The 9th Bomb Squadron is a squadron of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to the 7th Operations Group, Global Strike Command, stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. The squadron is equipped with the Rockwell B-1B Lancer bomber.
Formed in June 1917, the 9th is one of the oldest squadrons in the Air Force. During World War I, the squadron was the first American night reconnaissance squadron to be organized. Later, it served with the Army Air Service and Army Air Corps in the Inter-War period and then served in Australia, Egypt and India during World War II. A part of Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, today the squadron is engaged as part of the global war on terrorism.
Mission The 9th Bomb Squadron maintains combat readiness to deliver rapid, decisive airpower on a large scale in support of conventional warfare taskings. Squadron experts provide warfighting commanders with the best in maintenance support, operational aircrews and Rockwell B-1B Lancer aircraft.
The squadron repairs, services, launches, recovers and inspects 15 B-1B Lancer aircraft capable of sustained intercontinental missions and worldwide deployment/employment from forward operating locations.
History
World War I
The 9th Bombardment Squadron began as the 9th Aero Squadron at Camp Kelly, Texas, on 14 June 1917. The United States had entered World War I in April of that year and the unit was targeted for overseas combat duty. Their first European stop was Winchester, England in December 1917. Following the holidays the unit moved on to RFC Grantham, England to train for combat flying the Sopwith Scout. After eight months of intensive training, the unit moved to the Western Front in August 1918.McLaughlin,
While in Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome, France, the 9th was assigned to the First Army Observation Group. Also, after arrival in France, the unit began flying a new aircraft; the French Breguet 14. That aircraft would be used extensively to perform the units mission, night reconnaissance. By specializing in night reconnaissance, the 9th gained the unique distinction of being the first in the Army Air Service to do so. However, their missions were not without danger. In one case, two of the 9th's aircraft were engaged by seven enemy Fokkers. The 9th's aircraft not only shot down two German aircraft, but completed their photographic mission.
As the war progressed the unit participated in many night missions and battles. Most famous of those battles were the Battle of Lorraine, Battle of St Michiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. For those, the unit earned their first battle streamers. After the war had drawn to a close, the unit was moved to Trier, Germany to serve as part of the occupation force under the Third Army on 5 December 1918. In June 1919, the unit was ordered back to the States where they were stationed at Mitchel Field, New York; Park Field, Tennessee; and at March Field, California.
Inter-War period see also: United States Army Border Air Patrol While at March, the 9th was equipped with some surplus Dayton-Wright DH-4s and assigned to the Western Department in July 1919 flying border and fire patrols. With the establishment of a permanent Army Air Service, on 14 March 1921, the 9th was redesignated as the 9th Squadron (Observation). Funding shortages, however led to the squadron's inactivation on 29 June 1922.
While inactive, the 9th was redesignated twice. First, as the 9th Observation Squadron on 25 January 1923 and secondly, as the 9th Bombardment Squadron on 24 March 1923. On 1 April 1931, the 9th was activated and assigned to the 7th Bombardment Group at Hamilton Field, California, and equipped with Keystone B-4 light bombers. While with the 7th Broup, the 9th flew numerous training flights in a variety of airplanes. In 1935 the unit participated in a mass bomber formation, cross-country flight from March Field, California, to MacDill Field, Florida.
In the summer of 1939, the 9th received its first Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress. However the runway at Hamilton Field was not adequate for the B-17, and the larger planes forced the 7th Bombardment Group to move elsewhere. In 1939 the Group was designated as a heavy group and moved to Fort Douglas, Utah on 7 September 1940, to train with B-17s. In January 1941, the 9th moved along with the 7th Bombardment Group to Salt Lake City Airport, Utah. In February, the squadron was upgraded to the new B-17D Fortress, which had improved engines and a better armament.Bowman,
With tensions increasing in the Philippine Islands and the threat of war with the Japanese Empire growing daily, the Army wanted to send these aircraft to the Philippine Department where they would join the newly created US Army Forces in the Far East. The thinking in Washington was that if Japan attacked the Philippines, the forces there would hold out as long as they could on their own until they could be reinforced from the United States.
In October of that year the unit prepared to take part in an exercise with the group in the Pacific area. With the ground echelon setting sail on 13 November 1941, the 9th made ready to fly into Hickam Field, Hawaii, the following month on 7 December 1941. The B-17s had no ammunition so more fuel could be carried on the long flight to Hawaii, and to compensate for the additional fuel stored aft of the center of gravity, the armor had been removed from the crew positions and placed, along with the machine guns, forward in the fuselage to balance the weight of the aircraft. Upon reaching Hawaii, the squadron arrived in the midst of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Unarmed and unable to fight back, the 9th lost several aircraft to enemy and friendly fire. Others scattered and landed hastily wherever they could.
World War II After the Pearl Harbor Attack in December 1941, the squadron aircraft that had not yet been deployed to Hawaii were sent to Muroc Army Air Field to help defend Southern California from a possible Japanese attack since in the hysteria of the moment the Japanese fleet was expected to show up off Santa Barbara, California at any time. From Muroc, the planes flew on antisubmarine patrols off the California coast until about 12 December 1941.
