The 724th Strategic Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 451st Strategic Missile Wing at Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado, where it was inactivated on 25 June 1965.
The squadron was first activated in May 1943 as the 724th Bombardment Squadron during World War II. After training in the United States, it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The squadron earned three Distinguished Unit Citations for its actions during the war. Following V-E Day, the 724th returned to the United States and was inactivated. It was activated again as a missile unit in 1961, when it assumed the assets of another squadron.
History
World War II
Organization and training in the United States
The squadron was first activated in May 1943 as the 724th Bombardment Squadron at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, as one of the four original squadrons of the 451st Bombardment Group. Although it was originally planned that the squadron would serve as an Operational Training Unit at Davis-Monthan, instead a cadre of the 451st Group moved to Dyersburg Army Air Base, Tennessee, where the 724th and other elements of the group were filled out by personnel drawn from the 346th Bombardment Group. The squadron commander, Captain James B. Beane, and a model crew joined other members of the group for advanced tactical training with the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida. This cadre joined the remainder of the squadron at Wendover Field, Utah, for training with the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The squadron continued its training at Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska, starting in September. The squadron suffered its first losses at Fairmont, when two squadron Liberators collided during a formation training flight, killing all but one crew member. On 18 November, the air echelon of the squadron departed Fairmont for staging at Lincoln Army Air Field, Nebraska, to ferry their aircraft via the Southern Ferrying Route to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The ground echelon left on 26 November for the port of embarkation at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, for transportation by ship.
Combat operations
The squadron arrived at Gioia del Colle Airfield, Italy, at the beginning of January 1944, although the air echelon remained at Telergma Airfield, Algeria, until 20 January to conduct additional training. The squadron functioned primarily as a strategic bombing unit, attacking various targets including oil refineries, marshalling yards, aircraft factories and airfields in Italy, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Greece and Albania. It earned a Distinguished Unit Citation during Big Week for an attack on a Messerschmitt aircraft factory at Regensburg, Germany, on 25 February 1944. It added oak leaf clusters to this award for an attack on oil refineries and marshalling yards at Ploesti, Romania, on 5 April 1944 and on Markersdorf-Haindorf Airfield near Vienna, Austria, on 23 August 1944. On each of these missions the squadron was opposed by large numbers of German interceptor aircraft and heavy flak, but fought its way through to inflict serious damage on the targets and destroy many defending aircraft. Major Beane, the squadron commander, was among those squadron personnel who were shot down during the Ploesti mission.
When returning from the Regensburg attack, runway conditions at Gioia del Colle were so poor that the aircraft of the 451st Group were unable to land there, but spread out among a number of bases in Italy. These poor conditions continued and on 8 March the squadron moved to San Pancrazio Airfield, Italy. The 451st Group's 726th Bombardment Squadron was also relocated there.
On 6 April, the 724th moved to Castelluccio Airfield, where it joined the remainder of the group. From its new base, the squadron also flew air support and interdiction missions. It undertook preliminary operations in preparation for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, in August 1944. The following month its bombers transported supplies to forces operating in Italy, It also supported Operation Grapeshot, the final advance of Allied armies in northern Italy. The squadron's last mission was flown on 26 April 1945 against marshalling yards at Sachsenburg, Austria.