IX Troop Carrier Command

IX Troop Carrier Command
World War II Emblem of the IX Troop Carrier Command
Active	16 October 1943 - 31 March 1946
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army Air Forces
Type	Troop Carrier
Role	parachute and glider air assault
Size	14 groups, 1400 aircraft
Part of	Ninth Air Force
Engagements	Operation Neptune Operation Market Operation Varsity

The IX Troop Carrier Command was a United States Army Air Forces unit. Its last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force, based at Greenville Army Air Base, South Carolina. It was inactivated on 31 March 1946. As a component command of the Ninth Air Force, based in the United Kingdom.

The mission of IX Troop Carrier Command was air transport for the Allied airborne divisions in the European Theater of Operations.

The primary aircraft of IX TCC was the C-47 Skytrain and its variant, the C-53 Skytrooper, but in 1945 IX Troop Carrier Command equipped one group with 117 C-46 Commando aircraft to determine their viability in the ETO. As a result of a 28% loss ratio during Operation Varsity resulting from the C-46's high inflammability, IX TCC did not convert to the Commando, even though its cargo-carrying capacity was twice that of the C-47. IX TCC also had 1,922 CG-4A Waco and 20 Waco CG-13 gliders just prior to its last major operation in March 1945.

IX Troop Carrier Command consisted of three troop carrier wings, 14 troop carrier groups, and one pathfinder group, totalling approximately 1380 operational aircraft including spares, and 2,000 gliders at its maximum strength in March 1945.

IX Troop Carrier Command conducted three multi-divisional combat air assaults:

It also conducted relief operations for isolated units during the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944.

All U.S. tactical air support units in Great Britain were consolidated into the Ninth Air Force on 16 October 1943, under the command of Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton. At the same time the IX Troop Carrier Command was activated, having been constituted by USAAF Headquarters five days before the headquarters of IX TCC transferred to Grantham where it remained until 20 September 1944, when it transferred to Ascot, Berkshire, its final location in Europe. Its first headquarters was located at RAF Cottesmore, where it took control of a provisional headquarters established by the Eighth Air Force in September.