The 457th Bombardment and the 748th, 749th, 750th and
751st Squadrons came into existence on July 1st, 1943 under General Order
number 78. Their first home field was Geiger Field, Spokane, Washington.
The commanding officer was Col. Herbert Rice. While Spokane
was designated as the home base, the group was shortly thereafter transferred
to Rapid City, South Dakota. Lt. Col. Hugh Wallace replace Col. Rice shortly
thereafter. The group was then transferred back to Spokane to Ephrata AAB
and the first combat crews began their flight training there to meld into
the first fighting group know as the 457th. Approximately 72 crews commenced
training in formation flying, gunnery, instrument flying, night flights,
practice bombing, cross country navigation, Link training, etc. On Jan
4, 1943, Col. Luper replaced Lt. Col. Wallace. Col. Luper was a 1938 graduate
of West Point and proceeded to set up the flight crews in a fashion that
he learned at West Point. This was not readily accepted by the converted
civilian airmen and soon the group labeled itself "Luper's Super Troopers".
The group aircraft left the United States for England
on Jan. 17th 1944, landing at Presque Isle, Maine, Goose Bay, Labrador,
Iceland and from there on to Glatton. They arrived on Jan 22nd, 1944. The
ground echelon left New York by troop transport on Jan. 18th, 1944 and
arrived at Glatton on Feb. 2, 1944. With the end of World War II the field
at Glatton was officially closed and it's existence terminated on June
1st, 1945.
The base was located along an old winding two lane road
built by the Romans and known as Old North Rd. It was about 60 miles north
of London and near the town of Peterborough. The 457th's air base was located
in the parish of Connington, County of Huntingdonshire in East Anglia and
was given the name of a small local hamlet called Glatton.
The Group was part of the 94th Wing of the 1st Division of the 8th Air Force. Three Bomber Divisions made up the 8th, the 1st and 3rd were B-17's and the 2nd was B-24's. The 94th Wing was made up of three Groups; the 457th located at Glatton, the 351st at Polebrook and the 401st at Denethorpe -- all located within 10 miles of each other. The Wing commander was Brigadier General Williams. The groups rotated wing leads in the bomber stream and for the most part, each group in the wing flew to the same bomb target. Here is some information on the setup of the 94th Bombardment Wing
The group's first combat mission was on Feb. 21st, 1944 to Gutersloh, Germany and it was on this mission that the 457th lost it's first bomber and crew. The crew of Lt. Llewellyn Brederson was shot down by flak on the bomb run.
The Glatton Base Call sign was "Nuttree" and the group
air call sign was "Woodcraft Baker". The squadron call signs were; 748th
"Wedon", 749th "Eclipse", 750th "Bluebell", 751st "Cutter".
The group motto was "Fait Accompli" (An Accomplished Fact)
and the group nickname was "The Fireball Outfit".
The group flew 236 combat missions with a loss of 86 planes and 729 men, either killed, wounded, taken prisoner or interned in neutral territory. Some 78 men made it through enemy lines after being shot down. The 457th Bombardment Group was credited with participation in the following campaigns:
Some general information about the B-17 appears in "B-17 Flying Fortress" compiled by Joseph Baugher and reads as follows:
"The B-17 Flying Fortress was perhaps the most well-known American heavy bomber of the Second World War. It achieved a fame far beyond that of its more-numerous stable mate, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. A total of 12,677 Fortresses was built before production came to an end.In August of 1944, the B-17 equipped no less than 33 overseas combat groups. It was to achieve lasting fame in the daylight precision-bombing campaign over Germany in 1943, 1944, and 1945. It achieved a reputation as being capable of absorbing a tremendous amount of battle damage and still continuing to fly. In later variants, it had an exceptionally-heavy defensive armament. It had an excellent high-altitude performance. It was able to win the affection of the crews who flew in it, since it was often able to bring them home safely. B-17s dropped 640,036 tons of bombs on European targets during the war, as compared to 452,508 tons dropped by the Liberator and 463,544 tons dropped by all other US aircraft. Boeing records claim that the Fortress destroyed 23 enemy aircraft per thousand sorties as compared to 22 for Liberators, eleven by US fighters, and 3 by all US light and medium bombers.Approximately 4750 B-17s were lost on combat missions, which is about one out of three of all B-17s built".