507th Bombardment Squadron


The 507th Bombardment Squadron is a former unit of the United States Army Air Forces. It was briefly activated in the spring of 1944, then activated again in the summer as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress unit. It trained for combat, but moved to its combat station of Kadena Airfield, Okinawa too late to see combat. It remained on the island until it was inactivated on 28 May 1946.

History

The 507th Bombardment Squadron was activated at Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas on 11 March 1944 as one of the original four squadrons of the 504th Bombardment Group. Although the squadron was intended to be a Boeing B-29 Superfortress unit, at the time it was activated, B-29 groups were being reorganized to have three, rather than four, squadrons assigned. The squadron was inactivated on 10 May as a result of this organizational change without being manned or equipped.
The squadron was again activated at Dalhart on 7 July 1944, but this time was assigned to the 333d Bombardment Group. The 333d Group was a former heavy bomber training unit that had been inactivated in the spring of 1944 in a general Army Air Forces reorganization of its training and support units. It was reactivated in July as a B-29 group. 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.

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