page_title: 968th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron
section_title: Training and strategic bombing
hierarchical_section_title: 968th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron / History / World War II / Training and strategic bombing
caption_attribution_description: English: Consolidated B-24J-150-CO Liberator 44-40159 492nd BG 858th BS "Battling Boop" 11interned when aircraft landed in Sweden after attacking an airfield at Bremerhaven, Germany, Jun 18, 1944. MACR 6767
context_page_description: The 968th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron is a provisional unit of the United States Air Force. It has been activated twice during the Global War on Terror.
  The first predecessor of the 968th is the 858th Bombardment Squadron, first activated in October 1943 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber unit. After deploying to England, the squadron entered the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, but was transferred to VIII Composite Command in June 1944, where it replaced the 422d Bombardment Squadron on special operations, dropping propaganda leaflets over Occupied Europe. In August 1944, the 492d Bombardment Group, which had suffered the most severe losses of an Eighth Air Force bomber group was withdrawn from combat 858th began to engage in Operation Carpetbagger, dropping agents and supplies behind German lines, primarily in France. As American forces advanced in France during September 1944, this special operations mission diminished, but operations resumed in Germany during the last months of the war.
  The 968th's other predecessor is the 658th Bombardment Squadron, which flew Boeing B-47 Stratojets from 1958 to 1962 during the Cold War.
context_section_description: The squadron was first organized in October 1943 at Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico, as one of the original squadrons of the 492d Bombardment Group.  Its cadre was drawn from the 859th Bombardment Squadron, a former antisubmarine unit whose mission had transferred to the Navy.  By January 1944, most of the ground echelon of the squadron had been used to form other bomber units.  2d Bombardment Division, which controlled VIII Bomber Command's Liberator units in England, began to form a new ground echelon for the squadron from personnel of bomber units already in England, while the air echelon of the 858th continued training at Alamogordo.  The air echelon began to depart Alamogordo on 1 April 1944, following the southern ferry route, while the few remaining members of the ground echelon departed on 11 April, sailing on the RMS Queen Elizabeth on 20 April.
  On 14 April, the ground echelon that had been formed in England arrived at RAF North Pickenham  The air echelon began arriving on 18 April.  The squadron flew its first combat mission on 11 May 1944, joining the strategic bombing campaign with attacks primarily on targets in central Germany.  During the first week in June, the squadron was diverted from strategic targets to support Operation Overlord by attacking airfields and V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket launch sites. It bombed coastal defenses in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and continued interdiction attacks until the middle of the month.
caption: Consolidated B-24 Liberator of the 858th Bombardment Squadron[note 1]
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