In October 1942, the Army Air Forces organized its antisubmarine forces into the single Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, which established the 25th Antisubmarine Wing the following month to control its forces operating over the Atlantic.[7][8] Its bombardment group headquarters, including the 377th, were inactivated and the squadron, now designated the 11th Antisubmarine Squadron, was assigned directly to the 25th Wing.[3][4] In July 1943, the AAF and Navy reached an agreement to transfer the coastal antisubmarine mission to the Navy. This mission transfer also included an exchange of AAF long-range bombers equipped for antisubmarine warfare for Navy Consolidated B-24 Liberators without such equipment.[9]
Combat in the Mediterranean Theater
The squadron was redesignated the 831st Bombardment Squadron on 1 October and moved to Fairmont Army Air Field, where it acted as the cadre for the newly-activated 485th Bombardment Group. It trained with Consolidated B-24 Liberators until March 1944, when it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. En route to the theater, on 20 April 1944, 154 members of the Squadron were lost when the Liberty ship SS Paul Hamilton was sunk by an aerial torpedo.[10] The squadron's ground echelon arrived at its base at Venosa Airfield, Italy in April, but when the air echelon arrived in theater, it remained in Tunisia for additional training.[3][11]
The squadron entered combat in May 1944, and primarily flew long range strategic bombing missions against targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia, bombing marshalling yards, oil refineries, airfields, heavy industry, and other strategic objectives, such as the Ploesti air raids on the Romanian oilfields. The squadron was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for continuing an attack on an oil refinery near Vienna, Austria on 26 June 1944 despite heavy fighter opposition.[11]
The 831st was occasionally diverted from the strategic campaign to carry out some support and interdiction operations. It struck bridges, harbors, and troop concentrations in August 1944 to aid with Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France. It also hit communications lines and other targets during March and April 1945 to support the advance of the British Eighth Army in northern Italy in Operation Grapeshot.[11]
The unit departed Italy in May 1945. In late July, it reassembled at Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa. The following month, the 485th Group was redesignated as a very heavy group. Because, such groups had only three, rather than four, operational squadrons,[12] the 831st was inactivated on 20 August 1945.[3][11]
Lineage
Constituted as the 516th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 13 October 1942
Activated on 18 October 1942
Redesignated 11th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) on 29 November 1942
Redesignated 11th Antisubmarine Squadron (Medium) on 3 March 1943
Redesignated 11th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) on 20 April 1943
Redesignated 831st Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 1 October 1943
Redesignated 831st Bombardment Squadron, Heavy c. 1944
^This emblem apparently never received official approval. Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 773-774 lists the 11th Antisubmarine Squadron emblem as the official emblem for the 831st. The emblem is included on the 485th Bomb Group Association web page
^Approved 9 February 1943. Description: On a blue disc, three dwarfs atired red, green, and red respectively, carrying a large yellow aerial bomb, nose orange fesswise, across a white cloud formation.
Cate, James L (1953). "The Twentieth Air Force and Matterhorn". In Craven, Wesley F; Cate, James L (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II(PDF). Vol. V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. LCCN48003657. OCLC704158. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1956). History of United States naval operations in World War II. Vol. 10: The Atlantic Battle Won, May 1943–May 1945. Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC7289366.
Further reading
Schneider, Sam, ed. (1995). This is How it Was: The History of the 485th Bomb Group (Heavy). St. Petersburg, FL: Southern Heritage Press. ISBN978-0941072151.
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