page_title: 57th Operations Group
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 57th Operations Group / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: P-40C of the 57th Pursuit Group, probably taken at Windsor Locks, CT, 1941
context_page_description: The 57th Operations Group is a non-flying component of the 57th Wing, assigned to the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command. The group is stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
  The Group provides direct oversight of the Nellis flying mission through the 57th Operations Support Squadron. They manage the airfield, operate the air traffic control tower, and the Nellis Air Traffic Control Facility providing radar service to local flying operations and the National Airspace System. It is responsible for scheduling, training, life support, weapons, tactics and planning staff functions. In addition to these functions, it also maintains administrative oversight of the 57th ATG staff and the 57th Wing staff.
  The 57th OG also directs execution of two of the world's premier combat training exercises, Red Flag and Green Flag.
context_section_description: The group was first activated as the 57th Pursuit Group in January 1941, flying P-40 Warhawks as part of the Army Air Corps Northeast Defense Sector (later assigned to the I Fighter Command) at Mitchel Field, New York. It trained in New England and provided air defense of the northeast after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It was redesignated as the 57th Fighter Group (FG) in May 1942.
  The 57th FG was reassigned to the U.S. Army Middle East Force in Egypt. In June 1942 the pilots and 72 new P-40Fs loaded aboard the aircraft carrier Ranger at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, sailing 1 July. On 19 July, off the Gold Coast, they launched in four sections of 18 aircraft and flew to Accra, thence across Equatorial Africa to Palestine, officially becoming part of IX Fighter Command. However, prior to the group officially commencing operations, individual 57th FG pilots were attached to, and flew combat sorties with, P-40 squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF), South African Air Force (SAAF) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), belonging to No. 211 Group, Desert Air Force.
  In October 1942, the 57th FG officially began combat operations as a formation. The group took part in the Battle of El Alamein and, as part of Ninth Air Force, supported the Commonwealth Eighth Army's drive across Egypt and Libya, escorting bombers and flying strafing and dive-bombing missions against airfields, communications, and troop concentrations until Axis defeat in Tunisia in May 1943. The unit participated in the reduction of Pantelleria (May–June 1943) and the conquest of Sicily (July–August 1943). For front-line operations in direct support of the Eighth Army from the Battle of El Alamein to the capitulation of enemy forces in Sicily, the group received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC).
  In an aerial battle over the Gulf of Tunis at Cape Bon in April 1943, the group destroyed approximately 74 of the enemy's transport and fighter aircraft while sending an equal number down to the sea and beaches to escape by crash landing. The 57th lost just six aircraft in this melee. Forever known by the 57th as the 18 April 1943 Goose Shoot – "The Palm Sunday Massacre," it received another DUC and it added four newly created aces. This action broke the German's aerial supply line and they surrendered Tunisia thirty days later.
  The 57th supported the British Eighth Army's landing at Termoli and subsequent operations in Italy, being reassigned to Twelfth Air Force in August 1943. It flew dive-bombing, strafing, patrol, and escort missions.
  Early in 1944, the group converted to P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft and flew interdiction operations in Italy. The group moved to Corsica on 30 March 1944 to operate as a separate task force. It flew interdiction missions against railroads, communication targets, and motor vehicles behind enemy lines, providing a minimum of 48 fighter-bomber sorties per day. During 9 days of combat operations during early April 1944, the 57th exceeded 50 sorties per day. While the group was stationed on Corsica, director William Wyler made a 45-minute long Technicolor documentary film, Thunderbolt!. filming combat missions of the 57th.  The film concentrated on Operation Strangle.  The film was released for the military in 1945 and for general release in 1947.
  The group earned a third DUC c. 14 April 1944 for attacks in the Florence-Arezzo area. The group participated in the French campaign against Elba in June 1944 and in the invasion of Southern France in August. It engaged in interdiction and support operations in northern Italy from September 1944 to May 1945. For its operations in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, the 57th earned the French Croix de Guerre with Palm (awarded in late 1967). It was inactivated on 13 April 1953.
  The group remained in northern Italy after the end of the European War, demobilizing throughout the summer of 1945.  It was reassigned to the United States in August 1945 and was inactivated at the end of August.
caption: P-40C of the 57th Pursuit Group, probably taken at Windsor Locks, Connecticut, 1941
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