13th Strategic Missile Division

13th Strategic Missile Division
564th Strategic Missile Squadron Convair SM-65D Atlas
Active	1940–1966
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Strategic Missile Command and Control
Engagements	World War II EAME Theater
Insignia
13th Strategic Missile Division emblem (approved 4 January 1961)

The 13th Strategic Missile Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Fifteenth Air Force, based at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. It was inactivated on 2 July 1966.

Initially formed as an air defense organization in the Caribbean, the unit later commanded Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress groups of Eighth Air Force in England. Its units carried out strategic bombardment missions over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany during World War II. During the Cold War, the unit was a command and control organization of Strategic Air Command, controlling early ICBM wings in the Midwest.

The unit was initially organized at Langley Field, Virginia, as the 13th Composite Wing in October 1940. It was assigned to the new Caribbean Air Force as a command organization for units in the Caribbean.

Assigned to Borinquen Field, Puerto Rico, its mission was to provide an air strike force for the defense of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. During the period 1940 to 1942, the wing controlled 21 Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers and 92 assorted fighters in about a dozen groups and squadrons. On 17 April 1942, the wing was inactivated in an organizational change. Its mission was taken over by the VI Interceptor Command, Antilles Air Task Force.

The organization was reactivated as the 13th Bombardment Wing in October 1942 at MacDill Field, Florida under Third Air Force. It was one of three bombardment wings (12th, 13th, 14th) which were formed at MacDill for deployment to Eighth Air Force in England as command organizations. The 13th deployed in June 1943. There, it controlled the 95th, 100th and 390th Bombardment Groups under the 3d Bombardment Division, flying Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. Controlling the combat operations of the groups, it carried out strategic bombing of enemy aircraft, petroleum, and ball bearing industries as well as German airfields. Later, organizational units took part in the famous raid against the ball bearing industry at Schweinfurt in October 1943 and followed with missions against shipyards and shipbuilding installations at Wilhelmshaven and Bremen. With the end of the war in Europe, it returned to the United States and was inactivated on 17 October 1945.