page_title: 30th Bombardment Squadron
section_title: Operations from Australia
hierarchical_section_title: 30th Bombardment Squadron / History / World War II / Operations from Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: B-17s of the 19th Bombardment Group attacking Japanese-held Lae Airfield, New Guinea on 26-27 June 1942. Boeing B-17E Fortress 41-2633 (Sally) in Foreground. This aircraft was damaged in a storm Apr 1945. Flown to Brisbane for scrapping May 1945.
context_page_description: The 30th Bombardment Squadron is a United States Air Force unit. On 19 September 1985 it was consolidated with the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, also known as the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. The squadron was first activated in 1917 when the United States entered World War I as the 30th Aero Squadron. It deployed to France in the fall of 1917 and served as a construction unit throughout the war, returning to the United States at the end of 1918 for demobilization. It was reconstituted as the 30th Bombardment Squadron in March 1923 and served with reserve personnel during the decade. In 1932, the squadron became a regular unit, serving at bases in California.
  The squadron, which had equipped with early models of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, deployed to the Philippines in the fall of 1941 to reinforce the American garrison there. The squadron's base at Clark Field was attacked on 8 December 1941. During the month of December, the squadron withdrew through the Philippines to Darwin, Australia, although it continued to stage through Philippine bases through the spring of 1942.
context_section_description: The decimated 19th Bombardment Group in Australia considered itself fortunate to launch eight or nine planes, less than the strength of a single squadron from Australia.  In January 1942, the heavy bomber force began to grow, as it was reinforced by the four squadrons of the 7th Bombardment Group for attacks from Singosari Airfield near Malang, Java, in the Netherlands East Indies. The squadron officially moved to Singosari on the last day of 1941.  Operating with whatever bombers were available, the squadron probably operated with B-24 and LB-30 Liberators during its time in Java.   Its attacks on Japanese forces moving forward through the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies earned it two Distinguished Unit Citations to add to the one it had been awarded for its actions in the Philippines and the one the squadron ground echelon was earning at Bataan.  However, by late February, the position of Allied forces in Java had become untenable, and the squadron was evacuated on 2 March back to Australia when the Japanese defeated Allied ground forces in the Dutch East Indies.
  The 30th was sent to Northern Queensland where it operated from Cloncurry and Longreach Airports. From Longreach, the squadron participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, and raided enemy transportation and communications targets as well as troop concentrations during the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea. Moving to Mareeba Airfield, along the coast of the Coral Sea in Queensland, the squadron bombed enemy airdromes, ground installations, and shipping near Rabaul, New Britain in August 1942.  The squadron earned another DUC for these operations.
  By late 1942, the Army Air Forces decided that no more B-17s would be sent to the Pacific, and that units would be withdrawn or re-equipped with the longer-ranged B-24 Liberator. The men of the 30th Bombardment Squadron left Mareeba Airfield on 10 November 1942, and returned to the United States after nearly a year of continuous combat.
caption: B-17s of the 19th Bombardment Group attacking Japanese-held Lae Airfield, New Guinea on 26–27 June 1942[note 4]
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