456th Bombardment Group Activated in June 1943 as a heavy bombardment group . Trained with B - 24 Liberator s for duty overseas . Moved to Italy , December 1943 – January 1944 . Began combat with Fifteenth Air Force in February 1944 , operating chiefly against strategic targets until late in April 1945 . Early operations included attacks against such objectives as marshalling yards , aircraft factories , railroad bridges , and airdromes in Italy , Austria , and Rumania . Received a Distinguished Unit Citation for performance at Wiener Neustadt , Austria on 10 May 1944 : when other groups turned back because of adverse weather , the 456th proceeded to the target and , withstanding repeated attacks by enemy interceptors , bombed the manufacturing center . Helped to prepare the way for and supported the invasion of Southern France during July and August 1944 . At the same time , expanded previous operations to include attacks on oil refineries and storage facilities , locomotive works , and viaducts in France , Germany , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Austria , and the Balkans . Received second DUC for a mission in Hungary on 2 July 1944 when the group braved severe fighter attacks and antiaircraft fire to bomb oil facilities at Budapest . In April 1945 bombed gun positions , bridges , roads , depots , and rail lines to support US Fifth and British Eighth Army in their advance through Italy . Transported supplies to airfields in northern Italy after V - E Day . Returned to the US in July 1945 . The 456th relocated to Smoky Hill Army Air Field , Salina , Kansas , on 17 August 1945 . Put under control of Second Air Force , for conversion to a B - 29 Superfortress group and operations against Japan , and re - designated 456th Bombardment Group , Very Heavy . The Pacific War ended before the conversion was completed , however , and the group was inactivated on 17 October 1945 . The 456th Bomb Group ( Heavy ) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War . A " heavy bombardment group , " the 456th operated B - 24 Liberator aircraft and was known unofficially as " Steed ' s Flying Colts , " after its commander . The 456th Bomb Group flew 249 bombing missions from Italy while assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force . Its members earned two Presidential Unit Citations for valor in combat and participated extensively in the strategic bombing campaign against oil production targets including Ploieşti , Romania , that resulted in high bomber losses . Inactivated at the end of the war and allotted to the Air Force Reserve , the group was reactivated twice as a bomb and troop carrier group , and later had its lineage and history bestowed on a like - numbered wing of the United States Air Force . Organization of the 456th Bomb Group ( H ) . The 456th Bomb Group ( Heavy ) was created ( " constituted " ) on 14 May 1943 , by Special Order of the Second Air Force as a bomber unit planned for future deployment to the Eighth Air Force in the United Kingdom . " Group Commanders " of the 456th Bomb Group : Deputy Commander Lt . Col . Russell was in temporary command from July to October , 1944 , in the absence of Col . Steed . " Deputy Group Commanders " ( air echelon commanders ) : Lt . Col . Harmon Lampley , Jr . ( 3 September 1943 – 28 March 1944 ) ; Lt . Col . Joseph G . Russell ( 1 June 1944 – unk ) ; Lt . Col . Chester R . Ladd ( 1945 — unk ) . " Executive officers " ( ground echelon commanders ) : Lt . Col . Walter C . Phillips ( 14 July 1943 — November 1944 ) ; Lt . Col . Leonard A . Weissinger ( November 1944 — June 1945 ) Four heavy bomb squadron s were constituted at the same time and assigned to the group : Training history and movement overseas . Formation . The group and its four squadrons were activated without personnel or equipment on 1 June 1943 , at Wendover Army Air Base , Utah . On 14 July 1943 , the location of the group was changed to Gowen Field , Boise , Idaho , where a cadre of 66 officers and 237 enlisted men was assigned , transferred from the 29th Bomb Group at Gowen . Colonel Steed , formerly chief of staff of the Fourth Air Force Bomber Command , took command on the same date . While at Gowen A . A . B . , and at its next two stations , the 456th received additional personnel drawn from the 18th Replacement Wing at Salt Lake City , Utah , and the 470th Bomb Group , Mountain Home AAB , Idaho . The air echelon ( consisting at that time of key flying staff and four aircrews ) was sent to the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics in Orlando , Florida , for a four - week course of specialized cadre training in field operations and combat tactics . On 30 July 1943 , the group ' s ground echelon moved to Bruning Army Airfield , Nebraska , where it remained until 8 October . The air echelon joined the group at Bruning in mid - August and received four B - 24D aircraft for familiarization flights . The air echelon left Bruning on 5 September 1943 , for Kearns A . A . B . , Utah , and on 29 September moved by train to Muroc A . A . B . , California , where