page_title: 55th Operations Group
section_title: Postwar era
hierarchical_section_title: 55th Operations Group / History / Postwar era
caption_attribution_description: English: RB-17 reconnaissance aircraft of the 55th Reconnaissance group
context_page_description: The 55th Operations Group is a component of the 55th Wing, assigned to the United States Air Force Air Combat Command. The group is stationed at Offut Air Force Base, Nebraska.
  During World War II the group was an Eighth Air Force fighter unit stationed in England. It claimed 316.5 air and 216.5 ground aircraft destroyed. It flew its last mission on 21 April 1945.
context_section_description: On 24 February 1947, Strategic Air Command activated and redesignated the 55th Fighter Group as the 55th Reconnaissance group at MacDill Field, Florida, operating the RB-17. The newly activated group's mission consisted of aerial photography, mapping, charting, and photo reconnaissance missions, some of which flew around the globe. RB-17s were specifically used by the 55th RG to probe the borders of the Soviet Union, who had by then begun to emerge as a potential threat to the Western Powers. Little was known about the air defence capability of the Soviet Union at this time and the most effective way of determining their capability was to probe the borders and see whether they would respond. Gradually the RB-17s and other aircraft mapped the perimeter of the Soviet Air Defences from the Baltic to the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan.
  The group then converted to RB-29s and transferred to Topeka (later Forbes) AFB, Kansas, in 1948, but was again inactivated in October 1949. On 1 November 1950, the 55th Strategic reconnaissance group was activated as a "paper organization" with the tactical squadrons attached directly to the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance wing. The wing was bestowed with the awards and honors of the 55th Reconnaissance Group and moved to Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico. In 1952 the group was again inactivated on 16 June 1952 as the Air Force reorganized its wings into the tri-deputate system.
caption: Unidentified RB-17G of the 55th Reconnaissance Group
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