World War II Organization and antisubmarine warfare The
squadron was organized at
Army Air Base, Savannah, Georgia in January 1941 as the
78th 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. In October 1942, the
Army Air Forces organized its antisubmarine forces into the single
Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, which established the
26th Antisubmarine Wing the following month to control its forces operating over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The command's bombardment group headquarters, including the 45th, were inactivated and the squadron, now designated the
7th Antisubmarine Squadron, was assigned directly to the 26th Wing. They remained there until July 1943, when the
23d Antisubmarine Squadron deployed to Edinburgh to experiment with its 75mm cannon armed
North American B-25 Mitchells in the antisubmarine role and the 7th returned to its base in Jacksonville. 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.
Combat in the European Theater The squadron moved to
Mountain Home Army Air Field, Idaho on 27 September 1943. On 1 October, it formed the
cadre for the new
490th Bombardment Group. In early December, group
headquarters and the other three squadrons of the group joined it at Mountain Home and it began training with
Consolidated B-24 Liberators. The 851st left its training base on 9 April 1944 for the
European Theater of Operations. The ground echelon departed the port of embarkation at
Camp Shanks, New York, sailing on the
SS Nieuw Amsterdam on 11 April and arriving in the United Kingdom on 25 April. The air echelon flew its planes along the southern ferry route beginning on 12 April. The squadron arrived at
RAF Eye, its combat station, on 28 April The squadron's missiles were deployed in a 3x3 configuration, which meant a total of nine missiles were divided into three sites. Each missile site had three ICBM missiles. Missiles were installed in the silos between 28 February and 20 April 1962. On 19 November 1964, Defense Secretary
Robert S. McNamara announced the phase-out of remaining first-generation Titan I missiles by the end of June 1965. Consequently, the Titan Is of the 851st were removed from
alert status on 4 January 1965. The last missile was shipped out on 10 February. The Air Force subsequently inactivated the squadron on 25 March. ==Lineage==