493rd bombardment group: a pictorial review of operations in the ETO

Authors

United States Army Air Forces

Files

Description

From A Short History of the 493rd Bombardment Group (H):

The 493rd Bomb Group assembled for its phase training to serve as a combat unit overseas at the McCook Army Air Field in McCook, Nebraska. The Air Echelon of the Group composed of the 860th, 861st, 862nd, and the 863rd Squadrons collected its air and some ground personnel during the month of February, 1944, and began training in earnest through the month of March.

The usual problems encountered by an outfit in the process of initial organization were dealt with in good stride. The setting up of a briefing and an interrogation technique was ironed out by discussion with the crews as to their likes and dislikes of the procedure while we were on camera bombing missions. Operations began to organize teamwork by stressing on the crews the importance of correct take-off interval, climb, and landing procedure as well as the flying of a correct formation while in the air. Weather found plenty of practice in predicting the frequent snows and changes in weather in that woe-be-gone outpost somewhere in the United States. The bombing section too, played its part by selecting targets for the crews and the crews in turn bombing by camera every conceivable target within operational radius of the base. All departments had their job to do in welding the Group into one smooth operating machine.

Publication Date

1945

Keywords

United States Air Force, World War 1939-1945, Regimental histories, 493rd Bombardment Group, 860th Bomb Squardon, 861st Bomb Squadron, 862nd Bomb Squadron, 863rd Bomb Squadron

Disciplines

Military History

Recommended Citation

United States Army Air Forces, "493rd bombardment group: a pictorial review of operations in the ETO" (1945). Regimental Histories. 118.
https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/ww_reg_his/118