. They remained there until August 1943, when the 9th returned to its base in Miami. However, Edinburgh Field's runway was found to be insufficient to sustain the squadron's
Consolidated B-24 Liberator operations. Consequently, while squadron
headquarters remained there, its B-24Ds were deployed to
Zandery Field, Surinam and airfields in the
Natal, Brazil area and even as far as
Wideawake Airfield on
Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. During the squadron's first month's operations, four unit B-24Ds made attacks on submarines, several of them "scoring" against the U-boats and, in turn, several of them reporting damage by return anti-aircraft fire, although all regained their base and there were only slight casualties. The bulk of the unit returned to Miami Airport on 30 August 1943. However, a detachment was maintained at
Waller Field, Trinidad, as late as 11 September 1943. In July 1943, the AAF and Navy reached an agreement to transfer the coastal antisubmarine mission to the Navy. This mission transfer also included an exchange of AAF long-range bombers equipped for antisubmarine warfare for Navy Consolidated B-24 Liberators without such equipment.
Heavy Bombardment Squadron of the 839th Bombardment Squadron The squadron moved to
Pueblo Army Air Base, Colorado in September 1943, where it formed the
cadre for the
487th Bombardment Group, a newly formed
Consolidated B-24 Liberator group that was organizing at
Bruning Army Air Field, Nebraska. The following month, the squadron was redesignated the
839th Bombardment Squadron and was assigned to the 487th Group. The squadron trained with Liberators until March 1944, when it departed for the
European Theater of Operations. The ground echelon left
Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico on 10 March 1944 for the port of embarkation at
Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, sailing on the and arrived in Great Britain on 3 April. The air echelon departed via the southern ferry route on 23 March. The squadron arrived at
RAF Lavenham, its base in England, on 4 April 1944, with the air echelon arriving between 13 and 17 April. The 839th entered combat on 7 May 1944, After completing the transition to the B-17 on 1 August 1944, the unit began to focus on strategic targets until March 1945. It attacked
oil refineries in
Merseburg,
Mannheim and
Dulmen; factories in
Nuremberg,
Hanover and
Berlin; and
marshalling yards in
Köln,
Münster,
Hamm and
Neumunster. The squadron was diverted from the strategic bombing campaign to support ground troops during the
Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. It also flew
interdiction missions during the
Allied crossings of the Rhine and final thrust across Germany. It flew its last combat mission on 21 April 1945. The squadron remained in England after
V-E Day. The air echelon began to fly their B-17s back to the United States in the last week of July, while the rest of the unit returned to the United States on the . It reassembled at
Drew Field, Florida in September and was inactivated there on 7 November 1945. ==Lineage==