The 435th Bombardment Squadron, also known as the "Kangaroo" Squadron, is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was formed in Australia in March 1942 as the 40th Reconnaissance Squadron and participated in combat in the Southwest Pacific Theater until November, when it was withdrawn from combat and returned to the United States, where it acted as a Replacement Training Unit until October 1943, when its personnel and equipment were withdrawn.
The squadron was activated in April 1944 as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress unit, but was inactivated six weeks later, when B-29 groups reorganized from four to three squadrons. It activated again later that summer, and trained with B-29s until une 1945, when it deployed to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, just before V-J Day. It remained on Okinawa until it was inactivated on 28 May 1946.
The following month the squadron was redesignated the 435th Bombardment Squadron. In May, the squadron participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea, staging through Port Moresby, New Guinea and attacking the Japanese fleet.[3] A report from a B-17 of the squadron of sighting an aircraft carrier convinced American naval commanders that fleet carriers were accompanying the Japanese invasion force.[10]
It raided enemy transportation and communications targets and Japanese ground forces during th invasion of Papua New Guinea. It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for bombing airdromes, ground installations and shipping near New Britain and Rabaul from 7 to 12 August 1942. The squadron was withdrawn from combat in November 1942 and returned to the United States on paper.[2][3]
Training unit
The squadron reorganized at Pyote Army Air Base, Texas in January 1943 and began operations as a B-17 Replacement Training Unit in February.[2] Replacement training units were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters.[11] It stopped its training activities in October 1943, when its personnel were withdrawn. However it remained active as a paper unit until 1 April 1944, when it was inactivated in a general reorganization by the Army Air Forces of its training activities in the United States.[2]
Return to the Pacific with B-29s
The squadron was reactivated the same day at Great Bend Army Air Field, Kansas as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress squadron. However, B-29 groups were reorganized from four squadrons of 7 airplanes into three squadrons of 10 planes each,[12] and the squadron was inactivated on 10 May 1944.[2]
New B-29 groups were being formed, and the squadron was again activated at Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas on 7 July 1944, and assigned to the 333d Bombardment Group. The 333d Group was a former heavy bomber training unit that had been inactivated in the spring of 1944.[13] The squadron trained with Superfortresses until June 1945, when it departed for the Pacific to become an element of Eighth Air Force, which was organizing on Okinawa[14] as a second very heavy bomber air force in the Pacific. However, the squadron did not arrive at its combat station, Kadena Airfield, until it was too late to participate in combat. The squadron flew show-of-force missions and its aircraft helped evacuate prisoners of war from Japan to airfields in the Philippines. The unit was inactivated on 28 May 1946.[2][13]
Lineage
Formed as the 40th Reconnaissance Squadron on 14 March 1942 by authority of the War Department but apparently without formal constitution and activation
Redesignated 435th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 22 April 1942
Inactivated on 1 April 1944
Redesignated 435th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy and activated on 1 April 1944
↑ Approved 6 May 1943. Description: On a blue disc, border white, a kangaroo leaping proper, in front of a large white cloud formation, peering through a telescope grasped in the forelegs and holding a large gold aerial bomb in a loop of the tail.
↑ Aircraft is Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress, serial 41-2656, Chief Seattle It was assigned to the squadron on 29 May 1942. It was Lost over Buna, Papua New Guinea, 14 August 1942 on a reconnaissance mission, its crew was missing in action.
Cate, James L. (1953). "The Twentieth Air Force and Matterhorn, Chapter 5, Exit Matterhorn". In Craven, Wesley F; Cate, James L (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II(PDF). Vol.V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. LCCN48003657. OCLC704158. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
Craven, Wesley F; Cate, James L, eds. (1955). "Introduction". The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol.VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p.xxxvi. LCCN48003657.
D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. New York, NY: Devin-Adair Co. ASINB0006AUP2C. ISBN0-8159-5302-X.
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