page_title: 712th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron
section_title: Combat in Europe
hierarchical_section_title: 712th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron / History / World War II / Combat in Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: B-24 of the 448th Bombardment Group (Heavy), RAF Seething, England.
context_page_description: The 712th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron is a provisional United States Air Force unit. In February 2001, the squadron was converted to provisional status and assigned to United States Air Forces Europe to activate or inactivate as needed. It was activated in 2008 for exercises with the Hungarian Air Force.
  The squadron was first activated as the 712th Bombardment Squadron during World War II. After training in the United States, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations, and served in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany with the 448th Bombardment Group. After V-E Day, the squadron returned to the United States, where it converted to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. It was inactivated in August 1946 and replaced by another unit. It was active in the reserve from 1947 until 1951, when it was mobilized for the Korean War and inactivated after its personnel were used to man other units.
  It was redesignated the 712th Air Refueling Squadron and served with the 19th Operations Group at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia from 1994 to 1996.
context_section_description: The squadron flew its first combat mission from RAF Seething on 22 December 1943.  It was primarily engaged in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, attacking ball bearing plants in Berlin, marshalling yards at Cologne, a V-1 flying bomb assembly plant at Fallersleben, aircraft factories in Gotha, an airfield at Hanau, a chemical plant at Ludwigshafen, synthetic oil refineries near Pölitz, aircraft engine plants at Rostock, among other strategic targets.  The squadron participated in Big Week, an intensive campaign against German aircraft manufacturing plants from 20 to 25 February 1944.
  The squadron was occasionally diverted from its strategic bombing mission to fly interdiction and close air support missions.  It bombed V- weapon launch sites, airfields and transportation facilities to support Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, and on D-Day attacked coastal defenses and choke points on German lines of communication.  It struck enemy positions to assist the allied attacks on Caen and Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo.  It dropped supplies to allied troops during Operation Market Garden, the attempt to seize a bridgehead across the Rhine in the Netherlands.  During the Battle of the Bulge, it attacked transportation and communications targets in December 1944 and January 1945.  In the spring of 1945, it again dropped supplies to airborne troops in Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine near Wesel.  The squadron flew its last combat mission on 25 April 1945, an attack on a railroad yard near Salzburg, Austria.
  The air echelon began returning to the United States with their planes in June 1945, while the ground echelon sailed from Greenock on the RMS Queen Mary on 6 July.  Squadron members were given leave upon arrival in the States and the squadron began to assemble at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota in the middle of the month.  After training with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the squadron moved to Fort Worth Army Air Field, Texas in December 1945.  At Fort Worth, it became one of the first units of Strategic Air Command in March 1946.  However, in August the squadron was inactivated and its personnel and equipment were transferred to the 325th Bombardment Squadron, which was simultaneously activated.
caption: 448th Bombardment Group B-24
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