The primary aircraft of command were the Douglas C-47 Skytrain and its variant, the Douglas C-53 Skytrooper, but in 1945 the command equipped one group with 117 Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft to determine their viability in the European Theater of Operations. As a result of a 28% loss ratio during Operation Varsity resulting from the C-46's high inflammability, The command did not convert to the Commando, even though its cargo-carrying capacity was twice that of the C-47. The command also had 1,922 CG-4A Waco and 20 Waco CG-13 gliders just prior to its last major operation in March 1945.
IX Troop Carrier Command consisted of three troop carrier wings, 14 troop carrier groups, and one pathfinder group, totaling approximately 1380 operational aircraft including spares, and 2,000 gliders at its maximum strength in March 1945.
IX Troop Carrier Command conducted three multi-divisional combat air assaults:
It also conducted relief operations for isolated units during the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944.
History
Background
All U.S. tactical air support units in Great Britain were consolidated into Ninth Air Force on 16 October 1943, under the command of Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton. At the same time the IX Troop Carrier Command was activated, having been constituted by USAAF Headquarters five days before its headquarters transferred to Grantham Lodge where it remained until 20 September 1944, when it transferred to Ascot, Berkshire, its final location in Europe. Its first headquarters was located at RAF Cottesmore, where it took control of a provisional headquarters established by the Eighth Air Force in September.
The command's original cadre came from Headquarters, 1st Troop Carrier Command (Provisional) established as a provisional headquarters by the Eighth Air Force in September with six officers and three aircraft of the 315th Troop Carrier Group (the remainder of the group's aircraft and squadrons were on detached service in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations). On 1 October 1943 the 434th Troop Carrier Group became part of the provisional command and was the only group assigned. Twelve airfields were designated for the new command, each to house 40 C-47s and a like number of gliders: RAF Fulbeck, RAF Langar, RAF Bottesford, RAF Wakerley, RAF Balderton, RAF North Witham, RAF Barkston Heath, RAF Cottesmore, RAF North Luffenham, RAF Saltby, RAF Folkingham, and RAF Woolfox Lodge. In October, 1943, Brigadier General Benjamin F. Giles became commanding officer.[1]
Its first wing, the 50th Troop Carrier Wing, became operational on 17 October 1943. A second wing, the 52d Troop Carrier Wing, arrived from Sicily on 17 February 1944. Its five groups had participated in the large airborne assault during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily and had flown combat jumps on a smaller scale in Italy. On 11 March 1944 the final troop carrier wing assigned to the command, the 53rd Troop Carrier Wing, arrived from the United States along with five groups that had just completed their operational training. The wings were realigned to provide the 53rd, tasked as the primary unit for glider operations, with the four groups already operational in February 1944 (434th through 437th), while the least experienced groups were assigned to the 50th Wing. The command grew to a total of 14 groups in April 1944 when the 315th was taken off transport duties in the Mediterranean and assigned two additional squadrons to bring it up to full table of organization and equipment strength, and when the newly created 442d Troop Carrier Group arrived from the United States.
These groups went into training for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France, as they arrived in Britain. The groups of the 50th and 52nd Wings began intensive night formation training that included practice jumps with the airborne divisions assigned to them, which continued through April, when the division commanders decided to stop further unit jump training. The 53rd Wing began training at the beginning of March but had virtually no troop experience until mid-May, when they began a series of mock night operations to raise their level of training. Both the 315th and 442nd groups continued formation training until the end of May. Five groups also conducted training in night glider assaults during both April and May. By 1 June the command had approximately 1,200 C-47s and 1,400 gliders assigned, and 950 crews for each.
At the end of February 1944, using equipment and personnel from the 52nd Wing, the command established a training unit for airborne division pathfinders and the aircrews that would deliver them. The Command Pathfinder School was redesignated the 1st Pathfinder Group (Provisional) in August 1944.
In February and March 1945 the 52d and 53rd wings also deployed to bases in France, except for two groups of the 52nd assigned to support British airborne operations. The command carried out extensive formation training for Operation Varsity, an airborne assault across the Rhine River, and executed it on 24 March 1945, delivering the 17th Airborne Division. The groups of the 52nd Wing based in France returned to England to carry the British 6th Airborne Division in the assault.
Return to the United States
IX Troop Carrier Command transferred from the United Kingdom to the United States without equipment or personnel on 5 September 1945 to Stout Field, Indiana, where it took over the personnel and equipment of I Troop Carrier Command along with the command of troop carrier units in the United stares. On 1 February 1946 command headquarters moved to Greenville Army Air Base, South Carolina, in preparation for inactivation, which took place 31 March 1946,when the command transferred its personnel and equipment to Third Air Force, which assumed responsibility for troop carrier operations for Tactical Air Command. On 8 October 1948 the United States Air Force, now a separate military service, disbanded the command.
Notable Members
Major Vincent F. Harrington, former U.S. Representative from Iowa briefly served as a security officer.
Lineage
Constituted as the IX Troop Carrier Command on 11 October 1943
^Unofficial. See Maurer, Combat Units, p. 449 (no approved insigne).
^Robertson says the group was assigned to I Troop Carrier Command until c. December 1945, but I Troop Carrier Command was disbanded on 4 November 1945. Maurer, Combat Units, p. 438.
United States
United States Air Force
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