page_title: 3rd Operations Group
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 3rd Operations Group / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial gunners stationed at Charters Towers with the 8th Bombardment Squadron, assigned to the 3rd Bombardment Group during World War II, flew in the Douglas A-24 attack bomber. (Photo courtesy of 3rd Wing History Office)
context_page_description: The 3rd Operations Group is the operational flying component of the United States Air Force 3rd Wing. It is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, Alaska, and is assigned to Pacific Air Forces' Eleventh Air Force.
  The group is a composite organization that provides air superiority and defense for Alaska flying F-22A Raptor stealth aircraft. In addition, the group supports Pacific Air Forces in the Pacific Command area of responsibility flying C-17 Globemaster III transports and E-3B sentry airborne early warning and control aircraft.
  The group is a direct successor organization of the 3rd Attack Group, one of the 15 original combat air groups formed by the Army before World War II. It is the oldest active group in the USAF, and the first created after the establishment of the U.S. Air Service. Based in Texas after World War I, the group patrolled the Mexican Border from Brownsville, Texas, to Nogales, Arizona. The group pioneered dive bombing, skip-bombing, and parafrag attacks in the 1920s—the earliest forms of precision guided attack from aircraft—and put this work to good use in World War II.
context_section_description: Media related to 3d Bombardment Group (United States Army Air Forces) at Wikimedia Commons
  The 3rd Group served in combat in the Pacific Theater of Operations from 1 April 1942 until V-J Day. It was transferred to Australia early in 1942 as part of the United States Army Forces in Australia under Gen. George H. Brett and later the Fifth Air Force under Gen. George C. Kenney.
  On 2 April 1942, Lt. Col. John H. Davies was appointed to command the group, which had been shipped overseas under command of a first lieutenant and without aircraft. Davies had been in command of the 27th Bomb Group in the Philippines when war broke out, then had become stranded in Australia with 22 of his pilots after attempting to ferry the A-24 dive bombers being shipped to the 27th. These provided a leadership cadre and air crews for the 3rd Group. Their first aircraft acquired were 15 B-25 Mitchells, newly assembled but without crews, which had been shipped to Australia for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (ML-KNIL). With these the group conducted the first bombing mission ever flown by B-25s, sending six bombers to Gasmata, New Britain, on 6 April. Ten staged through Darwin to Mindanao on 10 April, flying two days of sorties against Cebu City and Davao on 12 and 13 April, before returning with passengers being evacuated from the Philippines.
  While officially designated the 3rd Bombardment Group (Light), the group unofficially styled itself with its historic name, the "3rd Attack Group," after being equipped with low-altitude strafing bombers. Field-modified with .50 caliber machine guns taken from wrecked fighters, these strafing bombers were the brainchild of a former naval aviator serving in the USAAF, Paul "Pappy" Gunn, the 13th and 90th Squadrons were equipped with its "Dutch" B-25s field modified into the B-25C-1 strafer configuration. The 89th Squadron flew the Douglas A-20A Havoc attack bomber while the 8th Squadron used the Douglas A-24 dive bomber until 29 July 1942, but also used the B-25 and A-20.
  The group had its headquarters in Australia until January 1943, but its squadrons operated from forward locations in New Guinea, bombing and strafing enemy airfields, supply lines, installations, and shipping as the Allies halted the Japanese drive toward Port Moresby and drove the enemy back from Buna to Lae. At the end of that campaign, group headquarters moved to New Guinea.
  For the next year and a half the group continued to serve in the Southwest Pacific, where it played an important role in the offensives in which the Allies pushed along the northern coast of New Guinea, taking Salamaua, Lae, Hollandia, Wakde, Biak, and Noemfoor. In March 1943 it took part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, which ended Japanese attempts to send convoys to Lae. In August 1943, when Fifth Air Force struck airfields at Wewak to neutralize Japanese airpower that threatened the advance of Allied forces in New Guinea, the group made an attack in the face of intense antiaircraft fire on 17 August, destroyed or damaged many enemy planes, and won a Distinguished Unit Citation for the mission.
  In the fall of 1943 the group struck Japanese naval and air power at Rabaul to support the assaults on Bougainville and New Britain. In an attack on shipping at Simpson Harbor, New Britain, on 2 November 1943, the 3rd Group encountered heavy opposition from enemy fighters and from antiaircraft batteries on the ships. In that attack Major Raymond H. Wilkins, commander of the 8th Squadron, sank two ships before he was shot down as he deliberately drew the fire of a destroyer so that other planes of his squadron could withdraw safely – an action for which Maj Wilkins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
  The group moved to the Philippines late in 1944. Equipped with A-20s, it bombed and strafed airfields; supported ground forces on Mindoro, Luzon, and Mindanao; attacked industries and railways on Formosa; and struck shipping along the China coast.
  The group moved to Okinawa early in August 1945 and flew some missions to Japan before the war ended. Mov
caption: 8th Bomb squadron personnel posing in front of a A-24
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