page_title: 730th Air Mobility Training Squadron
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 730th Air Mobility Training Squadron / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: B-17G-10-VE #42-39970 "E-Rat-Icator" Code: P 452nd Bomb Group - 730th Bomb Squadron Photo taken upon return from her 100th mission. She survived the war.
context_page_description: The 730th Air Mobility Training Squadron is an Air Force reserve unit stationed at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where it trains airmen on Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and Boeing KC-46 Pegasus aircraft systems. It is assigned to the 507th Operations Group at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, but performs its training mission under the direction of the 97th Air Mobility Wing of Air Education and Training Command.
  The squadron was first activated as the 730th Bombardment Squadron in 1943. After training in the United States with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the squadron deployed to the European Theater of Operations, participating in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It earned a Distinguished Unit Citation during an attack on a German jet fighter base near Kaltenkirchen in April 1945. Following V-E Day, the squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated.
  The squadron was activated again in the reserves in 1947. Two years later, it began to train with Douglas B-26 Invaders. In August 1950, the squadron was one of the first reserve units mobilized for the Korean War.
context_section_description: The squadron was first activated in June 1943 at Geiger Field, Washington as the 730th Bombardment Squadron, one of the four original squadrons of the 452d Bombardment Group.  Later that month, it moved to Rapid City Army Air Base, South Dakota and began to train with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.  It continued training with Second Air Force until December, when it began its movement to the European Theater of Operations.  The ground echelon staged through Camp Shanks and sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth  on 2 January 1944.  The air echelon deployed via the South Atlantic air ferry route.
  The squadron established itself at RAF Deopham Green in January 1944, and began operations on 4 February 1944 with a strike on an aircraft assembly plant near Brunswick.  Its strategic targets included railroad marshalling yards near Frankfurt, aircraft factories near Regensberg and Kassel. the ball bearing factory at Schweinfurt and an oil refinery near Bohlen.  In September 1944, the squadron participated in the third shuttle mission, striking Chemnitz before landing in bases in the Soviet Union.
  The 730th was occasionally diverted to support tactical operations.  It hit airfields, V-weapon launching sites, bridges and other objectives in preparations for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.  It bombed enemy positions to support Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo in July 1944 and the attacks on Brest, France in August.  It supported Operation Market Garden, airborne attacks in the Netherlands in September and, during the Battle of the Bulge, struck German lines of communication.  It struck an airfield to support Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine.
  Shortly before the end of the war, on 7 April, the squadron struck the jet fighter base at Kaltenkirchen, pressing the attack despite strong fighter opposition, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation.  It flew its last mission of the war on 21 April against marshalling yards at Ingolstadt.
  After V-E Day, in August 1945, the squadron returned to the United States (the ground echelon once again sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth) and was inactivated at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota.
caption: Squadron B-17 after its 100th mission[note 2]
exif: {}