it would remain until its designated overseas deployment date of 1 December . The ground echelon followed on 8 October . By 1 November , to train approximately 70 crews , the 456th had received only 28 aircraft , all old and half of them grounded for maintenance or lack of spare parts . The shortage of aircraft hampered the training efforts not only of its flying personnel but also its maintenance units . The 456th received only a minimal amount of unit training in navigation , high altitude bombing , and gunnery , but its most serious training deficiency was a lack of high altitude formation flying using heavily - loaded aircraft ( as it would in combat ) . In all the group received only three of the normal six months of unit POM ( " Preparation for Overseas Movement " ) training . Despite the group ' s lack of preparation , and the refusal by Colonel Steed to certify its combat readiness to POM inspectors , the 456th ' s air echelon was ordered to discontinue training . The ground campaign in Italy had captured Foggia and its network of potential airfields , and seven groups of Liberators originally slated for the Eighth Air Force , including the 456th , had been diverted by General Arnold to the new bases then under construction . The air echelon was ordered to fly its training aircraft to Hamilton A . A . B . , California , beginning 3 December 1943 , while the ground echelon entrained for movement to a port of embarkation . At the time of its deployment , the 456th had reached its full strength of 377 officers and 1 , 627 enlisted men . Movement to Italy . At Hamilton Field the air echelon received 61 new B - 24H Liberator bombers over a period of several weeks . Traveling individually between December and February , the aircraft flew to Italy using the South Atlantic Ferry Route , established by Pan American Airways in the 1930s : Palm Beach , Florida ; Puerto Rico ; Trinidad ; Belém and Natal , Brazil ; Dakar , French West Africa ; Marrakech and Casablanca , French Morocco ; Oran , Algeria ; and Tunis , Tunisia , where it waited while construction was completed on its airfield . On 30 January 1944 , at Dakar , one of the 456th ' s aircraft exploded while taking off , killing nine of the ten crew members . The ground echelon arrived at Camp Patrick Henry , Virginia , on 4 December , underwent final processing , and sailed in a convoy from Newport News on 15 December aboard three Liberty ship s . The convoy passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on 5 January 1944 , divided into two sections , and reached the Italian ports of Taranto on 11 January and Naples , 19 January . On 23 January , the ground echelon traveled by open truck in wet , freezing weather to the new base ( code - named " Newbox " ) on the Tavoliere near the Adriatic Sea , eighteen miles ( 29 km ) southeast of Foggia . The airbase was constructed on a nationalized estate called " Incarnata Farm " ( ) , less than a mile north of the village of Stornarella and approximately two miles southwest of the larger town of Stornara ; it received the name of the larger city as its location . Stornara airbase was centered in a cluster of airfields of its parent and newly activated 304th Bomb Wing and two other heavy bomber wings of the Fifteenth Air Force surrounding the city of Cerignola . Staff officers immediately began requisitioning farmhouses for administrative buildings and setting up tent encampments in nearby olive groves for the living quarters . With some improvised improvements , the 456th lived in tents throughout its fifteen months at Stornara ( for several months , the ground crews lived in infantry shelter halves until a sufficient number of squad - sized tents became available ) . Stonara ' s single runway was in length and oriented north - to - south , with taxiway s on either side and revetment s for 62 aircraft placed along them . The runways and taxiways were covered with steel matting called pierced steel planking , or PSP . On 26 January the 456th group headquarters reached Stornara and activated the base . The group ' s bombers began arriving from Tunisia on 1 February . On a training familiarization flight on 6 February another B - 24 was lost , crashing into a mountain while flying in clouds , killing all aboard including three aircraft commanders . Combat operations and tactics . The original group identification aircraft markings for the 456th Bomb Group , located on the outward side of the B - 24 ' s twin tail fin s , consisted of a black diamond symbol superimposed on a white circle ( marking of the 304th Wing ) on the fin ' s upper half , and the number 3 in white on the lower half . In May 1944 , with the numbers of olive drab aircraft diminishing rapidly by combat attrition and operational wear , the Fifteenth Air Force adopted a system of color bands and symbols . The 456th ' s markings then became a long black diamond on the upper half , and the entire lower half painted bright red ( the 456th ' s group color ) . The upper surface of a bomber ' s rear horizontal stabilizer , on which the tail fins were