page_title: 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron
section_title: Combat in the South Pacific
hierarchical_section_title: 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron / History / World War II / Combat in the South Pacific
caption_attribution_description: English: 31st Bombardment Squadron - B-24 Liberator and Crew
context_page_description: The 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron is a United States Air Force unit, assigned to the 53d Test and Evaluation Group, stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The 31 TES is an Air Combat Command tenant unit at Edwards, providing personnel to support combined test and evaluation on Air Force weapons systems.
  The squadron is one of the oldest in the United States Air Force, its origins dating to 26 June 1917, being organized at Kelly Field, Texas. The squadron deployed to England as part of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. The squadron saw combat during World War II, and later became part of the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War.
context_section_description: The victory at the Battle of Midway eliminated the Japanese threat against Hawaii.  In November 1942, the 31st was deployed to Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific to fly long-distance bombing missions against Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands as part of the Mobile Force, Pacific.  By January 1943, the 31st was flying combat missions from Espiritu Santo, or when possible, from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, under a joint headquarters commanded by Colonel L.G. Saunders.  Through the latter part of 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal, the 31st B-17s were as busy as the meager supply of fuel would permit them to be. They flew search missions over 1600 miles of open water. They made frequent attempts, generally unsuccessful, to stop the "Tokyo Express"—fast convoys that brought supplies and reinforcements from Japanese in the Northern Solomons through The Slot, as the expanse of sea between New Georgia and Santa Isabel Island was known, to the enemy forces on Guadalcanal.
  In January 1943, the 5th Group was relieved from assignment to the Seventh Air Force and reassigned to the Thirteenth Air Force. Activation of the Thirteenth Air Force, which took place on 13 January 1943, was a step intended to improve the handling of AAF units in the South Pacific, all of which were put under the jurisdiction of the new Air Force. Brigadier General Nathan F. Twining. During the spring of 1943, the process of replacing B-17s with B-24D Liberator was begun.  The early B-24Ds received lacked firepower, especially in the nose of the aircraft. Japanese fighter pilots quickly discovered the deficiency and capitalized on it by making their attacks frontally. Lieutenant Colonel Marion D. Unruh—later Colonel and CO of the 5th—countered by designing a nose turret that eliminated the weakness; the Hawaiian Air Depot at Hickam installed the new turret in more than 200 B-24s during 1943.
  As the tide of battle surged northward and westward through the Solomons, the Admiralties, the Caroline Islands, and finally to the Philippines, the heavy bombers of the 31st Bombardment Squadron as part of the 5th Bomb Group ranged ahead of the assault forces, bombing enemy convoys and installations, damaging—when they could not destroy—enemy airfields, fighting off Japanese fighters, and helping other elements of the Thirteenth Air Force, along with air units of the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, to achieve air superiority over the Japanese air forces. The squadron raided the heavily defended Japanese base on Woleai during April–May 1944 and received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for its efforts.
  Missions began to be flown in the Southwest Pacific Theater starting in June 1944 as the Japanese began their long retreat back to their Home Islands.   The 31st attacked enemy bases on Yap and in the Truk and Palau Islands, Jun–Aug 1944, preparatory to the invasion of Peleliu and the return to the Philippines at Leyte. Crews flew missions to the Netherlands East Indies on 30 September 1944, earning another DUC for an attack—conducted through heavy flak and fighter defenses—on oil installations at Balikpapan, Borneo.
  From October 1944 to the end of the war the 5th Bomb Group completed a variety of missions, including raids on enemy bases and facilities on Luzon, Ceram, Halmahera, and Formosa; support for ground forces in the Philippines and Borneo; and patrols off the China coast. The end of the war found the 5th Bombardment Group on Samar, Philippine Islands; it had been operating from there since March 1945.
  In the aftermath of World War II, the 31st was permanently assigned to Clark Field in the Philippines during December 1945, under the Thirteenth Air Force with its B-24Js.  In October 1947, its B-24s were scrapped and it received F-13 Superfortresses (B-29s modified as long-range reconnaissance planes) and was re-designated as the 31st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron.  The re-designated 5th Reconnaissance Group was to engage in the Post Hostilities Mapping Program under the auspices of the Thirteenth Air Force; the target dat
caption: 31st Bombardment Squadron – B-24 Liberator "Laden Maiden" and Crew, 1944
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