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The 448th Bombardment Group was a B-24 Liberator unit of the Eighth Air Force that operated from Seething from December 1943 until the end of the war in Europe.
The group was formed in the spring of 1943. It entered combat on 22 December 1943, taking part in the Eighth Air Force's 161st heavy bomber mission, flown against marshalling yards at Osnabruck and Munster. It spent most of the war taking part in similar strategic raids.
Like most Eighth Air Force units, the 448th took part in Big Week (20-25 February 1944), an attack on the German aircraft industry, as well as in operations designed to support the D-Day landings. It was one of the units used to attack German positions at Caen and at St Lo before the July breakthrough. It attacks German transport and communication links during the Battle of the Bulge. The 448th was also used to drop supplies to airborne troops near Nijmegen during Operation Market Garden and to Allied troops at Wesel during the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945.
Consolidated B-24 Liberator (Crowood Aviation), Martin W. Bowman. A well balanced book that begins with a look at the development history of the B-24, before spending nine out of its ten chapters looking at the combat career of the aircraft in the USAAF, the US Navy and the RAF.
B-24 Liberator Units of the Eighth Air Force, Robert F. Dorr. Although the Eighth Air Force is famous for operating the B-17, even at the end of the Second World War the B-24 still equipped one third of all Eighth Army Bombardment Groups. Here Dorr looks at the role the Liberator played with the Eighth Army, from its tiny beginnings in 1942 to the final massive air armadas of 1944 and 1945. Dorr also looks at the sizable detachments sent to North Africa during 1943, and the famous Ploesti mission.
‘Big Week’ 1944 – Operation Argument and the breaking of the Jadgwaffe, Douglas C. Dildy.
Looks at the USAAF’s concentrated attack on the German aircraft industry, a week of massive bombing raids that forced the Luftwaffe into an equally massive defensive effort that cost them around 150 aircrew at a time when they could hardly afford those losses, as well as cutting German fighter production by around 2,000 aircraft, and proving that the long range escort fighter was the key to a successful daylight bombing campaign (Read Full Review)
April 1943-April 1945: Consolidated B-24 Liberator
| 6 April 1943 | Constituted as 448th Bombardment Group (Heavy) 6 April 1943 |
| 1 May 1943 | Activated |
| November-December 1943 | Joined Eighth Air Force in England |
| 22 December 1943 | First combat mission |
| 25 April 1945 | Last combat mission |
Colonel James M Thompson: c.25 May 1943
Colonel Gerry L Mason: 3 April 1944
Colonel Charles B Westover: 14 November 1944
Lt. Colonel Lester F Miller: 27 May 1945
Gowen Field, Idaho: 1 May 1943
Wendover Field, Utah: c. 3 July 1943
Sioux City, Iowa: September-November 1943
Seething, England: 1 December 1943-c. July 1945
Sioux Falls, DS: 15 July 1945
712th Bombardment Squadron: 1943-1946
713th Bombardment Squadron: 1943-1946
714th Bombardment Squadron: 1943-1946
715th Bombardment Squadron: 1943-1946
Eighth Air Force: 1943-1945
1943-February 1944: 20th Bombardment Wing; VIII Bomber Command; Eighth Air Force
February 1944-1945: 20th Bombardment Wing; 2nd Air Division; Eighth Air Force
1945: 96th Bombardment Wing; 2nd Air Division; Eighth Air Force