461st Operations Group

461st Bombardment Group B-24 Liberators attacking Muhldorf Marshalling Yard Germany, 11 March 1945

The group was constituted in May 1943 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment group and activated on 1 July at Wendover Field, Utah, with the 764th, 765th, 766th and 767th Bombardment Squadrons assigned.[2][3] It trained under Second and Fourth Air Forces at several airfields in Utah, Idaho, and California, with group elements undergoing combat simulation training at the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics in Florida.

The 461st deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in February 1944, the air echelon flying its B-24's via the South Atlantic route, stopping in North Africa before joining the ground echelon in Italy.[3] It was assigned to the 49th Bombardment Wing of Fifteenth Air Force at Torretto Airfield, Italy, in late February.[2]

The group began combat operations in April, engaging in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It engaged chiefly in bombardment of communications, industries, and other strategic objectives in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece.[3] It supported counter-air operations by bombing enemy airdromes and aircraft centers, receiving a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for a mission on 13 April 1944 when the group battled its way through enemy defenses to attack an aircraft components plant in Budapest.[3] The 461st BG conducted Oil Campaign of World War II operations against Brüx, Czechoslovakia; Blechhammer, Germany; and Moosbierbaum and Vienna in Austria. It received a second DUC for a July 1944 bombing of Ploiești despite flak, clouds, smoke, and fighters. Also operated in support of ground forces and flew some interdictory missions.[3]

It hit artillery positions in support of the Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944 and flew supply missions to France in September. The group aided Operation Grapeshot, the spring 1945 Allied offensive in Italy, by attacking gun emplacements and troop concentrations. After V-E Day, the 461st dropped supplies to prisoner-of-war camps in Austria during May 1945.[3] During its operations in the Mediterranean, the group suffered 108 aircraft lost in combat, and was credited with the destruction of 129 enemy aircraft.[4] It dropped over 13,000 tons of bombs in over 46,000 hours of combat flying.[4]

The group began returning to the United States in early July. It reassembled at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota at the end of the month and was inactivated there on 28 August 1945.[3]

461st Bombardment Wing B-57 Canberra[note 2]

The unit was reactivated as the 461st Bombardment Group, Light and assigned to the 461st Bombardment Wing. It was initially equipped with World War II era Douglas B-26 Invader light bombers.[3] This aircraft assignment was temporary until the unit received jet-powered Martin Martin B-57 Canberras[5] and moved to a permanent base at Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas.[3] After three years of service with the B-57s the group was inactivated at the beginning of 1958 as TAC prepared to transfer Blytheville to Strategic Air Command.[6]

The group was redesignated the 461st Operations Group and activated at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia as the operational element of the 461st Air Control Wing in October 2011. The group operates the Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS along with the associated 116th Operations Group of the Georgia Air National Guard.[2]

• 12th Airborne Command and Control Squadron: 1 October 2011 – present
• 16th Airborne Command and Control Squadron: 1 October 2011– 16 February 2023
• 53rd Air Traffic Control Squadron (later 53rd Combat Airfield Operations Squadron): 1 October 2014 – present[7]
• 330th Combat Training Squadron: 1 October 2011 – present
• 461st Operations Support Squadron: 1 October 2011 – present
• 764th Bombardment Squadron: 1 July 1943 – 28 August 1945, 23 December 1953 – 8 January 1958
• 765th Bombardment Squadron: 1 July 1943 – 28 August 1945, 23 December 1953 – 8 January 1958
• 766th Bombardment Squadron: 1 July 1943 – 28 August 1945, 23 December 1953 – 8 January 1958
• 767th Bombardment Squadron: 1 July 1943 – 28 August 1945[2]

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.
• Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-53-6. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947–1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9.
• Watkins, Robert A. (2009). Insignia and Aircraft Markings of the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II. Vol. IV, European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations. Atglen,PA: Shiffer Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7643-3401-6.

Further reading

• Glantzberg, Hughes (2006). Al Ataque. On Demand Printing. ISBN 0-595-41572-5.