Organization and deployment to France

The squadron's history dates to 13 June 1917 when the 30th Aero Squadron was organized at Camp Kelly (later Kelly Field, Texas, less than a month after the United States' entry into World War I. Most of the men of the squadron arrived at Kelly Field when it was nothing but a sand heap and a few tents and their first job was to dig trenches around the field for water and utility lines. The men received their indoctrination into the Army as soldiers, standing guard duty and other rudimentary duties. The lack of sanitary facilities and uniforms meant most men worked in the civilian clothing they arrived in and slept in them without bathing until latrines and washing facilities were constructed.^[3][4]

On 11 August 1917, the squadron received orders for overseas duty, and it traveled by train to Fort Totten, New York in preparation for service in France. On 22 August they were transported to the port of embarkation at Hoboken, New Jersey, and boarded the RMS Baltic. The next day, they left for Halifax, Nova Scotia where the Baltic anchored awaiting for a convoy. On 5 September, the convoy was formed and the trans-Atlantic journey began.^[3]

On the night of 14 September, an accompanying destroyer spotted a submarine periscope and fired two red rockets as a warning. As the destroyer dropped depth charges, the Baltic made a sudden turn to port that caused both men and anything loose aboard the ship to move. A large explosion was heard and everyone on board was ordered to report to their assigned lifeboats. A torpedo had struck the ship, but it had only made a glancing blow on the bow. The ship's emergency pumps were working and there was no danger.^[3]

Issodun Aerodrome, France, September 1917

The next morning the ship arrived at Liverpool, England, the squadrons on the Baltic being the first American airmen to land there. The 30th boarded a train to Southampton, where it was stationed at a rest camp. At Southampton, fifty men of the squadron were detached to the Royal Flying Corps for three months training as aircraft mechanics. The remainder of the squadron proceeded to France. The squadron arrived at Le Havre, then continued by train to the Etampes aerodrome, France, arriving on the 18th. At Étampes, ten more men of the squadron were taken out and sent to Lyons, where they took a ten-week course in Le Rhone and Hispano-Suiza aircraft engines.^[3]

Third Aviation Instruction Center

On 23 September, the remainder of the squadron moved to Issoudun Aerodrome, France, for the construction of an American school and several airfields. What became the Third Aviation Instruction Center would be the largest airfield in the world at the time, its mission was to train American pursuit pilots to enter combat over the front against German aviators. As was the case at Kelly Field earlier, the men went to work in various construction tasks, and were joined by several other squadrons in their work. A power grid was installed along with various water and telephone lines. Streets were laid down and various wooden buildings were erected.^[3]

The squadron began to work on what was later the largest machine shops of the American Expeditionary Forces. The shop began as a simple hangar. As various equipment and specialized tools arrived the shop expanded until it could accommodate the large number of aircraft engines that were arriving. Members of the 30th Squadron worked in most of the shops of the school, assembling newly arrived aircraft, working on engines, machine guns and in the warehouses, stocking and receiving parts and other supplies. By the time of the Armistice on 11 November, the men of the squadron held responsible positions in many of the support areas of the center.^[3]

Demobilization

The 30th remained at Issodun until the end of December 1918 when orders were received to proceed to the 1st Air Depot at Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome, France. From Colombey, the squadron was moved to a staging camp under the Services of Supply at Bordeaux, France, in January waiting for a date to report to a base port for transportation home. In mid-March, the squadron boarded a troop ship, arriving in New York on 5 April. From there, the 30th moved to Mitchel Field, New York where the men were demobilized and returned to civilian life.^[3][5][4]

Battle of the Philippines

A B-17D being loaded with bombs^{[note 2]}

The 30th Bombardment Squadron had its B-17D aircraft on the line at Clark Field on 8 December 1941 when word was received at headquarters from Hawaii about 0400 of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.^{[note 3]} A little before 0800, the radar at Iba Airfield informed the Air Warning Service at Nielson Field that at least 30 Japanese aircraft were flying south over Luzon apparently headed for Clark Field.^[12] Immediate orders were to prepare the squadron's planes for attack, but that no offensive action could be taken until they were fired upon. In order to prevent them from being destroyed on the ground by a Japanese air attack, at about 0800, the 30th's planes began to launch, with orders to remain in the area on the Clark tower radio frequency. By 1030 Japanese bombers had attacked Philippine Air Force bases, and the airborne B-17s returned to Clark.^[13]

By 1200, orders had finally arrived for the squadron to prepare to attack targets on Formosa.^[14] By 1230, plans for the attack on Formosa were being made and the squadron's planes were nearly loaded with bombs. At about this time, high altitude Japanese bombers struck Clark, followed shortly by strafing fighters. Although the bombers did little damage to the squadron's planes, the strafing fighters destroyed or damaged all of the B-17s on the field.^[15] Some of the squadron's enlisted men worked the guns on parked bombers in an attempt to use them against the strafing fighters. Within the next few days ground crews were able to patch together two or three B-17s from damaged and destroyed Flying Forts.^[16]

