494th Bombardment Squadron

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The 494th Bombardment Squadron was a United States Army Air Forces unit in World War II, part of the 344th Bombardment Group. It activated in September 1942 at MacDill Field, Florida, as a replacement training unit for Martin B-26 Marauders. In July 1943 it shifted to combat training, completed its program at Hunter Field, Georgia, and deployed to Europe in January 1944.

The squadron began combat with IX Bomber Command from RAF Stansted Mountfitchet in February 1944. It attacked targets in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, including airfields, rail yards, submarine pens and coastal defenses. After a brief training pause in April, it supported Operation Crossbow against V-1 and V-2 sites. From May 1944 it focused on bridges in France to help the Normandy invasion, and on D-Day (June 6, 1944) it attacked Cherbourg coastal batteries.

Throughout July 1944 it continued operations to aid the breakout at Saint-Lô during Operation Cobra. For its actions the squadron earned a Distinguished Unit Citation. It then targeted German railways, bridges, depots and other sites, moving to France’s Cormeilles-en-Vexin in September 1944.

From December 1944 to January 1945 it supported ground forces during the Battle of the Bulge and kept striking supply lines and other targets in Germany through April 1945. Its last mission was April 25, 1945, against Erding Airfield. After V-E Day, the squadron flew training missions and demonstrations, and in September moved to Schleissheim Airfield near Munich as part of the occupation forces. It began training on the Douglas A-26 Invader but continued flying Marauders as well. On March 31, 1946, the squadron was inactivated at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C.