History of the 489th BG

The 489th Bomb Group (H) was activated on 1st October 1943. Formed and trained at Wendover Field, Utah, the Group was scheduled to reach full strength by the end of that year. Commanding Offcer Ezekiel W Napier was appointed. In April 1944 the 489th left Utah to travel to (the Advance Party departed on 28th March). The fight crews in their B24 Liberator Heavy Bombers took the southern route skirting the northern coast of South America and across to Africa then north. The Group were bound for Halesworth, in Suffolk, to the most easterly of all Second Air Division felds. Charlie Freudenthal refected, “It was a beautiful morning as we came over the Irish Sea, past Bristol Channel, low enough so that I could see the felds and villages of England on my right, and the same for on my left. It was a very brief period of time that I truly savoured. I’m sure it meant more to me than to most, because my mother was English, and my brother and I had lived there for several years when we were young. Now it all came back. Up as high as we were there was no hint of the war. We weren’t yet able to see the scars, and had not yet come to understand the hardships the people were living through. It was all sunshiny and sparkling for this little while. How quickly it changed!” “The base at Halesworth had been prepared well for our arrival. It was the closest airfeld to the English Channel, being only eight miles from the coast. We all felt relieved that the long journey was over. We were home.”

USS WAKEFIELD TRANSPORTED 489TH GROUND CREWS TO The ground crews sailed from on the USS Wakefeld departing on 13th April 1944 (with 7033 troops on board). The ship docked in Liverpool on 21 April. Robert Buck remembered, “ We travelled all night , dozing and eating our K rations, and by morning’s light saw the beautiful green countryside”. The train fnally reached Halesworth station. He recalled, “We marched ‘at ease’ along the road. Someone said it would be a six mile march, but it turned out to be only two.” The 489th BG were stationed at Halesworth between the months of April and November 1944, They few 106 operational missions in their B24 Liberators. Twenty-six aircraft were lost in combat and number of aircrew became prisoners of war. After several weeks of practice missions the Group’s frst combat mission was to Oldenburg, Germany on 30 May 1944, just prior to the D-Day landings. Lt Col Leon R Vance Jr of the 489th Bomb Group was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during a mission in preparation for D-Day. His name can be found, highlighted in gold, on the Wall of the Missing at the American Cemetery, Madingley, Cambridge.

1992 - THE WALL OF THE MISSING, AMERICAN CEMETERY, MADINGLEY, CAMBRIDGE, UK The Group’s fnal mission was on 10th November 1944 when the 489th were redeployed to the for training for the Pacifc, although many of the aircraft and personnel were reassigned to other bomb groups in the 8th Air Force.