453rd Operations Group

Constituted as the 453rd Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 14 May 1943, it was activated on 1 June 1943. It trained with B-24s and moved to RAF Old Buckenham in East Anglia, from December 1943 to January 1944, and was assigned to the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing, Eighth Air Force. The group tail code was a "Circle-J".

The 453rd BG entered combat on 5 February 1944 with an attack against an airfield at Tours. Throughout combat, the unit served chiefly as a strategic bombardment organization. Targets included a fuel depot at Dülmen, marshaling yards at Paderborn, aircraft assembly plants at Gotha, railway centers at Hamm, an ordnance depot at Glinde, oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen, chemical works at Leverkusen, an airfield at Neumünster, a canal at Minden, and a railway viaduct at Altenbeken.

The group took part in the concentrated attack against the German aircraft industry during Big Week, 20–25 February 1944. Besides strategic operations, the group engaged in support and interdictory missions. It bombed V-weapon sites, airfields, and gun batteries in France prior to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944; on 6 June it hit shore installations between Le Havre and Cherbourg and other enemy positions farther inland. It attacked enemy troops in support of the Allied breakthrough at Saint-Lô in July, and bombed German communications during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944 – January 1945. It ferried cargo on two occasions: it hauled gasoline, blankets, and rations to France in September 1944; and dropped ammunition, focal, and medical supplies near Wesel during the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945.

Major James "Jimmy" Stewart, right, 1943

James "Jimmy" Stewart, the Hollywood movie star, was group operations officer at Old Buckenham during the spring of 1944. The actor Walter Matthau also served in the group as a radioman-gunner, rising to the rank of staff sergeant.

The 453rd Bomb Group flew its last combat mission in April. Initially it was prepared for possible redeployment to the Pacific theater using B-29 Superfortresses. However hostilities in the Pacific had ceased before the group had time to start its movement. It returned to New Castle AAFld, Delaware on 9 May 1945 and was inactivated on 12 September 1945.

In February 2015, it was announced that Old Buckenham Airport the modern civilian name for RAF Old Buckenham has applied for permission to build a museum dedicated to the 453rd at their former base in England. The plans are for the erection of two Nissen Huts, one of which will house an items described as having the potential to be the largest collection of 453rd Bomb Group memorabilia in existence.[1]

• Constituted as 453rd Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 14 May 1943

Activated on 1 June 1943

Inactivated on 12 September 1945

• Redesignated 453rd Operations Group on 1 June 1992 and activated

Inactivated 1 July 1994

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 453rd Bombardment Group.

• Freeman, Roger A. (1978). Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now. After the Battle. ISBN 0-900913-09-6.
• Freeman, Roger A. (1991). The Mighty Eighth: The Colour Record. Cassell & Co. ISBN 0-304-35708-1.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (Reprint ed.). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (Reprint ed.). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.