2d Lieutenant Robert E. Femoyer, of the 711th Bombardment Squadron, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during a mission over Merseburg, Germany, on 2 November 1944. The group returned to the United States following the war and was inactivated.
The group was activated again in 1947 in the Air Force Reserve. It moved to Castle Air Force Base, California in 1949, where it became a corollary unit of the active duty 93d Bombardment Group. It was called to active service in 1951 and was inactivated shortly thereafter while its members were used as fillers for other units.
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 42-97392 711th BS, 'Ramblin Wreck' (IR-F)Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 42–32081, 708th BS 'Yellow Cab' Hit by flak and crashed into the North Sea killing all nine on board.
The original mission of the 447th was to be an operational training unit.[7] However, by the time the group had reached full strength in October it had been identified for overseas deployment and its key personnel were assigned to the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida for advanced tactical training. The cadre trained at Brooksville Army Air Field with the 1st Bombardment Squadron, engaging in simulated attacks against Mobile, Charleston and New Orleans. The squadron then trained at Rapid City Army Air Base, South Dakota with the 17th Bombardment Training Wing. In June 1943 the group moved to Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska for Phase I training. The group lost three planes during training, two due to a mid-air collision in August 1943, and one to adverse weather in October.[8]
The first 42 of the group's B-17s began to move from the United States to the European theater of operations in November 1943. The unit sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth on 23 November 1943 and arrived at the Firth of Clyde on 29 November 1943.[9] The air echelon moved overseas via southern ferry route in early November 1943.
Combat in the European Theater
The group was stationed at RAF Rattlesden, England from 25 November 1943 to 1 August 1945. The group flew its first combat mission on 24 December 1943 against a V-1 missile site near Saint-Omer in northern France.[10] Until May 1944 the 447th helped prepare for the invasion of the European continent by attacking submarine pens, naval installations, and cities in Germany; missile sites and ports in France; and airfields and marshaling yards in France, Belgium and Germany.[11] The group conducted heavy bombardment missions against German aircraft industry during Big Week, 20 to 25 February 1944.[1] The group lost 21 B-17s during April 1944. Only the 100th Bombardment Group lost move bombers in a single month.[12] Heavy losses continued the following month. In an attack on Zwickau the composite wing in which the group was flying was attacked by over 200 Luftwaffe fighters, and the 447th lost seven Forts.[13]
The group supported the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 by bombing airfields and other targets.[1] On D-Day the group bombed the beachhead area using pathfinder aircraft.[14]
The group aided in the breakthrough at St. Lo, France, and the effort to take Brest, France, from July to September 1944.[1] It bombed strategic targets from October to December 1944, concentrating on sources of oil production.[1] It assaulted marshalling yards, railroad bridges and communication centers during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945.[1] In March 1945 the group bombed an airfield in support of airborne assault across the Rhine.
On 2 November 1944, 2d Lieutenant Robert E. Femoyer, a navigator with the group, was flying a mission to Merseburg, Germany. His B-17 was damaged by flak and Lt. Femoyer was severely injured in his back and side. He refused morphine to relieve the pain of his injuries in order to keep his mind alert to navigate the plane out of the danger from heavily defended flak areas and then to a place of safety for his crew. Because he was too weak to climb back in his seat, he asked other crew members to prop him up so he could read his charts and instruments. For more than two hours he directed the navigation of his plane back to its home station with no further damage. Shortly after being removed from his plane, Lt. Femoyer died of his injuries.[1][15]
The group flew its last combat mission on 21 April 1945 against a marshalling yard at Ingolstadt, Germany.[16] Two days earlier, it lost a B-17 to an attack by a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. The six bombers lost by Eighth Air Force that day were its last losses of the war.[17]
From 24 December 1943 to 21 April 1945 the group flew 258 combat missions; for a total of 8086 sorties, of which 6867 attacked their targets. Overall, the 447th dropped a total of 112,828 bombs, weighing 17,099 tons, on enemy targets during World War II.[18] One of the group's planes, named "Milk Wagon" flew 129 missions without turning back,[note 1] a record for the 3d Air Division.[9]
The group redeployed to the United States during the summer 1945. The air echelon ferried their aircraft and personnel back to the United States, leaving on 29 and 30 June 1945. The group ground echelon, along with the 708th and 710th squadrons sailed on the SS Joseph T. Robinson on 1 August 1945, while the 709th and 711th squadrons departed on 3 August 1945 on the SS Benjamin R. Milam from Liverpool. Most personnel were discharged at Camp Myles Standish after arrival at the port of Boston. A small cadre proceeded to Drew Field, Florida[19] and the group inactivated on 7 November 1945.[1]
Reserves and Korean War
Two years later, on 25 July 1947, the 447th was redesignated the 447th Bombardment Group, Very Heavy. It was activated in the Air Force Reserve on 12 August 1947, at Bergstrom Field Texas, and equipped with Boeing B-29 Superfortresses. The group was redesignated as the 447th Bombardment Group, Medium when the B-29 was classified as a medium bomber and reassigned to Castle Air Force Base, California,[1] where it became a corollary unit of the active duty 93d Bombardment Group. The 447th was ordered to active service in May 1951 as a result of the Korean War, with personnel and equipment reassigned to other units. It was inactivated as a "paper unit" on 16 June 1951.[1]
Expeditionary service in Iraq
Lockheed C-130H Hercules 74-1667 of the 317th Airlift Group being unloaded despite a dust storm at Sather Air Base
The group was redesignated the 447th Air Expeditionary Group and converted to provisional status on 28 January 2003.[11] The 447th was activated at Baghdad International Airport in April 2003, after elements of the 3rd Infantry Division captured the airport 4 April of the same year. The base was named Sather Air Base on 8 April 2005 in honor of Air Force Staff Sergeant Scott D. Sather, who was killed two years prior in combat during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[20] As of 2008, Sather was one of the busiest airports in Iraq, leading in number of passengers handled, and placing second in the amount of cargo.[11]
The group provided aerial port, military runway control, aerial control, base operating support, combat airmen and combat medical support. The group also supported United States and Coalition forces with airlift, supplies and delivery of forces and materials within the Baghdad area. Air Force aerial port airmen worked next to United States Army soldiers. The airfield was a joint civilian-military airport, with a military ramp on the west side and a civilian runway and terminal on the other used for international civil flights.[11]
^ abcSummers, Jr., Sr Amn Eric (27 April 2010). "447th Transition of Authority". 447th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
Freeman, Roger A. (1970). The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (A History of the US 8th Army Air Force). London, England, UK: Macdonald and Company. ISBN978-0-87938-638-2.
Watkins, Robert (2008). Battle Colors: Insignia and Markings of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. Vol. I (VIII) Bomber Command. Atglen, PA: Shiffer Publishing Ltd. ISBN978-0-7643-1987-7.
United States
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