On 10 December, the 19th Group's B-17s from its two squadrons at Del Monte Airfield staged through Clark to attack Japanese shipping. A B-17C flown by one of the squadron's pilots, Captain Colin P. Kelly dropped bombs from high altitude on what the crew thought to be a Japanese battleship. Hits were recorded, and an explosion was observed. Kelly's plane was immediately attacked by Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes, one of which was flown by Saburo Sakai, who was later to become a famous ace. Kelly guided his heavily damaged plane back towards Clark Field. He ordered the crew to parachute to safety, but before Kelly himself could leave, the aircraft exploded and Kelly was killed. Capt Kelly was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for this mission.^[17] The mission of 10 December would be the last flown from Clark. Only two more would be flown from Del Monte before the squadron withdrew to Batchelor Airfield, about 45 miles south of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory.^[1]

The ground crews of the squadron at Clark were no longer needed to support the few planes left and were transferred to 5th Interceptor Command, and fought as infantry during Battle of Bataan. After their surrender, they were subjected to the Bataan Death March, although some did escape to Australia and some presumably fought on as unorganized guerrilla forces during the Japanese occupation.^[18]

Operations from Australia

B-17s of the 19th Bombardment Group attacking Japanese-held Lae Airfield, New Guinea on 26–27 June 1942^{[note 4]}

The decimated 19th Bombardment Group in Australia considered itself fortunate to launch eight or nine planes, less than the strength of a single squadron from Australia. In January 1942, the heavy bomber force began to grow, as it was reinforced by the four squadrons of the 7th Bombardment Group for attacks from Singosari Airfield near Malang, Java, in the Netherlands East Indies.^[19] The squadron officially moved to Singosari on the last day of 1941. Operating with whatever bombers were available, the squadron probably operated with B-24 and LB-30 Liberators during its time in Java. Its attacks on Japanese forces moving forward through the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies earned it two Distinguished Unit Citations to add to the one it had been awarded for its actions in the Philippines and the one the squadron ground echelon was earning at Bataan. However, by late February, the position of Allied forces in Java had become untenable, and the squadron was evacuated on 2 March back to Australia when the Japanese defeated Allied ground forces in the Dutch East Indies.^[1]

The 30th was sent to Northern Queensland where it operated from Cloncurry and Longreach Airports. From Longreach, the squadron participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, and raided enemy transportation and communications targets as well as troop concentrations during the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea. Moving to Mareeba Airfield, along the coast of the Coral Sea in Queensland, the squadron bombed enemy airdromes, ground installations, and shipping near Rabaul, New Britain in August 1942. The squadron earned another DUC for these operations.^[20]

By late 1942, the Army Air Forces decided that no more B-17s would be sent to the Pacific, and that units would be withdrawn or re-equipped with the longer-ranged B-24 Liberator.^[21] The men of the 30th Bombardment Squadron left Mareeba Airfield on 10 November 1942, and returned to the United States after nearly a year of continuous combat.^[1]

B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan

The squadron arrived at its new base at Pocatello Army Air Field, Idaho, where it became a B-17 Replacement Training Unit (RTU). The RTU was an oversized unit to train individual pilots and aircrews for combat units.^[22] The squadron continued its training mission when it moved to Pyote Army Air Base, Texas in January 1943. However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units, which were organized based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not proving well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.^[23] The squadron was inactivated on 1 April 1944 and its assets and those of other units at Pyote were transferred to the 236th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Unit, Bombardment), which was organized the same day.^[1]

19th Bombardment Group B-29 Superfortresses 1945

The squadron was activated with new personnel at Great Bend Army Air Field, Kansas the same day it was inactivated at Pyote. At Great Bend, the squadron began training as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombardment squadron. It completed training by the end of the year and deployed to North Field, Guam, arriving in January 1945. The squadron flew its first combat mission on 12 February 1945 against a Japanese airfield on Rota and began participating in the strategic bombing campaign against Japan with a mission to Tokyo on 25 February.

The squadron initially conducted high altitude daylight raids against strategic targets in Japan such as aircraft factories, chemical plants, and oil refineries.^[20] The results of high altitude B-29 raids on Japan, however, were disappointing. More than a month after a raid on 19 January 1945, no mission had been able to bomb visually, and radar bombing results were unsatisfactory. Low altitude night area attacks with incendiaries promised better results, and the squadron began the switch with the launch of a raid against Tokyo on 9 March 1945.^[24] On 11 March, the squadron attacked Nagoya. Six high altitude raids on aircraft production facilities there had failed to inflict significant damage. Although no aircraft factories were taken out of production by this attack, the Aichi plant was damaged enough to reduce its production.^[25] A raid on Osaka followed on 13 March. Cloud cover forced the squadron to use radar bombing, but over 100 manufacturing facilities were destroyed in the raid.^{[26][note 5]} Kobe was attacked on the 13th and a return to Nagoya occurred on the 19th.^[27] Its participation in these raids earned the squadron another DUC.^[20] The squadron earned another DUC for a low altitude daylight attack against Kobe on 5 June, which was heavily opposed by Japanese fighters. This attack eliminated Kobe as a target for future incendiary attacks.^[20][28]

During April and May 1945, the squadron was diverted from the strategic campaign against Japan to support Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa. It struck air bases from which kamikaze attacks were being launched. Many of these bases were located on Kyushu, only 300 miles from Okinawa. The attacks directly impacted kamikaze launches, but also forced the Japanese military to retain fighter aircraft to defend the Japanese Special Attack Units that otherwise might have been used to challenge air superiority over Okinawa.^{[28][note 6]}

After the Japanese surrender, the squadron flew airlift missions, dropping supplies to prisoners of war and participated in show of force missions over Japan.^[20]