The 40th Bomb Group

     The 40th Bombardment Group, Medium (M), was activated on 1 April, 1941. On 7 December, 1941, they were placed on war alert for Caribbean missions. The group was then re-designated Heavy (H) in May, 1942. In June 1943, the group returned to the United States and was assigned to Pratt Army Airfield in Pratt, Kansas, on 1 July, 1943. Training began with assigned B-17 and YB-29 airplanes. The group was re-designated as Very Heavy (VH) in November, 1943.

    On 1 April 1944, the first planes started leaving for the combat theater. Chakulia (Bengal Province), India became the group’s next permanent base. The first B-29 combat mission was flown on 5 June 1944, from Chakulia to bomb the railway yards at Bangkok, Thailand. Then days later, the first B-29 mission to the Japanese homeland was flown from Hsingching, China to the imperial iron and steel works at Yawata, Japan. On 14 December, at Rangoon, Burma, bombs from an 11-plane formation collided immediately after release and 4 B-29s & seventeen crew members were lost.

    The group flew 37 combat missions from bases in India and China with targets over Asia and the western Pacific, including Anshan, Manchuria, Japan, China, Taiwan, the Malay peninsula, Singapore and Palembang Sumatra. They moved to west field, Tinian in February and March 1945 and completed 53 additional combat missions. One crew was lost after the war ended while dropping food and medicine to American POWs who were starving, awaiting release from Japanese prison camps.

    The group received their first distinguished unit citation for bombing the iron and steel works at Yawata, Japan, on 20 August 1944. Their second citation was for attacking naval aircraft factories at Kure oil storage facilities at Oshima and the industrial area of Nagoya, in Japan, in May 1945. They received their third citation when they raided the light metal industries in Osaka in July 1945.

 The group returned to the United States in November 1945, being assigned to March Field, California and later assigned to the Fourth Air Force of Continental Air Forces.

Commanders: Col. Lewis Parker - 1 Jul 1943; LtCol. Louis Coira - 24 Feb 1944; Col. Leonard Harman - 10 Apr 1944; Col. William Blanchard - 4 Aug 1944; Col. Henry Sullivan - 16 Feb 1945; Col. William Skaer - 27 Feb 1945