573d Bombardment Squadron

573d Bombardment Squadron
Emblem of the 573d Bombardment Squadron
Active	1943-1945
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Bombardment

The 573d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 391st Bombardment Group, stationed at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. The unit was inactivated on 13 October 1945.

History

The squadron was formed under III Bomber Command in early 1943 as a B-26 Marauder medium bomber squadron, trained for duty in Europe with Ninth Air Force, and engaged in combat from early 1944. It attacked tactical targets in France, Low Countries and Germany, supporting Allied ground forces advancing after D-Day in the Northern France Campaign and the Western Allied invasion of Germany in 1945. It received A-26 Invaders in April 1945, which, however, were not used in combat. After V-E Day, its personnel was demobilized while the squadron was stationed in France during the summer of 1945. Lastly, it was inactivated as a paper unit in Massachusetts in October 1945.

Lineage

• Constituted 573rd Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 15 Jan 1943

Activated on 21 Jan 1943

Re-designated 573rd Bombardment Squadron (Light) on 23 Jun 1945

Inactivated on 13 Oct 1945.

Assignments

• 391st Bombardment Group, 15 Jan 1943-13 Oct 1945

Stations

MacDill Field, Florida, 21 January 1943 Myrtle Beach General Bombing and Gunnery Range, South Carolina, 24 May 1943 Godman Field, Kentucky, 4 September-31 December 1943 RAF Matching (AAF-166), England 25 January 1944 Roye-Amy Airfield (A-73), France 19 September 1944

Asch Airfield (Y-29), Belgium 16 April 1945 Vitry-En-Artois Airfield, France, c. 1 Jun 1945 Lyon-Bron Airport, Laon, France, 27 Jul-23 Sep 1945 Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts, 12-13 Oct 1945

Aircraft

• B-26 Marauder, 1943-1945
• A-26 Invader, 1945.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.