mounted , was similarly marked , with the left stabilizer painted red and the right having the diamond symbol . Within the 456th Group , individual aircraft were identified initially by numbers painted on their noses , with sets of two - digit numbers assigned to squadrons ( " numbers in squadron " ) , but this system was later discontinued and a non - standard pattern of three - digit numbers employed ( usually , but not always , the last three numbers of an airplane ' s USAAF serial number ) . Late in the war some squadrons adopted letter identification painted on the rear fuselage , but this was not systematized , and many aircraft had no individual identification at all . In combat . The 456th Bomb Group flew its first combat mission on 10 February 1944 , less than two weeks after reaching Italy . The U . S . Fifth Army had conducted an amphibious landing at Anzio on 22 January to outflank the German Gustav Line , and the German Army had begun counterattacks against the beachhead . The 456th was tasked to attack a German command post near Grottaferrata and encountered no opposition , but when the group reached the target area , they found it completely obscured by clouds and returned without dropping their bombs . Continuing poor weather conditions prevented further missions for another week , during which time the group continued flight training in combat formations . The 456th employed the six - combat box tactical formation favored by the Fifteenth Air Force to maximize defense against intercepting Luftwaffe fighters ( for a detailed description see six - box formation ) . When the weather cleared on 17 February , the 456th repeated its earlier mission to bomb the command post at Grottaferrata . Although judging the results of bombing as successful , the 456th was engaged by nine fighters and severe flak , suffering its first combat losses as two bombers were shot down . On six of its first ten missions weather conditions were poor and no bombs were dropped . On 15 March the group was one of several which bombed Monte Cassino in support of Fifth Army operations . The second unit of the 456th dropped its bombs in error on Allied troops , for which the deputy group commander was removed . The 456th struck its first strategic target , the aircraft engine plant at Steyr , Austria , on 3 April , and on 12 April encountered its first severe air combat with German fighters . Over 100 intercepted the mission to the airfield at Bad Vöslau , Austria , and in a 40 - minute battle shot down three Liberators . Four more were lost to 65 fighters on an 21 April mission to Bucharest , Romania . Raids on Ploieşti and oil production . The 456th made the first of ten attacks on Ploieşti oil facilities on 5 May 1944 , losing three aircraft , including one when a crewman bailing out of a stricken bomber knocked part of the wing off another in the same formation . The 456th earned the first of two Distinguished Unit Citation s on 10 May for a mission to bomb the aircraft factory at Wiener Neustadt , Austria , for attacking despite severe losses ( five shot down and the remaining 26 damaged ) after the other groups on the mission turned back because of bad weather . On 23 May , returning from a mission in which they were unable to bomb , two Liberators collided in mid - air directly over the base , killing all but one of the 20 crewmen aboard and dropping live bombs on the field . On 22 June 1944 , the 456th Bomb Group began flying a four - box 40 - aircraft diamond formation to concentrate its bombing pattern for greater accuracy . On 2 July , the group earned its second DUC on a mission to bomb the Shell Oil refinery at Budapest , Hungary . 31 aircraft bombed the previously - untouched refinery at mid - morning and three minutes after bomb release , before reassembly in the new formation , were attacked by 50 Me - 109 s and 10 FW - 190 s of Luftwaffe " gruppe " JG . 302 and Hungarian Air Force 101 Puma Group . The second box of the 456th bore the brunt of the attacks , with the 744th Bomb Squadron losing six of nine bombers in the target area and a seventh damaged beyond repair . 36 airmen were killed or missing and 24 captured , the largest single - day loss for the group . Beginning 8 July , the first crews of the 456th completing the 50 missions required for a combat tour by the Fifteenth Air Force began returning to the United States . The last crew among the original 68 to be lost in combat went down on 20 July . The last of 19 missions against Romanian oil production occurred 18 August . Missions of the Oil Campaign of World War II continued against at Odertal , Germany ( ) ; Moosbierbaum and Vienna , Austria ; Brux , Czechoslovakia ; and Blechhammer , Poland , with 26 bombers lost on 23 missions . Bombing of German lines of communication , particularly marshalling yard s and railroad bridges , remained a priority to the end of the war . After August 1944 the 456th did not lose another aircraft to fighter defenses , but losses continued to accumulate from anti - aircraft fire . In the remaining nine months of operations 43 bombers