27th Special Operations Group
The 27th Special Operations Group is the flying component of the 27th Special Operations Wing, assigned to the Air Force Special Operations Command. The group is stationed at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico.
During the Second World War, its predecessor unit, the 27th Bombardment Group fought in the Southwest Pacific Theater and Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres. Its ground personnel fought as infantry in the 1941–1942 Battle of Bataan with the survivors being forced to march as prisoners in the Bataan Death March. Later, its air echelon was awarded five Distinguished Unit Citations and a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. The airmen of the 27th were among the most decorated USAAF units of the war.
Mission
The group carries out global special operations tasks as an Air Force component of the United States Special Operations Command. It conducts infiltration/exfiltration, combat support, helicopter and tilt-rotor aerial refueling, psychological warfare, and other special missions. It directs the deployment, employment, training, and planning for squadrons that operate the AC-130W, MC-130J, CV-22B, U-28A and MQ-9, and provides operational support to flying operations.The group conducts infiltration/exfiltration, combat support, tilt-rotor operations, helicopter aerial refueling, close air support, unmanned aerial vehicle operations, non-standard aviation, and other special missions. It directs the deployment, employment, training, and planning for squadrons that operate the AC-130W, MC-130J, CV-22B, C-146A, U-28A, MQ-1, MQ-9 and provides operational support to flying operations.
History
On 1 February 1940, the United States Army Air Corps activated the 27th Bombardment Group at Barksdale Field, Louisiana and equipped it with the Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bomber aircraft. The group consisted of the 15th, 16th and 17th Bombardment Squadrons. In October 1941 the group moved to Hunter Field, Georgia, less the 15th Bombardment Squadron, which was reassigned to V Air Support Command on 14 October. On 21 October 1941 the group was ordered to the Philippine Islands in response to the growing crisis in the Pacific.World War II
Philippine Campaign 1941–1942
Arriving at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines on 20 November, the group readied itself for delivery of its Douglas A-24 Banshee aircraft. Concern grew as days turned into weeks and still the planes had not arrived. When the Imperial Japanese Army attacked the Philippines on 9 December 1941, the situation had not changed. Unknown to the group's airmen, to avoid capture or destruction, the ship carrying the planes was diverted to Australia when the war escalated.On 18 December Major John H. Davies, group commander, and an aircrew of 20 flew from Clark Field on Luzon in two B-18s and one Douglas C-39 of Transport Command to Tarakan Island in the Dutch East Indies to Darwin Australia arriving on 22 December. Flying from Darwin, the group arrived in Brisbane on 24 December to pick up their A-24s off the ship. However, as a swift Japanese advance prevented his group from returning to the Philippines, the air echelon of the 27th was ordered to operate from Brisbane.
The ground echelon of the 27th still in the Philippines was evacuated south from Luzon on 25 December to the Bataan Peninsula, arriving to form the 2nd Battalion Provisional Infantry Regiment . For the 99 days following the attack on Pearl Harbor until their surrender to the Japanese after the Battle of Bataan, the men of the 27th became the only Air Force unit in history to fight as an infantry regiment, and were the only unit to be taken captive in whole. After surrendering, they were forced to endure the infamous Bataan Death March. Of the 880 or so Airmen who were taken, fewer than half survived captivity.
However, a number of officers and enlisted men of the 27th Bomb Group were evacuated out of the Philippines in five U.S. Navy submarines just before it was overrun by the Japanese during April.,,, and, on the night of 3 May 1942 managed to sneak into Manila Bay and evacuate American personnel from Corregidor to Java and Fremantle, Western Australia.
Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns 1942
In Australia, the escaped airmen and aircraft of the 27th Bomb Group reformed into a combat unit. In early 12 February pilots of the 91st Bombardment Squadron flew their A-24's with gunners from Brisbane to Malang Java in the colonial Dutch East Indies to defend the island. The group participated in an attack on the Japanese invasion fleet landing troops on Bali. The attacks, carried out during the afternoon of 19 February and throughout the morning of 20 February, caused little damage and all air operations that day failed to halt the landings. The group was credited with the sinking of a Japanese cruiser and a destroyer. From 27 February through 1 March, three A-24's of the 91st participated in Battle of the Java Sea. The remaining pilots and gunners of the 27th Group were flown out to Australia in early March, consolidating with the 16th and 17th Squadrons which had moved from Brisbane to Batchelor Airfield in the orthern Territory. For their heroic efforts in the Philippines and the Southwest Pacific during late 1941 and early 1942, the 27th Bombardment Group received three Distinguished Unit Citations.On 25 March, Davies and the surviving 27th Group personnel, consisting of 42 officers, 62 enlisted men and 24 A-24s, were reassigned en masse to the four squadrons of the [3d Bombardment Group at Charters Towers Airfield in Queensland, Australia. The remaining A-24 aircraft were added to the 8th Bombardment Squadron.
European-African-Middle Eastern Theater
North African Campaign
On 4 May the group moved without personnel or equipment to Hunter Field, Georgia. At Hunter, the group was remanned and re-equipped with the Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber. After additional training in Mississippi and Louisiana, on 26 December the group was transferred to Ste-Barbe-du-Tlelat Airfield, Algeria to enter combat in North Africa with Twelfth Air Force.Maintenance and support personnel went by sea to North Africa while aircrews and the A-20s flew to South America then across to North Africa, In North Africa, the A-20s were sent to other groups and the group was redesignated the 27th Fighter-Bomber Group and reequipped with the North American A-36 Apache dive bomber. The 27th flew its first combat missions of the war from Korba Airfield, Tunisia, on 6 June 1943.
