679th Bombardment Squadron The 679th Bombardment Squadron is a disbanded unit of the United States Army Air Forces ( AAF ) . It was last assigned to the 444th Bombardment Group at Dudhkundi Airfield , India where it was disbanded on 12 October 1944 . During World War II , the 676th Bombardment Squadron was an Army Air Forces combat organization . It was part of the first Boeing B - 29 Superfortress group formed for the 58th Bombardment Wing , and served in the China Burma India Theater as part of Twentieth Air Force . The squadron ' s aircraft engaged in very heavy bombardment operations against Japan . The squadron received the Distinguished Unit Citation for its combat operations . It was disbanded when the AAF reorganized its very heavy bombardment group s into three squadron units . History . Training for combat . The 679th Bombardment Squadron was activated on 1 March 1943 at Davis - Monthan Field , Arizona as one of the original squadrons of the 444th Bombardment Group . The 444th was assigned to the first B - 29 Superfortress wing , the 58th Bombardment Wing . After a period of organization at Davis - Monthan the squadron moved to Great Bend AAF , Kansas . for training , initially flying Boeing B - 17 Flying Fortress es , Consolidated B - 24 Liberator s and Martin B - 26 Marauder s . The group engaged in training on the new aircraft and its mission of long range precision bombing . At Great Bend , the squadron received early model B - 29s and prototype YB - 29s , however aircraft were still undergoing development and were frequently modified by Boeing technicians in the field while the squadron was undergoing training in Kansas . In November 1943 The 444th reorganized as a " Very Heavy " group and added the 8th Bombardment Maintenance Squadron , which was paired with the 679th to maintain its B - 29s . China Burma India Theater . In early April 1944 , the squadron left the United States and deployed to a former B - 24 Liberator airfield at Charra Airfield , India . The first airplane of the 444th group landed at Charra on 11 April 1944 . Due to the lack of revetments at Charra the squadron ' s airplanes were parked wingtip to wingtip on the field ' s shorter runway . Charra served only as a maintenance and staging base . Its runways were too short for a B - 29 to take off fully loaded . While the group was stationed there , all missions were flown from the bases of the other groups in the 58th Bombardment Wing . From India , the 444th Bomb Group planned to fly missions against Japan from advanced airfield s in China . However , all the supplies of fuel , bombs and spare parts needed to support operations from the forward bases in China had to be flown from India over The Hump . For this role , one aircraft from the squadron was stripped of combat equipment and used as a flying tanker . Each aircraft carried seven tons of fuel , but the amount that was delivered to China depended on weather , including headwinds and aircraft icing which increased the fuel consumption of the " tankers . " The squadron flew its first combat mission on 5 June 1944 against the Makasan railroad yards at Bangkok , Thailand . Ten days later the 679th participated in the first American air attack on the Japanese home islands since the 1942 Doolittle raid , staging through Chinese bases on a nighttime raid against the iron and steel works at Yawata , Japan . It returned to Yawata on 20 August on a daytime raid for which the unit was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation . Operating from bases in India and at times staging through fields in China , the group struck transportation centers , naval installations , aircraft plants and other targets in Burma , China , Thailand , Japan and Formosa . On 12 October 1944 the 444th group reorganized . The 679th Bombardment Squadron and the four bombardment maintenance squadrons were disbanded and their personnel and equipment were transferred to the other squadrons of the group .