676th Bombardment Squadron The 676th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive unit of the United States Army Air Forces it was last assigned to the 444th Bombardment Group at Davis - Monthan Field , Arizona . 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 and Pacific Ocean 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 on three occasions . When the unit was inactivated on 1 October 1946 its B - 29 aircraft and personnel were reassigned to the 43d Bombardment Group . History . Training for combat . The squadron was first activated as the 676th Bombardment Squadron on 1 March 1943 at Davis - Monthan Field , Arizona , 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 5th Bombardment Maintenance Squadron , which was paired with the 676th 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 squadron was stationed there , all missions were flown from the bases of the other bombardment group s of the 58th Bombardment Wing . From India , the 676th 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 676th 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 unit struck transportation centers , naval installations , aircraft plants and other targets in Burma , China , Thailand , Japan and Formosa . On 12 October 1944 the group reorganized . The 679th Bombardment Squadron and the four bombardment maintenance squadrons were disbanded and their personnel and equipment were transferred to 676th and the other squadrons of the group . As the new year started , Japanese advances forced withdrawal from the Chinese forward operating bases . Unable to continue attacks on Japan , the unit continued attacking targets in Southeast Asia . Pacific Theater . In the spring of 1945 the 444th and the other groups of the 58th wing moved to Tinian in the Marianas in order to continue operations against Japan . The group and squadron participated in the bombing of strategic objectives , strategic mining of the Inland Sea and in incendiary attacks on urban areas for the duration of the war . The 676th received a second Distinguished Unit Citation for attacking oil storage facilities at Oshima , bombing an aircraft plant near Kobe , and dropping incendiaries on Nagoya in May 1945 . The squadron struck light metal industries at Osaka in July 1945 , receiving a third Distinguished Unit Citation for this action . The squadrons ' s final mission was flown against Hikari , Japan on 14 August 1945 , the day before the Japanese surrender . Strategic Air Command . The 676th returned to the United States and Merced Army Air Field , California in November 1945 where it became part of Fourth Air Force of Continental Air Forces ( CAF ) . CAF became Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) in March 1946 and the 676th was one of the first bombardment units assigned to SAC . In May the squadron moved back to Davis - Monthan Field , where it was integrated with the host 248th AAF Base Unit . The 676th inactivated on 1 October 1946 and its personnel and aircraft were reassigned to units of the 43d Bombardment Group , which was activated at Davis - Monthan on that day as part of the re - established Eighth Air Force .