Aac 863d Bomb Squadron Wwii W Eur S Tank Tops

The 863d Bombardment Squadron is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was first organized as the 518th Bombardment Squadron in October 1942, when it replaced a National Guard unit participating in antisubmarine patrols off the Atlantic coast, becoming the 13th Antisubmarine Squadron in November.. When the Navy took over the coastal antisubmarine mission in August 1943, the squadron moved to the western United States, where it formed the cadre for the 493d Bombardment Group and was redesignated as the 863d. It moved to England in the spring of 1944 and participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany until April 1945.

The 44th Bomb Group was assigned to 8th Air Force at Cheddington from 11-Sep-1942 to 28-Jun-1943. The Group was known as the 'Flying Eight-Balls' and each B-24 Liberator it flew was decorated with a winged bomb cartoon of an 8-Ball (pool ball) over which were superimposed eyes and the nose of a bomb in the squadron colour.

The 64th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 43d Bombardment Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, where it was inactivated on 31 January 1970. Between May and September 1943, the squadron's B-17s were replaced with Consolidated B-24 Liberators, believed to be more suited to the long ranges of many Pacific missions. In November 1944 the squadron moved to the Philippines, helping the ground campaign on Luzon as well as conducting long range strategic bombing missions against targets in China and Formosa.

WWII USAAF 318th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 88th Bomb Group, The patch shows a boxer with bat wings taking care of a missile.