Active 1943-1945 Role Bombardment | ||
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Engagements European Theater of World War II | ||
The 733d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last assigned to the 453d Bombardment Group, stationed at Fort Dix Army Air Base, New Jersey. It was inactivated on 12 September 1945.
Contents
Training
The 733d Bombardment Squadron was activated in mid 1943 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment squadron. The squadron trained under II Bomber Command. The 733d trained in Idaho for the first phase of training which included local area flights, bombing and aerial gunnery practice. The unit moved to California for the second and third phases of training. The training there was more extensive. It included cross country missions, navigation problems, gunnery, bombing and pilot training problems. At this time considerable time was spent in ground school instruction on problems pertaining to heavy bombardment operations for overseas duty.
Combat in the European Theater
The 733rd deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), where it became part of VIII Bomber Command in England in December 1943. The squadron engaged in long-range strategic bombardment of enemy targets in Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. It flew its first combat mission on 5 February 1944 against an airfield at Tours, France. Its targets included a fuel depot at Dulmen, marshalling yards at Paderborn and Hamm, aircraft factories at Gotha, an ordnance depot at Glinde and oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen, chemical factory at Leverkusen and airfields.The squadron took part in the Big Week concentrated attack against the German aircraft industry at the end of February 1944.
In addition to its strategic missions, the squadron carried out air support and air interdiction missions. It bombed airfields, V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket sites, and anti-aircraft warfare batteries in support of the Operation Overlord landings in Normandy. On D-Day the 733d attacked shore installations between Le Havre and Cherbourg. It attacked enemy troops during the subsequent breakout at St-Lo in July 1944. The squadron attacked enemy formations and armor during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945.
On two occasions, the squadron acted as an airlift unit, hauling gasoline, food, and blankets to France in September 1944, and dropping supplies to airborne troops near Wesel during Operation Varsity. the airborne assault across the Rhine river in 1945.
The squadron returned to the United States shortly after the surrender and the unit was inactivated in September after the Surrender of Japan.