page_title: 707th Bombardment Squadron
section_title: Combat in the European Theater
hierarchical_section_title: 707th Bombardment Squadron / History / Combat in the European Theater
context_page_description: The 707th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to Twelfth Air Force at Lubbock Air Force Base, Texas, where it was inactivated in March 1950.
  The squadron was first activated in 1943. After training in the United States with Consolidated B-24 Liberators, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations, where it engaged in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. After V-E Day, the squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated. The squadron was activated in the reserve in 1948.
context_section_description: The squadron arrived at its new base at RAF Flixton in the east of England in early November.  The 707th flew its first mission on 16 December 1943 against shipping facilities in Bremen.  The unit operated chiefly against strategic objectives.  Its targets included U-boat installations at Kiel, the port at Bremen, a chemical plant at Ludwigshafen, ball-bearing works at Berlin, aircraft engine plants at Rostock, aircraft factories at Munich, marshalling yards at Coblenz, motor works at Ulm, and oil refineries at Hamburg.
  Besides strategic missions, the 707th often carried out air support and air interdiction operations. It supported Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 by attacking strong points, bridges, airfields, transportation, and other targets in France. The squadron aided ground forces at Caen and Saint-Lô during July by hitting bridges, gun batteries, and enemy troops. It dropped supplies to Allied troops near Nijmegen during Operation Market-Garden in September. The unit bombed marshalling yards, bridges, and road junctions during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945. It flew low level missions to drop medical supplies, arms, and food to airborne and ground troops near Wesel during Operation Varsity in March 1945.  The 707th flew its last combat mission on 25 April, attacking a bridge near Salzburg, Austria.
  After V-E Day, the 707th flew transport missions to France, sometimes landing at fields that had been targets the previous year.  It also flew "Trolley" missions, transporting support personnel for "sightseeing" trips over Germany to view the results of their efforts.  The squadron began to redeploy to the US in June 1945. The first aircraft of the air echelon departed the United Kingdom in mid-June 1945 flying the northern route via Iceland.  The ground echelon sailed from Greenock on the Queen Mary on the sixth of July 1945 and arrived in New York on 11 July 1945. Personnel were given 30 days leave.  The ground and air echelons reassembled at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota in late July, but it was inactivated on 28 August 1945.
caption: 446th Bomb Group Liberators on their way to a target.[note 2]
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