Later activated as a tactical bomber unit by Tactical Air Command in the 1950s, the group was designated the 461st Bombardment Group, Tactical.
Mission
The 461st Operations Group is the only active duty Air Force unit operating the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), an advanced ground surveillance and battle management system. Joint STARS detects, locates, classifies, tracks and targets ground movements on the battlefield, communicating real-time information through secure data links with U.S. Forces command posts.
History
World War II
461st Bombardment Group B-24 Liberators attacking Muhldorf Marshalling Yard Germany, 11 March 1945
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]
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 uses the wing emblem with the group designation on the scroll. Air Force Instruction 84-105, Organizational Lineage, Honors and Heraldry, 19 March 2013, para 3.3.3
^Aircraft is Martin B-57B-MA Canberra, serial 53-3934, taken in 1956.
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. ISBN978-0-7643-3401-6.
Further reading
Glantzberg, Hughes (2006). Al Ataque. On Demand Printing. ISBN0-595-41572-5.
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