In 1985, the squadron was consolidated with the 601st Tactical Air Support Squadron, stationed at Sembach Air Base, Germany. The consolidated squadron was last assigned to the 601st Tactical Control Wing.
History
World War II
The 601st Bombardment Squadron was activated at Ephrata Army Air Base, Washington in early 1943 as one of the four original squadrons of the 398th Bombardment Group.[1][3] The squadron trained under II Bomber Command with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.[1] The squadron's training was interrupted in July 1943, when it became a Replacement Training Unit.[3] Replacement training units were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters.[4] In November, replacement training ended and the squadron resumed its preparation for overseas deployment.[3]
In June 1944, prior to Operation Overlord, the Normandy invasion, the squadron temporarily suspended its strategic bombing to attack coastal defenses and enemy troop concentrations on the Cherbourg peninsula.[3]Eighth Air Force took advantage of the diversion from strategic bombing to allow newly arrived units like the 601st to fly attacks against nearby targets to gain combat experience. The first target assigned was a V-1 flying bomb launch site near Sottevast, but the unit's inexperience and overcast conditions in the target area caused it to return to its home station without bombing.[6]
The squadron also struck gun positions near Eindhoven to support Operation Market Garden, the airborne attacks in the Netherlands, in September and attacked power stations, railroads and bridges during the Battle of the Bulge from December until January 1945. It attacked airfields in March 1945 during Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine River.[3]
The squadron flew its last combat mission on 25 April 1945 when it attacked the airfield at Plzeň, Czechoslovakia. After the German surrender it transported liberated prisoners of war from Germany to France.[3] It left Europe in May and returned to the United States aboard the passenger linerRMS Queen Elizabeth, arriving at the New York Port of Embarkation on 29 June.[5] Squadron members were given thirty days leave, and a cadre assembled at Drew Field, Florida, where the squadron was inactivated in August 1945.[1][5]
Cold War
On 19 September 1985 the 601st Tactical Air Support Squadron, a unit that had been activated at Ramstein Air Base, Germany in 1974 as a forward air control unit, and the 601st Bombardment Squadron were consolidated.[7] The consolidated squadron was inactivated in 1988.[8]
Lineage
601st Bombardment Squadron
Constituted as the 601st Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 15 February 1943
Activated on 1 March 1943
Redesignated 601st Bombardment Squadron Heavy in 1944
Inactivated on 1 September 1945
Consolidated on 19 September 1985 with the 601st Tactical Air Support Squadron as the 601st Tactical Air Support Squadron[7]
601st Tactical Air Support Squadron
Constituted as the 601st Tactical Air Support Squadron on 31 January 1974
Activated on 8 July 1974
Consolidated on 19 September 1985 with the 601st Bombardment Squadron[7]
^Approved 25 October 1943. Description: On a light pastel green disc, border black, piped white, a baby proper, under a golden halo, wearing a red suit and aviator's helmet, black and green ear phones and goggles, having black horns, trimmed white, and black bat wings, grasping in the left hand a white trident with black aerial bomb prongs, in flight above the flames of Hell proper.
^Aircraft is Lockheed Vega built Boeing B-17G-80-VE Flying Fortress, serial 44-8771, fuselage code 3O-B. This B-17 was reassigned to the 306th Bombardment Group and was salvaged on 30 October 1946. Baugher, Joe (3 April 2023). "1944 USAF Serial Numbers". Joe Baugher. Retrieved 6 May 2023..
^ abcDepartment of the Air Force/MPM Letter 662q, 19 September 85, Subject: Reconstitution, Redesignation, and Consolidation of Selected Air Force Tactical Squadrons
Craven, Wesley F; Cate, James L, eds. (1955). The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. LCCN48-3657.
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. p. 256. 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.
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