397th Bombardment Group

397th Bombardment Wing
Boeing B-52G in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. This plane was assigned to the 397th Bombardment Wing in 1968
Active	1943–1946, 1963–1968
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Strategic Bombardment
Part of	Strategic Air Command
Motto(s)	Custodes Libertatis Latin"Guardians of Freedom"
Engagements	European Theater of World War II
Decorations	Distinguished Unit Citation
Insignia
397th Bombardment Wing emblem (approved 30 October 1963)

The 397th Bombardment Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit, last assigned to the 45th Air Division of Strategic Air Command at Dow Air Force Base, Maine, where it was inactivated on 25 April 1968.

It was originally organized as the 397th Bombardment Group, a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. It deployed to Western Europe with Ninth Air Force as a medium bombardment unit equipped with Martin B-26 Marauders. It returned to the United States during December 1945, being inactivated on 6 January 1946.

The 397th Bombardment Wing was organized in 1963 as a component organization of Strategic Air Command's deterrent force during the Cold War. It was inactivated when Dow closed.

In early 1984 the group and wing were consolidated into a single unit, but have not been active since.

Constituted as 397th Bombardment Group (Medium) on 20 March 1943. Activated on 20 April 1943. Trained with B-26's. Moved to RAF Gosfield England, March–April 1944, and assigned to Ninth Air Force, however. no sooner had they arrived than they were moved on to RAF Rivenhall. The group's identification marking was a yellow diagonal band across both sides of the vertical tailplane.

Over the next few days, more than 60 'bare metal' B-26s were to be seen on the Rivenhall hardstands. Although fresh from the training grounds in south-eastern United States, and having only reached the UK early in April. the 347th undertook its first combat mission on 20 April: an attack on a Pas de Calais V-1 site.

During its tenure of Rivenhall the 397th undertook 56 bombing missions, 32 of them attacks on bridges. Other targets were enemy airfields, rail junctions, fuel and ammunition stores, V-weapon sites and various military installations in France and the Low Countries. During these missions a total of 16 B-26s were missing in action and several others wrecked in crash-landings at the base.