were lost , most to flak . Three or more bombers were lost on five missions , including 11 November , when three planes crashed into the Adriatic after being recalled from a mission . In February 1945 , the 456th began flying two missions per day , termed Red and Blue . The last combat loss in the group occurred on 25 April 1945 , at Linz , Austria . The following day , while General of the Army Henry H . Arnold , commanding general of the USAAF , was visiting the base , the 456th flew its last mission of the war against a transportation depot at Tarvisio , Italy , and scored a bombing accuracy of 100 % , matched by only one other group in Europe ( the 467th Bomb Group , also a B - 24 unit , of the Eighth Air Force had accomplished it on 13 April 1945 ) . Statistical summary of operations . Bombing summary . At the close of the 456th ' s European operations , its group statistical officer issued a summary of its combat operations . During its 249 bombing missions , the 456th flew a cumulative total of 7 , 272 sortie s and dropped 13 , 939 tons of bombs on Axis targets . 45 % of this total was dropped on " lines of communication " targets , 18 % on " oil production and storage " , 14 % on " airfields " , 12 % on " industrial infrastructure " , 6 % on " troop concentrations " , and 5 % on " targets of opportunity " or " other " types . The 456th had the highest average percentage of bombing accuracy within the 304th Bomb Wing and progressed from an average of 20 . 1 % accuracy ( bombs falling within of the aiming point ) in its first full month of operations to 71 . 9 % during its last full month of operations . This accuracy average was higher than all but one Eighth Air Force group . Maintenance summary . The 456th averaged a maintenance rate of 83 % for daily availability of aircraft for mission assignments , again the highest within the 304th Wing . Losses and casualties . The 456th had 117 bombers destroyed or written off as salvage during its overseas assignment . Of this number , 91 were lost in combat ( 20 shot down by fighters , 56 by flak , and 15 by unknown means ) , with 74 of those crashing in Axis - controlled territory , 10 in the Adriatic Sea , 2 in Switzerland , 3 in Soviet - controlled territory in Poland , one on the island of Vis , and one over Italy . 18 aircraft were destroyed in non - combat related accidents : 4 in flying crashes , 4 on take - offs , 6 on landings , 2 in a mid - air collision over the base , and 2 in accidents while on the ground . 8 battle - damaged aircraft were written off as beyond economical repair . 36 of the original 61 bombers were destroyed and all but one of the rest taken out of service as " war weary " . 3 , 267 aircrew served in the 456th Bomb Group during the war . 1 , 079 or 33 % were aboard aircraft destroyed . 331 airmen were killed in action , 206 remain missing in action , 271 were made prisoners - of - war , 6 were interned in Switzerland until the end of hostilities , 108 evaded capture and returned to duty , and 49 returned to base . Of the 108 evadees , 9 evaded capture in Italy , 10 in Hungary , and 89 in Yugoslavia . 26 of the original 68 combat crews and 17 of the first 27 replacement crews were shot down . The group , equivalent to an infantry regiment , equalled or exceeded the killed - in - action of 15 ground force divisions . Its members were awarded one Distinguished Service Cross , 19 Silver Star s , 215 Distinguished Flying Cross es , and over 2 , 000 Air Medal s . Post - war history . The 456th relocated to Smoky Hill AAF , Kansas , on 17 August 1945 , for conversion to the Boeing B - 29 Superfortress and operations against Japan , and was redesignated as the 456th Bombardment Group , Very Heavy . The war ended before the conversion was completed , however , and the group was inactivated on 17 October 1945 . The 456th was activated again as an Air Force Reserve unit of the United States Air Force . From 1 July 1947 to 27 June 1949 , at McChord Air Force Base , Washington , the 456th Bomb Group operated B - 29 ' s . The group returned to the regular Air force from 1 December 1952 to 1 March 1955 , as the 456th Troop Carrier Group , Medium as the operations group for the 456th Troop Carrier Wing operating Fairchild C - 119 Flying Boxcar transports in both a standard airlift and research mission , based at Miami International Airport , where it replaced the 435th Troop Carrier Group , a reserve unit activated for the Korean War on 1 December 1952 . The group moved to Charleston Air Force Base , South Carolina on 15 August 1953 and was inactivated there in 1 March 1955 . Commanders of the post - war 456th Group were : Col . Leonard J . Barrow , Jr . ( c . December 1952 ) , LtCol . Malcolm P . Hooker ( c . February 1953 ) , Col . Jay D . Bogue ( 1953 – 1 March 1955 ) . The honors and lineage of the group were temporarily bestowed on the 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing ( later the 456th Bombardment Wing ) at Beale Air Force Base , California . The 456th SAW included the 744th Bombardment Squadron among its subordinate units .