827th Bombardment Squadron

The 827th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 484th Bombardment Group at Casablanca Airport, French Morocco, where it was inactivated on 25 July 1945.

History
Activated as the 41st Bombardment Squadron in January 1941 at Langley Field, Virginia, one of the original squadrons of the 13th Bombardment Group.

After the Attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron performed antisubmarine patrols off the Atlantic coast. The 41st was redesignated as the 5th Antisubmarine Squadron in late 1942.

After the Navy assumed full responsibility for the antisubmarine mission in August 1943, the squadron was transferred to Second Air Force, where it was redesignated the 827th Bombardment Squadron and formed the cadre for a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment group. After training, the squadron deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in April 1944, where it became part of Fifteenth Air Force in Southern Italy.

Despite its Pathfinder designation, the squadron did not perform pathfinder missions. Instead it engaged in very long range strategic bombardment missions against enemy strategic targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Balkans until April 1945. The 827th bombed aircraft factories, assembly plants, oil refineries, storage areas, marshaling yards, airdromes, and other objectives until the German Capitulation in May 1945.

The squadron became part of Air Transport Command in May 1945. It used B-24s as transports flying personnel from locations in France and Italy to Casablanca, French Morocco. It also engaged in transport operations from North Africa to Azores or Dakar in French West Africa where personnel eventually were transported to Florida. The squadron inactivated in French Morocco during July 1945.

Lineage

 * Constituted as the 41st Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 20 November 1940
 * Activated on 15 January 1941
 * Redesignated 5th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) on 29 November 1942
 * Redesignated 827th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 1 October 1943
 * Redesignated: 827th Bombardment Squadron (Pathfinder) on 14 February 1944
 * Redesignated: 827th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 11 November 1944
 * Inactivated on 25 July 1945

Assignments

 * 13th Bombardment Group: 15 January 1941
 * 25th Antisubmarine Wing: ca. 30 November 1942
 * 484th Bombardment Group: 1 October 1943 - 25 July 1945

Stations

 * Langley Field, Virginia, 15 January 1941
 * Orlando Army Air Base, Florida, 7 June 1941
 * Westover Field, Massachusetts, 25 January 1942
 * Mountain Home Army Air Field, Idaho, 24 September 1942


 * Harvard Army Airfield, Nebraska, 1 October 1943 - 2 March 1944
 * Torretto Airfield, Italy, 8 April 1944
 * Casablanca-Anfa Airport, French Morocco, 25 May 1945 - 25 July 1945

Aircraft

 * Douglas B-18 Bolo, 1941
 * North American B-25 Mitchell, 1941-1943
 * Lockheed A-29 Hudson, 1942-1943
 * Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 1943–1945