The 27th served in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations until the end of the war. It was redesignated the 27th Fighter Group in May 1944 when the group converted first to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, then to the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft.
Sicilian/Italian Campaigns
During the Sicilian Campaign, operations included participation in the reduction of Pantelleria and Lampedusa Islands and supporting ground forces during the conquest of Sicily. In the Italian Campaign the 27th covered the landings at Salerno and received a DUC for preventing three German armored divisions from reaching the Salerno beachhead on 10 September 1943. In addition, the group supported the Fifth Army during the Allied drive toward Rome.Southern France
The group took part in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France, and assisted Seventh Army's advance up the Rhone Valley, receiving another DUC for helping to disrupt the German retreat, 4 September 1944.The 27th took part in the interdiction of the enemy's communications in northern Italy, and assisted in the Allied drive from France into Germany during the last months of the war, eventually being stationed at Biblis, Germany on V-E Day.
With five Distinguished Unit Citations and a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, the airmen of the 27th were among the most decorated USAAF units of World War II.
Cold War
Postwar era
In the immediate postwar drawdown of the USAAF, the 27th Fighter Group returned to the United States in October 1945, then inactivated on 7 November at Camp Shanks, New York. Within a year, the group was reactivated in Germany on 20 August 1946, at AAF Station Fritzlar, flying P-47 Thunderbolts.The group stayed in Germany for a year performing occupation duty until being transferred, without personnel or equipment, to Andrews Field, Maryland, in June 1947. The 27th was assigned to Strategic Air Command and reactivated at Kearney Army Air Field Nebraska. Fighter Squadrons of the 27th were the 522d, 523d and 524th.
The 27th was initially equipped with the North American P-51D Mustang, and in 1948 was upgraded to the new North American F-82 Twin Mustang. In June 1948 the designation "P" for pursuit was changed to "F" for fighter. Subsequently, all P-51s were redesignated F-51s. The mission of the 27th Fighter Wing was to fly long-range escort missions for SAC Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers. With the arrival of the F-82s, the older F-51s were sent to Air National Guard units.
The first production F-82Es reached the 27th in early 1948, and almost immediately the group was deployed to McChord Air Force Base, Washington in June where its squadrons stood on alert on a secondary air defense mission due to heightened tensions over the Berlin Airlift. It was also believed that the 27th would launch an escort mission, presumably to the Soviet Union, if conflict broke out in Europe. From McChord, the group flew its Twin Mustangs on weather reconnaissance missions over the northwest Pacific, but problems were encountered with their fuel tanks. Decommissioned F-61 Black Widow external tanks were found at Hamilton Air Force Base, California that could be modified for the F-82 which were fitted on the pylons of the Twin Mustang that solved the problem. With a reduction in tensions, the 27th returned to its home base in Nebraska during September where the unit settled down to transition flying with their aircraft.
On 1 August 1948 the 27th Fighter Wing was activated. Although established over a year earlier in July 1947. Under the Hobson Plan the wing commanded the functions of both the support groups as well as the flying combat 27th Fighter Group and the squadrons assigned to it.
Four F-82s were deployed to Alaska from McChord where the pilots provided transition training to the 449th Fighter-All Weather Squadron which used Twin Mustangs in the air defense mission. They remained in Alaska for about 45 days, returning to rejoin the rest of the group at the beginning of November 1948.
In January 1949, Eighth Air Force planned a large celebration at Carswell Air Force Base. All of its assigned units were to participate in a coordinated flyover. Most of SAC's bombers were to participate, along with SAC's only "Long Range" fighter group, the 27th. The weather in Nebraska in January that year was especially horrible, with most airports in the Midwest weathered in the day of the display. At Kearney, the base was socked-in with a blizzard. Nevertheless, the crews had an early morning mission briefing, the aircraft in the hangars were preflighted and prepared for the flyover mission. Paths were cut through the snow for the aircraft to taxi and somehow the F-82s got airborne, with the 27th's Twin Mustangs joining up with SAC bombers over Oklahoma]on schedule. The flyover by the Twin Mustangs was a tremendous success, with SAC leadership being amazed that the F-82 was truly an "all weather" aircraft and the 27th being able to carry out their mission despite the weather.
In early 1949, the 27th began carrying out long-range escort profile missions. Flights to Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Bahamas and nonstop to Washington D.C were carried out. For President Truman's 1949 inauguration, the 27th FEW launched 48 aircraft to fly in review, along with several other fighter units, in formation down Pennsylvania Avenue. Another flyover over the newly -dedicated Idlewild Airport in New York City soon followed, with the aircraft flying non-stop from Kearney.
With the tight defense budgets in the late 1940s, the decision was made by Strategic Air Command decided to close Kearney in 1949. The 27th was transferred to Bergstrom Air Force Base Texas on 16 March.
At Bergstrom, the 27th transitioned to jet aircraft with Republic F-84E Thunderjets in 1950. It was redesignated the 27th Fighter-Escort Group, to better represent the mission of the group on 1 February. By the end of summer, the transition to the Thunderjets was complete and the Twin Mustangs were mostly sent to reclamation, with a few being sent to Far East Air Forces or Alaska as replacement aircraft or for air defense duties.
The wing won the Mackay Trophy for successful deployment of 180 F-84s from Bergstrom to Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base West Germany, in September 1950, via Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, and England, delivering the Thunderjets to the 36th Fighter-Bomber Group. This was the Second long-range mass flight of jet aircraft in aviation history.
After the pilots and support ground personnel were flown back to Bergstrom on MATS transports, a new production batch of F-84Es were picked up, and on 15 October the group headed for Neubiberg Air Base, West Germany, this time with ninety-two aircraft.