page_title: MacDill Air Force Base
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: MacDill Air Force Base / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: Southern view oriented photo (inverted image) of MacDill Airfield taken during World War II. Source: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 USAF Reference Series, OFFICE OF AIR FORCE HISTORY UNITED STATES AIR FORCE WASHINGTON, D.C., 1989
context_page_description: MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida.
  The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing, assigned to the Eighteenth Air Force of the Air Mobility Command. The 6 ARW is commanded by Colonel Stephen Snelson.
  MacDill Air Force Base, located in south Tampa, was constructed as MacDill Field, a U.S. Army Air Corps, later U.S. Army Air Forces, installation just prior to World War II. With the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as an independent service in September 1947, it became MacDill Air Force Base. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was a Strategic Air Command installation for B-47 Stratojet bombers. In the early 1960s, it transitioned to a Tactical Air Command installation briefly operating the F-84 Thunderstreak jet fighter before transitioning to the F-4 Phantom II. During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, it operated F-4 Phantom II fighters under various fighter wings, followed by F-16 Fighting Falcons in the mid- and late 1980s and early 1990s.
context_section_description: With the United States's entry into World War II, the primary mission of MacDill Field became the training of bombardment units under III Bomber Command. In June 1942, the 21st Bombardment Group was assigned with B-26 Marauder medium bombers as the Operational Training Unit (OTU). As well as the main training unit, the group flew antisubmarine patrols over the Gulf of Mexico.
  It was the B-26 that earned the slogan "One a day in Tampa Bay" due the number of early model B-26 aircraft that ditched or crashed into the Tampa Bay waters surrounding MacDill Field. Early models of the B-26 aircraft proved hard to fly and land by many pilots due to its short wings, high landing speeds, and fighter plane maneuverability.  Improvements to the Block 10 version of the aircraft, known as the B-26B-10, added six feet of additional wingspan and upgraded engines that eliminated most of these problems. Nine of the twelve combat groups that flew the B-26 in Europe were activated and trained at MacDill and in combat the B-26 enjoyed the lowest loss rate of any Allied bomber.
  In addition, MacDill Field provided transitional training in the B-17 Flying Fortress.  The first Eighth Air Force Flying Fortress groups were trained at MacDill prior to their deployment to England in the summer of 1942.  Also, the command and control organizations for Eighth Air Force were organized and equipped at MacDill in 1942. Heavy bomber training ended in July 1942 as the B-17 group training mission was reassigned to II Bomber Command and moved to the Midwest and western states.
  Estimates of the number of crew members trained at the base during the war vary from 50,000 to 120,000, with as many as 15,000 troops were stationed at MacDill Field at one time.  A contingent of Women's Army Corps (WAC) troops arrived in 1943. The base provided various forms of entertainment including band concerts, live performers, and a movie theater.
  Two films were made in Tampa during World War II with wartime themes: A Guy Called Joe (1943) starred Spencer Tracy and had scenes shot at MacDill; Air Force (1943) starred John Garfield and had scenes shot at Drew Field. In the latter film, MacDill-based B-26s were painted as Japanese bombers, and although the entire Tampa Bay area defenses were alerted to this, the U.S. Coast Guard still shot at the planes as they flew over the Gulf.
  In late 1943, when Second Air Force began transitioning to B-29 Superfortress training, the B-17 mission returned to MacDill, which continued through the end of World War II.  As a result, the 21st Bombardment Group was disbanded on 10 October 1943 and the Operational Training Unit (OTU) which performed the B-17 training, the 488th Bombardment Group (Heavy), was activated in November 1943 with four bombardment training squadrons.
  In an administrative reorganization by HQ Army Air Force on 1 May 1944, numbered training units in the Zone of the Interior (ZI) (Continental United States) were re-designated as "Army Air Force Base Units". At MacDill, the 488th Bomb Group was redesignated as the 326th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Heavy Bombardment) and B-17 training squadron tail codes were designated as "H, J, K, and L".
  
  Beginning in January 1944, the 11th Photographic Group used MacDill for its mission of photographic mapping in the US and sent detachments to carry out similar operations in Africa, the CBI theater, the Near and Middle East, Mexico, Canada, Alaska, and the Caribbean.  The unit flew a mixture of B-17, B-24, B-25, B-29, F-2, F-9, F-10, and A-20 aircraft equipped with cartographic cameras.  The 11th PG inactivated in October 1944, being replaced by several intelligence and mapping training units at the airfield from 1945 through 1948.
  Several bases in Florida, including MacDill, also served as detention centers for German prisoners-of-war (POWs) in the latter part of 1944 and 1945. At its apex, 488 German POWs were interned at MacDill.
  In February 1945, the 323d Combat Crew Training Wing (Very Heavy Bomber) was established at the base with a mission of training B-29 Superfortress aircrews.  The fi
caption: A southern-oriented image of MacDill Airfield taken during World War II (note the image is inverted)
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