page_title: 446th Missile Squadron
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 446th Missile Squadron / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Unidentified B-25J 446th Bombardment Squadron, 321st Bombardment Group taking off from Pomigliano Airfield, Italy in October 1944 to attack enemy targets in the Po Valley, Northern Italy. The squadron's primary mission was to attck bridges and railway lines in that strategic area to limit movement of enemy forces and resupply efforts.
context_page_description: The 446th Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 321st Missile Group, stationed at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota
  The 446 MS was equipped with the LGM-30G Minuteman III Intercontinental ballistic missile, with a mission of nuclear deterrence. With the end of the Cold War, the 446th was inactivated on 30 September 1998.
context_section_description: Activated in mid-1942 as a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber squadron, it was trained by the Third Air Force in the southeastern United States. It deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO), and was assigned to the Twelfth Air Force in Algeria in early 1943. In North Africa, the squadron was engaged primarily in support and interdictory operations, bombing marshalling yards, rail lines, highways, bridges, viaducts, troop concentrations, gun emplacements, shipping, harbors and other objectives.
  The squadron also engaged in psychological warfare missions, dropping propaganda leaflets behind enemy lines. It took part in the Allied operations against Axis forces in North Africa during March–May 1943, the reduction of Pantelleria and Lampedusain islands during June.
  It was also involved in the invasion of Sicily in July, the landing at Salerno on the Italian mainland in September, the Allied advance toward Rome during January–June 1944, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944 and the Allied operations in northern Italy from September 1944 to April 1945. It was inactivated in Italy after the German capitulation in September 1945.
  It was reactivated as part of the Air Force Reserve in 1947 and equipped with A-26/B-26 Invader medium bombers, the unit was then inactivated in 1949 due to budget cuts.
caption: B-25J of the 446th Bombardment Squadron taking off from Pomigliano
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