The 863rd Bombardment Squadron is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was first organized as the 518th Bombardment Squadron in October 1942, when it replaced a National Guard unit participating in antisubmarine patrols off the Atlantic coast, becoming the 13th Antisubmarine Squadron in November. When the Navy took over the coastal antisubmarine mission in August 1943, the squadron moved to the western United States, where it formed the cadre for the 493rd Bombardment Group and was redesignated as the 863rd. It moved to England in the spring of 1944 and participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany until April 1945. It returned to the United States and was inactivated in August 1945.
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.[6][7] Its bombardment group headquarters, including the 377th, were inactivated and the squadron, now designated the 13th Antisubmarine Squadron, was assigned directly to the 25th Wing.[1][3] 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.[8]
Training as a heavy bombardment unit in the United States
In September 1943, the 518th moved to Pueblo Army Air Base, Colorado, where it became part of Second Air Force. On 1 November 1943, the squadron was redesignated as the 863rd Bombardment Squadron and Second Air Force moved it to McCook Army Air Field, where it formed the cadre for the 493rd Bombardment Group.[1][9] At the beginning of January, the squadron transferred on paper to Elveden Hall,[b] England. The ground personnel of the squadron in the United States had been used to form Boeing B-29 Superfortress units being activated by Second Air Force, while the air echelon remained in Nebraska to conduct training on their assigned Consolidated B-24 Liberators. Meanwhile, Eighth Air Force formed a new ground echelon for the squadron in England from other units assigned to the 3d Bombardment Division. This ground echelon moved to the squadron's combat station, RAF Debach, in April 1944. The squadron's air echelon departed for England via the northern ferry route on 1 May, while a small ground component left McCook and sailed from Boston, Massachusetts on the SS Brazil (1928) on 12 May 1944.[9][10]
The squadron flew its last combat mission against marshalling yards near Nauen on 20 April 1945, although it flew food-dropping missions in early May.[10] The squadron air echelon departed Debach on 30 June, while the ground echelon sailed for home aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth on 6 August 1945. In late August, the squadron assembled at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota, where it was inactivated on 28 August 1945.[1][9]
Lineage
Constituted as the 518th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 13 October 1942
Activated on 18 October 1942
Redesignated: 13th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) on 29 November 1942
Redesignated: 863rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 1 November 1943
^Approved 13 May 1943 for 13th Antisubmaire Squadron. Description: on a disc per fess debased invected light blue and dark blue, within a border of equally divided rings of black and golden orange, a winged black cat, yellow face, red tongue, and white paws, riding an aerial torpedo golden orange with a shark's face and eye on nose, all emitting speed lines white, falling to dexterbase; a white cloud formation outlined in black in chief.
^Elveden Hall was a manor house, not an airfield. Anderson, pp. 9, 12.
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. ISBN978-0-87938-638-2.
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