357th Fighter Group

357th Fighter Group
357th Fighter Group
Active	16 December 1942 – 20 August 1946
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army Air Forces
Type	Fighter group
Role	Air Superiority
Size	125 P-51 aircraft, 1000 personnel
Part of	66th Fighter Wing Eighth Air Force
Garrison/HQ	RAF Leiston, UK
Nickname(s)	"The Yoxford Boys"
Motto(s)	Semper Omnia (All Things at All Times)
Engagements	DUC: Berlin, 6 March 1944 and Leipzig, 29 June 1944 DUC: Derben, 14 January 1945 Big Week 313 group missions

The 357th Fighter Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. The 357th operated P-51 Mustang aircraft as part of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and its members were known unofficially as "The Yoxford Boys" after a village near their base in the UK. (Group tradition holds that the name was the invention of Lord Haw Haw in a broadcast greeting the night of its arrival at RAF Leiston.) Its victory totals in air-to-air combat are the most of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force and third among all groups fighting in Europe.

The 357th flew 313 combat missions between 11 February 1944 and 25 April 1945. It is officially credited by the U.S. Air Force with having destroyed 595.5 German airplanes in the air and 106.5 on the ground. The 357th existed as a USAAF unit only during World War II and its immediate aftermath. Its history, lineage and honors were bestowed on an Ohio Air National Guard group therefore the Ohio ANG considers itself a direct descendant of the 357th FG.

Three fighter squadrons were constituted 16 December 1942, and assigned to the group.

SOURCES: Commanders, AFHRA website and Maurer Maurer; other staff and support units, Olmsted

The 357th remained at Hamilton Field, while its squadrons were activated and personnel and equipment acquired. Cadre for the new group were drawn from the 328th Fighter Group, already at Hamilton. Two of the three designated squadron commanders had served in the Philippines during the first days of the war, Major Hubert Egnes with the 17th Pursuit Squadron, and Captain Varian White with the 20th Pursuit Squadron, and both had air-to-air victories over Japanese aircraft.

On 3 March 1943, the group moved by rail to Tonopah, Nevada, where it remained until 3 June. At Tonopah the members lived in and worked under primitive conditions, described as "tar-paper shacks", and without enclosed hangar maintenance facilities. They inherited much-used P-39 Airacobra fighters from the 354th Fighter Group, training at Tonopah preceding them, and immediately began a regimen of six-day work weeks with six sorties a day practicing air-to-air combat, bombing, and strafing maneuvers. While adequately powered at low altitudes and suited for close support operations, the P-39 was prone to stalls at higher altitudes. Three pilots and a flight surgeon died in training accidents while at Tonopah, including Captain White, who was replaced by Major Thomas Hayes, another veteran of the early Pacific campaign.