Active 1942–1946 Role Bombardment | Country United States Part of Twentieth Air Force | |
Branch United States Army Air Forces Garrison/HQ Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II | ||
The 346th Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 316th Bombardment Wing, being stationed at Kadena Airfield, Okinawa. It was inactivated on 30 June 1946.
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The unit was initially a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator operational training unit (OTU). Redesignated as a replacement training unit (RTU) in December 1943. Inactivated on 1 April 1944 when Second Air Force switched to B-29 Superfortress training. Late in the war the group was reactivated and trained as a Very Heavy (VH) B-29 Superfortress group and assigned to Eighth Air Force in Okinawa. However, the war ended before the group could enter combat.
After the war the group participated in several show-of-force missions over Japan and for a time ferried Allied prisoners of war from Okinawa to the Philippine Islands before its inactivation.