The 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and was known unofficially as "The Ragged Irregulars" or as "Wray's Ragged Irregulars", after the commander who took the group to England.Havelaar, Marion H., and Hess, William N., The Ragged Irregulars of Bassingbourn: The 91st Bombardment Group in World War II. During its service in World War II the unit consisted of the 322nd, 323rd, 324th, and 401st Bomb Squadrons. The 91st Bombardment Group is most noted as the unit in which the bomber Memphis Belle flew (in the 324th Bomb Squadron), and for having suffered the greatest number of losses of any heavy bombardment group in World War II.
The group conducted 340 bombing missions with the Eighth Air Force over Europe, operating out of RAF Bassingbourn. Inactivated at the end of the war, the group was brought back in 1947 as a reconnaissance group of the United States Air Force, and then had its lineage and honors bestowed on like-numbered wings of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), the Air Force Space Command and the Air Force Global Strike Command.
From 1 July 1947, until its drawdown in February 1952, the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Group provided worldwide surveillance, flying Boeing RB-29s, North American RB-45s and Boeing RB-47s as a subordinate component of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, consisting of the 322nd, 323rd, and 324th Strategic Recon Squadrons, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron (Medium). The group was inactivated on 28 May 1952, as part of an SAC-wide termination of groups as an organizational echelon, while the wing and all subordinate units remained active until 8 November 1957.
The group was activated in 1991 as the 91st Operations Group. Between 1991 and 1994, and since 1996, the 91st Operations Group, initially as part of the 91st Space Wing, and since renamed the 91st Missile Wing, maintains the alert force of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles maintained at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Its three missile squadrons, however, have no traditional link to the 91st Bombardment Group and were previously part of the 455th Strategic Missile Wing and 455th Bombardment Group.
Organization of the 91st Bomb Group (H)
The 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy) was activated on 14 April 1942, by General Order 31 of the Third Air Force.
Wartime command staff Group Commanders Dates of command Notes 1st Lt. Edward R. Akert 15 April 1942 – 15 May 1942 Col. Stanley T. Wray 15 May 1942 – 22 May 1943 Lt. Col. William M. Reid 22 May 1943 – 25 June 1943 Lt. Col. Clemens L. Wurzbach 25 June 1943 – 12 December 1943 Col. Claude E. Putnam 12 December 1943 – 16 May 1944 Col. Henry W. Terry¹ 17 May 1944 – 30 May 1945 Col. Donald E. Sheeler 30 May 1945 – 23 June 1945 Deputy Group Commanders Dates of service Notes Lt. Col. Baskin R. Lawrence, Jr. 16 May 1942 – 1 May 1943 Lt. Col. William M. Reid 1 May 1943 – 22 May 1943 unknown 23 May 1943 – 13 September 1943 Lt. Col. Theodore R. Milton 13 September 1943 – 23 October 1944 Lt. Col.Donald E. Sheeler 23 October 1944 – 30 May 1945 Lt. Col. Immanuel J. Klette 30 May 1945—July 1945 Operations officers (S-3's)Dates of service Notes Major Edward P. Myers 15 October 1942 – 30 December 1942 Killed in action Lt. Col. Baskin R. Lawrence January 1943 – 1 May 1943 Lt. Col. David G. Alford 23 May 1943 – 4 February 1944 Prisoner of war Major Charles D. Lee, Jr. 5 February 1944 – 22 April 1944 Prisoner of war Lt. Col. Donald E. Sheeler 26 April 1944 – 1 December 1944 Lt. Col. Marvin D. Lord 1 December 1944 – 3 February 1945 Killed in action Major Karl W. Thompson 4 February 1945—June 1945
Squadron commanders Four heavy bomb squadrons were constituted 16 May 1942, and assigned to the group.
322d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy)Dates of commandNotes Major Victor Zienowicz 16 May 1942 – 23 November 1942 Killed in action Major Paul Fishburne 24 November 1942 – 19 May 1943 Major Robert B. Campbell 20 May 1943 – 16 July 1943 Lt. Col. Donald E. Sheeler 16 July 1943 – 25 April 1944 Major Leroy B. Everett 25 April 1944 – 26 August 1944 Major Karl W. Thompson 26 August 1944 – 5 February 1945 Major Edwin F. Close 5 February 1945—June 1945 323d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy)Dates of command Notes Major Paul Brown 16 May 1942 – 22 April 1943 Major John C. Bishop 25 May 1943 – 22 January 1944 Lt. Col. James F. Berry 22 January 1944 – 3 October 1944 Major Willis J. Taylor 3 October 1944—June 1945 324th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy)Dates of command Casualty Status Major Harold Smelser 16 May 1942 – 23 November 1942 Killed in action Major Claude E. Putnam 29 November 1942 – 17 February 1943 Major Haley Aycock 17 February 1943—unknown 1943 Major Richard W. Wietzenfeld unknown 1943 – 30 July 1944 Major Immanuel J. Klette 30 July 1944 – 30 May 1945 401st Bombardment Squadron (Heavy)Dates of command Casualty Status Major Edward P. Myers 16 May 1942 – 15 October 1942 Captain Haley W. Aycock 15 October 1942 – 8 November 1942 Wounded in action Major Edward P. Myers 9 November 1942 – 30 December 1942 Killed in action Lt. Col. Clyde G. Gillespie 31 December 1942 – 25 April 1944 Major James H. McPartlin 25 April 1944 – 1 July 1944 LtCol. Marvin D. Lord 1 July 1944 – 1 December 1944 Major John D. Davis 1 December 1944—June 1945
History
Establishment Established 28 January 1942, and activated on 14 April 1942 at Harding Field, Louisiana, the 91st Bombardment Group consisted of a small administrative cadre without subordinate units until 13 May 1942, when it was moved to MacDill Field, Florida. There Lt. Col. Stanley T. Wray took command of the group, and the four flying squadrons assigned to the group were activated. The 91st received air crews and began phase one training with just three B-17's available. On 26 June 1942, the group (now consisting of 83 officers and 78 enlisted men) was transferred to the Second Air Force and moved to Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington to complete phase two training, with two squadrons operating from satellite fields at Pendleton Field and Redmond Army Air Base, Oregon.
