493d Bombardment Group The 493d Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit . Its last assignment was to the Army Service Forces , being stationed at Sioux Falls Army Air Field , South Dakota . It was inactivated on 28 August 1945 . During World War II , the group was an Eighth Air Force heavy bombardment unit in England , stationed at RAF Debach . The group flew its last combat mission , an attack on marshalling yards at Nauen , on 20 April 1945 . History . Established in September 1943 as a B - 24 Liberator heavy bombardment group , being activated on 1 November at McCook Army Airfield , Nebraska . The 493d was one of seven Heavy Bombardment Groups – 488th through 494th – activated in the autumn of 1943 . These were to be the last Army Air Forces heavy bomb groups established . The origins of the 493d Bomb Group begin as the 13th Antisubmarine Squadron , then retraining as a heavy bombardment unit in B - 24s in Pueblo Army Air Base , Colorado . At Pueblo , the unit became identified as the 493rd Bombardment Group and moved to Davis - Monthan Army Air Field , near Tucson , Arizona for additional training . The Arizona crews joined other personnel already assembled in McCook in mid - January 1944 . Additional officers and men , chiefly from the 34th Bombardment Group training at Blythe Army Air Base , California , were assigned to the Group in February and March . Intensive training of all airmen and support specialists began in January and was only occasionally interrupted by Nebraska ' s late winter and early spring storms . Air exercises in several models of B - 24s included day and night flights , cross - country navigation , simulated bombing , aerial - gunnery practice , and squadron and group formation flying . Was deployed to the European Theater of Operations ( ETO ) , being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England . The 493d was transferred without men or equipment . A ground echelon , staffed with personnel from groups of the VIII Bomber Command 3d Bombardment Division in England was reassigned to RAF Debach , in April 1944 . A ground contingent with some aircrew left McCook by train on 2 May for Camp Miles Standish , Massachusetts , and sailed from Boston on the USS Brazil on 12 May , landed at Liverpool on 26 May , and arrived at RAF Debach the following day . Aircrews left McCook in early May and flew the northern transport route to the U . K . ; via New Hampshire , Labrador , thence to Debach by way of Iceland and Wales , or by way of Northern Ireland . The group was stationed at Debach until the end of the European War in 1945 , with a temporary move to RAF Wormingford in early 1945 while runways were being repaired at Debach . The 493rd Bomb Group was the last group to become operational in the Eighth Air Force . The 493rd was assigned to the Third Air Division , 93rd Wing of the VIII Bomber Command on 1 January 1944 . Command assignments made in April were to the Third Bomb Division , 93rd Combat Bomb Wing . The Group was composed of the 860th , 861st , 862nd , and 863rd Heavy Bombardment Squadrons . ( The 862nd Squadron was established as Third Scouting Force on 1 February 1945 . Ground personnel transferred , but aircraft and crews were assigned to the other squadrons . The 862nd rejoined the Group in May . ) The group tail code was a " Square - H " . The Group was quartered at Debach except for a temporary move of the air echelon in March 1945 to Station 165 , Little Walden , Essex County while runways at Debach were repaired . Combat aircraft included B - 24Hs and B - 24Js from 6 June to 24 August 1944 , and B - 17Gs from 8 September 1944 to 20 April 1945 . The 493d BG used B - 24 ' s until they were replaced with B - 17 ' s in September 1944 . The group operated chiefly against industrial and military installations in Germany , attacking an ordnance depot at Magdeburg , marshalling yards at Cologne , synthetic oil plants at Merseburg , a railroad tunnel at Ahrweiler , bridges at Irlich , factories at Frankfurt , and other strategic objectives . Additional operations included striking airfields , bridges , and gun batteries prior to and during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 ; hitting enemy positions to assist ground forces south of Caen and at Saint - Lô in July 1944 ; bombing German fortifications to cover the airborne attack on Holland in September 1944 ; attacking enemy communications during the Battle of the Bulge , December 1944 – January 1945 ; and assisting the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945 . The 493d Bomb Group flew its last combat mission , an attack on marshalling yards at Nauen , on 20 April 1945 . The Group redeployed to the United States . in July and August 1945 . Aircraft and crews began taking off for the last time from Debach on 30 June . The ground echelon sailed home on the Queen Elizabeth on 6 August and debarked in New York on 11 August . All personnel were granted a 30 - day leave . The Group was established at Sioux Falls Army Air Field , South Dakota on 12 August , however the Japanese Capitulation negated the need for the unit to train in B - 29s and re - deploy to the Pacific Theater . The personnel were demobilized and the unit was inactivated there on 28 August 1945 .