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Wings, air forces & commands · from 1944

Twentieth Air Force

Numbered air force of the US Air Force.

History

The Twentieth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) (20th AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.

20 AF's primary mission is intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) operations. The Twentieth Air Force commander is also the Commander, Task Force 214 (TF 214), which provides alert ICBMs to the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).

Established on 4 April 1944 at Washington D.C, 20 AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the Pacific Theater of World War II. Operating initially from bases in India and staging through bases in China, 20 AF conducted strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands. It relocated to the Mariana Islands in late 1944, and continued the strategic bombardment campaign against Japan until the Japanese capitulation in August 1945. The 20 AF 509th Composite Group conducted the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and remains as the only air force organization to have used a nuclear weapon in combat.

Inactivated on 1 March 1955, the command was reactivated 1 September 1991, as a component of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and became operationally responsible for all land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

Text from Wikipedia: Twentieth Air Force, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

World War II

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

  1. 1944
    The Twentieth Air Force was brought into existence on 4 April 1944 specifically to perform strategic bombardment missions against Japan.
  2. 1944
    As a result of superhuman efforts on the part of all concerned, 150 B-29s had been handed over to the XX Bomber Command by 15 April 1944.
  3. 1944
    The headquarters of the XX Bomber Command had been established at Kharagpur India on 28 March 1944.
  4. 1944
    In December 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff made the decision that Operation Matterhorn would be phased out, and the 58th Bombardment Wing's B-29s would be moved to newly captured bases in the Marianas in the central Pacific.
  5. 1944
    The first raid against Japan took place on 24 November 1944.
  6. 1945
    A reorganization of United States military commands on 16 July 1945 placed Twentieth Air Force under the command and control of the new United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific.
  7. 1946
    The last of the World War II combat wings, the 315th Bombardment Wing, returned to the United States on 30 May 1946.
  8. 1953
    With the end of the Korean War in 1953, Far East Air Forces reorganized its forces and Twentieth Air Force units were reassigned.
  9. 1993
    After one year in Strategic Air Command and another year in Air Combat Command, 20th Air Force was moved under Air Force Space Command in 1993.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone with this unit

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