The 91st received orders to deploy overseas and on 24 August 1942, the ground echelon entrained for Fort Dix, New Jersey, where it remained until 5 September, embarking on the . Arriving at Greenock, Scotland, on 11 September, the ground echelon moved by train to RAF Kimbolton, a war expansion airfield in the English Midlands.
Part of the air echelon moved on 24 August 1942, to Gowen Field, Idaho, where it received six new B-17F aircraft. From there it flew by pairs, making frequent stops, to Dow Field, Maine. The remainder of the air crews relocated to Dow by train, arriving 1 September. Between 4 and 24 September the group flew training missions while it received 29 additional B-17's from air depots in Middletown, Pennsylvania; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado, and conducted phase three training.
The group moved by squadrons to the United Kingdom, beginning with the 324th Bombardment Squadron on 25 September, flying to Gander, Newfoundland. The 324th made a non-stop flight along the North Ferry Route on 30 September, landing at Prestwick Airport, Scotland. The 322d Bombardment Squadron moved to Gander on 30 September, and Prestwick on 1 October, followed by one day by the 401st Bombardment Squadron. The group lost one of its 35 bombers during transit when a 401st B-17 crashed in fog into a hillside near Cushendall, Northern Ireland, killing 8 of the crew and a flight surgeon.
The 324th Squadron flew as a unit from Prestwick to Kimbolton on 1 October, followed by the 322nd on 2 October and the 401st on 6 October. On 10 October, the remaining squadron, the 323rd, flew to Gander from Dow. It did not reach Prestwick until 14 October, by which time the 91st had changed bases.
VIII Bomber Command had assigned the 91st to Kimbolton intending it to be its operational base. The installation was of war-time construction and had not yet been reconstructed to Class A airfield specifications. Intended as a light or medium bomber field, its runways were not suitable for the combat weights of B-17s fully loaded with bombs and fuel. Three practice missions in as many days indicated to the staff of the 91st that the runway would quickly deteriorate and Colonel Wray immediately consulted Col. Newton Longfellow, VIII BC commander, who suggested Wray inspect the RAF Bomber Command OTU base at RAF Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire (), to see if it might be suitable.
Wray traveled to RAF Bassingbourn, located four miles (6 km) north of Royston. Not only was the base more appealing from its closer proximity to London, but it had been constructed in 1938 and was considerably more comfortable, with permanent brick buildings, including barracks for enlisted personnel (in contrast to the Nissen huts at Kimbolton), landscaped grounds with curbed roadways (Kimbolton, like many war-time fields, was noted for muddy conditions); and had already been re-constructed to a Class A airfield.
Wray contacted his staff and ordered them to prepare for immediate relocation. On 14 October, without prior approval, the 91st moved itself and all of its equipment to Bassingbourn in one day and took possession of the station.
Start of combat operations
The 91st began combat operations on 4 November 1942, when it received a field order for a mission to bomb the submarine pens at Brest, France, later changed to an attack on the Luftwaffe airfield at Abbeville. Thirty minutes before takeoff the mission was cancelled ("scrubbed" in the parlance of that time) because of poor weather. These circumstances were typical of those encountered daily by all the heavy bomber groups in the autumn of 1942 as they pioneered the concept of strategic bombing by daylight.
On 4 November the Eighth Air Force consisted of just nine groups. Four (91st, 97th, 301st and 303d) had been earmarked for the Twelfth Air Force in support of Operation Torch and were in England to acquire combat experience and stage for forward movement to North Africa. Two (97th and 301st) had already been withdrawn from operations to prepare for imminent transfer to Algeria and another (92nd) to act as an operational training unit (OTU) for replacement combat crews. Of the six remaining units only the 93rd Bombardment Group (a Consolidated B-24 Liberator unit) and the 306th Bombardment Group were operational, and the 306th had flown only two missions. As late as 15 December the impending transfer of the 91st BG to Algeria was postponed because of logistics difficulties and a shortage of airdromes in North Africa.
The group's first mission was to Brest, France, on 7 November. The target was the Kriegsmarine submarine base, and was the first of 28 missions against the U-boat force in the following eight months. In all, eight missions were flown in November 1942, seven of them against the sub pens. The last of these, on 23 November, resulted in the disastrous loss of two squadron commanders, the group navigator, the group bombardier, and three of the five airplanes attacking.
In December 1942 VIII Bomber Command issued two-letter squadron identification codes to be painted on the fuselages of the bombers: 322nd BS – LG 323rd BS – OR 324th BS – DF 401st BS – LL