452nd Bombardment Wing

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Overview

The history of the 452nd Bombardment Wing dates back to World War 2. One 1 June 1943 they were created as the 452nd Bomb Group (Heavy) and flew B-17 Flying Fortresses on sorties in Europe. They were part of the 8th Air Force. As the war came to a close the unit was ordered back to the US in June 1945 and disbanded in August 1945.

During the post-war years the Air Force created a program called the Wing Base Plan, which was meant to bolster the Air Force with a number of reserve units and trained pilots that could be quickly recalled. On 18 April 1947 the 452nd Bomb Group was re-activated as part of this reserve program, but this time as a Light bomb unit. For the first two years the unit was little more than concept on paper. They had no official meeting place, and more importantly, no aircraft. That changed during the summer of 1949 when the unit was assigned a number of A-26 Invaders and reassigned to Long Beach, CA as the main base.

The Korean War broke out on 25 Jun 1950. On 10 Aug 1950, Brigadier General Sweetser called the 452nd to active duty and pulled the best pilots from the 452nd and 448th reserve units. The unit went to George AFB in California and trained there until October 1950. By 15 October, the unit was en-route to Itazuke, Japan. The planes arrived well ahead of the rest of the personnel and equipment, which came by sea and didn't arrive until 15 Nov 1950. Immediately upon arrival the 731st Bombardment Squadron was detached from the 452nd and reassigned to 3rd Bombardment Wing to give them a third squadron.

The first combat mission flown by the 452nd was 27 Oct 1950, just 12 days after the planes arrived and 77 days after being called to active duty. The 452nd arrived in Korea quickly enough to provide close air support for the drive to Yalu. Beginning in November 1950 the wing began concentrating on daylight close air support missions. They flew the missions in groups of 4 or 6 planes. In December 1950 the 3rd Bomb Wing was converted to Night Intruder missions. This meant that between the two units they could operate any time day or night, but all of the Daylight Interdiction missions fell to the 452nd. The 452nd was especially called upon when bad weather grounded the Navy and Marine air support units.

The 452nd provided close air support for the first UN Counter-Offensive (1/25/51-3/21/51) as well as the CCF Spring Offensive (3/22/51-7/27/51). By May 1951 the continuous demand on the unit was beginning to wear thin. Most of the flight crews were approaching or had exceeded 40 missions. Between crews being rotated home and planes being lost to combat, the attrition rate was disastrous. Of the three squadrons in the wing, roughly one sixth of the air crews had been lost as well as 37% of the aircraft. The situation was so dire that the 729th Bomb Squadron only had 8 operational aircraft left.

In December 1950 the 452nd moved to Miho, Japan with no interruption to their missions. They remained there until 23 May 1951 when they were reassigned to K-9 (Pusan East). By this time the 452nd only had 57% of its airplanes operational. A drastic decision was made to leave the Maintenance and Supply Group and the special organizational maintenance squadron at Miho. They established a specialized repair unit called REMCO. This move was criticized by some, but the results spoke for themselves. By November 1951 REMCO had increased the 452nd's strength from 57% to 85%.)

In an effort to curb their losses, the North Koreans converted their resupply efforts to nighttime operations. In June 1951 the unit was converted to night operations and the planes were painted black. New crews began to rotate in and had a 70 mission limit set. At around the same time General Stratameyer lobbied to get the 452nd up to a combat strength of 24 planes per squadron. The Air Force was not able to meet this demand due to attrition and the activation of other units and the 452nd only remained at an operational strength of 12 planes per squadron (roughly 36 total).

On 9 May 1952 the 452nd Bombardment Wing was relieved from Active Duty having completed the 21 month service period allowed by law. On 10 May 1952, the unit's personnel and planes assigned were transferred to the 17th Bombardment Wing.

The 452nd flew 15,000 missions (7,000 of which were at night). A total of 85 crew members were KIA or MIA during this time.


Squadrons

Wing Commanders

  • Brigadier General Luther W. Sweetster (10 Aug 50 - May 51)
  • Colonel Brooks A. Lawhon (May 51 - September 51)
  • Colonel Reginald J. Clizbe (September 51 - Feb 52)
  • Colonel Albert W. Fletcher (Feb 52 - )

Group Commanders

  • Lt.Col. Charles W. Howe (10 Aug 51 - May 51)
  • Lt.Col. Frank L. Wood (May 51 - June 51)
  • Lt.Col. John A. Harrington (June 51 - Dec 51)
  • Lt.Col. Harry C. Mailey (Dec 51 - Mar 52)
  • Col. James D. Kemp (Mar 52 - )

Bases

Long Beach, CA (1949) George AFB, CA (10 Aug 50) Itazuke AFB, JP (15 Oct 50) Miho AFB, JP (Dec 50) K-9 Pusan-East, Korea (23 May 1951)

Campaigns

  • UN Defensive (27 Jun-15 Sep, 1950)
  • UN Offensive (16 Sep-2 Nov, 1950)
  • CCF Intervention (3 Nov 1950-24 Jan 1951)
  • 1st UN Counter-Offensive (25 Jan-21 Apr, 1951)
  • CCF Spring Counter-Offensive (22 Apr-8 Jul, 1951)
  • UN Summer-Fall Offensive (9 Jul-27 Nov, 1951)
  • 2nd Korean Winter (28 Nov 1951-30 Mar 1952)
  • Korean Summer-Fall (1 May - 9 May 1952)

Citations

  • Distinguished Unit Citation
    • First Award (9 Jul 1951 - 27 Nov 1951)
    • Second Award (28 Nov 1951 - 30 Apr 1952)
  • Korean Presidential Unit Citation (27 Oct 1950 - 27 Oct 1950)

Planes

According to John Darby, who was a Crew Chief with the 452nd in Korea, the following planes were part of the Wing, but he could not recall which squadron they were assigned to.

Sources

452nd Bomb Squadron History
John Darby (Personal Experience - Crew Chief)

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