Organization and training in the United States

The squadron was first activated as the 866th Bombardment Squadron at Wendover Field, Utah on 1 December 1943 as one of the original squadrons of the 494th Bombardment Group, the last heavy bomber group formed by the Army Air Forces.^[1][2] It trained with Consolidated B-24 Liberators at Wendover and at Mountain Home Army Air Field, Idaho. In January and February 1944, a cadre of the squadron trained under simulated combat conditions at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida with the Army Air Forces Tactical Center, with aircrews filling out the squadron in March. The air echelon began to receive new B-24Js in May and they began departing for Hawaii on 28 May.^[3] The ground echelon began its move to Hawaii on 1 June 1944.^[2]

Combat in the Pacific

The squadron remained at Barking Sands Army Air Field for additional training and modifications to its planes to meet theater standards until late September 1944, when it deployed to Angaur Airstrip in the Palau Islands.^[3] The squadron's ground echelon was initially involved with the construction of the base on Angaur.^[2] Although some unit aircrews flew combat missions with the 30th Bombardment Group from Saipan, the air echelon only began to arrive on Angaur on 24 October 1944, after the Seabees and Army engineers had prepared the airstrip for heavy bomber operations.^[3] The squadron finally conducted its first mission on 3 November, when it attacked Japanese airfields on Yap and Koror. It conducted attacks on Japanese military that had been bypassed as American forces had advanced in the Central Pacific. It also attacked the Philippines, hitting gun emplacements, bivouacs, and storage depots on Corregidor and Caballo Islands at the entrance to Manila Bay. It also attacked radio communications installations and power plants at Japanese bases in the Philippines; and attacked airfields, including Clark Field on Luzon. Early in 1945, the 866th struck ammunition and supply dumps in the Davao Gulf and Illana Bay areas of Mindanao and airfields on the island.^[2]

The squadron moved to Okinawa in June 1945. From its base at Yontan Airfield it engaged primarily in attacks against enemy airfields on Kyūshū and around the Inland Sea of Japan until V-J Day. It also struck airfields in China and Korea. The unit also participated in incendiary raids and dropped propaganda leaflets over urban areas of Kyūshū. On a combat mission to sink the last remaining Japanese battleship, the Haruna, moored off Etajima Island near Kure Harbor, Honshu, Japan, two of thirty-three B-24 bombers were brought down by flak over the target. Led by Emil Turek, first the Taloa, piloted by 1st Lt. Joseph Dubinsky, then the Lonesome Lady, piloted by 2nd Lt. Thomas C. Cartwright, were brought down near Hiroshima. Decades of research by Japanese historian Shigeaki Mori revealed that 12 American POWs, including men from Dubinsky's and Cartwright's crews were killed by the blast, fires, and radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.^[4] Cartwright and his tail gunner, William Abel survived and were liberated from Ōmori and Ōfuna prisoner-of-war camps. After the war's end, the 866th transported personnel and supplies from Manila to Tokyo. In December, the squadron returned to the United States, where it was inactivated at the Vancouver Barracks Port of Embarkation on 7 January 1946.^[1][2]