837th Bombardment Squadron
The 837th Bombardment Squadron was a United States Army Air Forces unit activated in September 1943 as part of the 487th Bombardment Group. It trained in the United States with Consolidated B-24 Liberators before moving to the European Theater in spring 1944. The ground crews went to the United Kingdom and the air crews arrived in England in April 1944, with combat beginning on 7 May 1944. The squadron bombed airfields in Normandy to support the D-Day invasion and attacked targets around Caen, Brest, and during Operation Market Garden.
In July 1944, the squadron stopped combat to convert from the B-24 Liberator to the B-17 Flying Fortress, completing the switch by 1 August 1944. It then focused on strategic bombing over Germany, hitting oil refineries and factories in Merseburg, Mannheim, and Dulmen, as well as industrial targets in Nuremberg, Hanover, and Berlin, and rail yards in Köln, Münster, Hamm, and Neumunster. The unit also supported ground troops during the Battle of the Bulge (Dec 1944–Jan 1945) and conducted interdiction missions during the Rhine crossings.
The squadron flew its last combat mission on 21 April 1945 and remained in England after V-E Day. The air echelon began returning to the United States in late July 1945, with the rest following on the RMS Queen Elizabeth in August. It was inactivated at Drew Field, Florida, on 7 November 1945.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:12 (CET).