page_title: 308th Armament Systems Group
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 308th Armament Systems Group / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: "Chug-A-Lug" B-24D-25-CO Liberator s/n 41-24251 425th Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Group, 14th AF Taken at Kwanghan Airfield, China
context_page_description: The 308th Armament Systems Group is a unit of the United States Air Force's 308th Armament Systems Wing, stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The group was first activated at Gowen Field, Idaho as the 308th Bombardment Group. It served as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator unit in the China-Burma-India Theater, where it conducted long range bombing missions against Japanese forces, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation. Following V-J Day, it returned to the United States and was inactivated in January 1946.
  In October 1946, the group was redesignated the 308th Reconnaissance Group and assigned to Air Weather Service as a weather reconnaissance unit. It was inactivated in 1951, when AWS reassigned its components to regional weather organizations. It was again activated as a medium bomber unit under Strategic Air Command, but was inactivated in June 1952, when SAC adopted the dual deputy organization for its combat wings.
  In May 2006, the group was consolidated with the Long Range Missile Systems Group At Eglin.
context_section_description: Constituted as 308th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 28 January 1942, and activated on 15 April. Assigned to II Bomber Command for training. Received deployment orders for the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI) in February 1943.
  Deployed to Kunming Airport, China in March 1943, becoming the heavy bombardment arm of the new Fourteenth Air Force. Air echelon deployed to the CBI via the South Atlantic Transport route via Brazil, then across central Africa and Middle East to Karachi, India. Ground echelon traveling by ship across the Pacific via Australia.
  Once established in India, group aircraft made many trips over the Himalayan Mountains (The Hump) to Southeastern China from the Assam Valley of India airlifting gasoline, oil, bombs, spare parts, and other items the group needed to prepare for and then to sustain its combat operations. In addition to the B-24 heavy bombers, group utilized C-87 Liberator transports for logistical support.
  From its main base at Kunming and later Hsinching Airfield, the 308th carried out long range strategic bombardment of enemy targets in China in support of Chinese ground forces. The group attacked airfields, coalyards, docks, oil refineries, and fuel dumps in French Indochina; mined rivers and ports; bombed shops and docks at Rangoon; attacked Japanese shipping in the East China Sea, Formosa Strait, South China Sea, and Gulf of Tonkin.
  Received a Distinguished Unit Citation for an unescorted bombing attack, conducted through antiaircraft fire and fighter defenses, against docks and warehouses at Hankowon 21 August 1943. Received second DUC for interdiction of Japanese shipping during 1944–1945.
  Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on 26 October 1944 when, in spite of intense antiaircraft fire, he attacked a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea; his plane was so badly damaged that when he reached land he ordered the crew to bail out; Carswell, however, remained with the plane to try to save one man who could not jump because his parachute had been ripped by flak; before Carswell could attempt a crash landing, the plane struck a mountainside and burned.
  The group moved to India in June 1945. Ferried gasoline and supplies over the Hump. After the Japanese Capitulation in August, the group remained in India in support United States forces in the CBI. Personnel sailed for the United States in December, leaving B-24s to the colonial Indian forces. The unit inactivated as a paper unit in January 1946.
caption: B-24D of the 425th Bombardment Squadron at Kwanghan Airfield[note 2]
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