416th Bombardment Group (L) A-26 Training and ETO Combat Evaluation Personnel

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The following Personnel have been identified as being associated with State-side A-26 Training, the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) Combat Evaluation Project and/or subsequent A-26 Conversion Training of the 416th Bomb Group. Most of these were flight crew members.
There were certainly additional Personnel who were involved but not listed, in particular the many men who were part of the Mobile Training Units (MTU).
The list below are soldiers for which there is evidence of involvement.


The "Organization(s)" column below shows information on which organizations each soldier has been identified as a member of during the USA training, Combat Evaluations and subsequent assignment with the 416th Bomb Group.

"331 AAFBU" indicates a given soldier participated in original A-26 training in the USA with the 331st Army Air Force Base Unit Replacement Training Unit (Medium Bombardment), which was redesignated from the 335th Bomb Group 1-May-1944.

Personnel who participated in Combat Evaluation Missions were mostly from the 553rd Bomb Squadron of the 386th Bomb Group ("386th BG, 553rd BS"), although several men were actually associated to either other 386th BG Squadrons (552nd, 554th or 555th) and a few from the 322nd and 323rd Bomb Groups.

The Evaluation crewmembers who subsequently joined the 416th Bomb Group have their Squadrons identified, along with the first 416th Bomb Group Combat Mission they flew.

On 11 November 1944 the Project Squadron A-26's, some of the Project Squadron Transition Crews and the Mobile Training Units left Melun to begin the conversion training for the 409th Bomb Group, with other Groups to follow. However, some stayed with the 416th Bomb Group flying Combat Missions with the 416th BG starting with Missions # 159 and 160 (17 and 18 November, 1944). Some others likely did transfer to the 409th and possibly other groups, but later returned to the 416th BG and began flying on 416th Combat Missions 164 (Dec 2, 1944) and 196 or 197 (Feb 1 and 2, 1945).


This list has been compiled from multiple sources, but primarily from the Group and Squadron histories, mission files and Aircraft Accident Reports.

See Also:

A-26 ETO Combat Evaluation Historical Summary

A-26 ETO Combat Evaluation Aircraft

A-26 ETO Combat Evaluation Evaluation Mission pages:
Evaluation Mission # 1 (386th BG #269) -- 6 September 1944 -- Brest, France
Evaluation Mission # 2 (386th BG #272) -- 10 September 1944 -- Custine, France
Evaluation Mission # 3 (386th BG #274) -- 11 September 1944 -- Metz, France
Evaluation Mission # 4 (386th BG #276) -- 11 September 1944 -- Leeuwarden, Holland
Evaluation Mission # 5 (386th BG #277) -- 12 September 1944 -- Scheld, Germany
Evaluation Mission # 6 (386th BG #279) -- 14 September 1944 -- Brest, France
Evaluation Mission # 7 (386th BG #280) -- 16 September 1944 -- Bergen-op-Zoom, Holland
Evaluation Mission # 8 (386th BG #282) -- 19 September 1944 -- Duren, Germany

A-26 ETO Combat Evaluation Sources and References