Battle of Java In early January the squadron moved out, first to Hickam Field, then along a long route to the Southwest Pacific via Christmas Island Airfield, Canton Island Airfield, Tontouta Airfield on Fiji, Plaine Des Gaiacs Airfield on New Caledonia then to RAAF Base Townsville in Queensland, Australia. Upon arrival in Australia, the B-17Ds that they had ferried to Townsville were sent to other units in Australia. Instead, the 7th Group would receive new equipment and Consolidated LB-30 Liberators were supplied to the group. From Australia, it was decided to send the 7th Group to airfields on Java in the Netherlands East Indies to conduct raids on advancing Japanese ground forces and naval targets. The first of the personnel of the 9th Squadron reached Java on 10 January when three LB-30 Liberators landed at Bandoeng Airport, then moved on the next day to Malang, where V Bomber Command had established a headquarters.Edmonds,
Newer B-17E Flying Fortresses, equipped with a tail gunner were sent to the area from the United States. This involved the group performing a cross-country trip from Hamilton Field to MacDill Field, Florida. From Florida, aircraft were flown south to Trinidad, then Belém, then to Natal on the easternmost tip of Brazil. Then a flight across the South Atlantic from the tip of Brazil across to Africa and landing at the British airdrome at Freetown, Sierra Leone. Then they headed inland and north to Kano, Nigeria, and across Africa to Khartoum, Sudan. At Khartoum, all the crews were given cholera inoculations, then the planes flew either up to Cairo before turning eastward, or else they were sent straight east across Arabia to Aden and then northeast to Karachi. Either at Cairo or Karachi the crews first learned that Java was their destination. It was the first indication they had had that the United States had been driven out of the Philippines. The last stop was at Colombo, Ceylon. From there the B-17s went straight through to Java and landed at Bandoeng Airport, where they received orders to go on to Malang Airport.
On Java, the planes arrived in flights of one, two or occasionally three planes. From Malang, the planes moved to Singosari Airfield near Surabaya, in northeast Java where the 9th operated from with the 22d Bombardment Squadron. Their very first mission had given them a violent introduction to the kind of fighting they might expect from the Japanese. On 16 January two B-17Es and three LB-30S took off together from Singosari to attack Japanese air and naval concentrations in the Bay of Manado located at Menado in the Northern Celebes Islands, about 1,000 miles to the northeast.
The attack force staged through an airfield on Kendari, spending the night of 16 January there, refueling and taking off in the early hours next morning. Two targets had been assigned: the B-17s were to attack shipping in Menado Bay, while the LB-30S bombed an airport in the vicinity. However, their orders were so unclear that the LB-30 crews could not be sure where the airport was and they had to spend fifteen or twenty minutes searching before they finally found the field at Langoan, beside a lake, about 20 miles south of Menado. Almost in the instant that the last plane reported its bombs away, they were hit by five Zeros, and for six minutes the three LB-30s were under fire. They managed to shoot down one of the Zeros before themselves escaping into the weather; but two of the aircraft had been fatally hurt.
In the meantime the two B-17Es had arrived over Menado to find four transports out in the bay and two more at the docks. On their first run, because of inexperience, they got themselves so blinded by the sun that they could drop no bombs, and on the second one plane had six bombs hang in the racks; yet as they withdrew the crews saw one of the transports capsize in the bay. Their returning course took them over the airport where the plane with the hung bombs managed to kick out two more on the runways, but the last four remained in the racks. Five minutes after this they were attacked by 15 enemy fighters. Two Messerschmitts, the rest Zeros made their passes from the rear or by diving under the bombers and pulling up behind to deliver their fire. The B-17E Fortress tail gunners, not seen before by the enemy let them come up close. Then, for some minutes before the Japanese discovered what had been added, it beat any skeet shoot ever seen. Five Zeros and one Messerschmidt went down. There were wounded in both Fortresses, and they were forced to land at Kendari for medical aid, gas, and repairs. An hour later, while they were still at work on one of the B-17's engines, five Zeros swept in to strafe the field. One of the B-17's took off in the face of the attacking planes and successfully fought off the three that went after it. The other two Zeros shot up the airport and further damaged the B-17 on the ground. The crew spent two more days endeavoring to repair his engines. Then, with Japanese ground troops approaching the field, they blew up the B-17 and the crew was taken back to Malang by one of the 11th Squadron's LB-30s
While the B-17s were being attacked at Kendari, the flight of three LB-30S continued on course towards Malang. Two of the LB-30s had to drop out, one landing at Makassar, where it had to be burned when it could not be repaired. The other LB-30 was forced to crash-land on a streak of sandy beach on Greater Mesalembo Island. For nine days the crew waited there, with little but coconuts to live on and no proper shelter or medical care for their wounded, hoping that the wrecked plane would be spotted by a friendly aircraft. On the tenth day, they were picked up by a Navy Consolidated PBY Catalina.