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Constituted as 4th Photographic Group on 14 Jul 1942 and activated on 23 Jul. Trained for overseas duty with F-4's. Moved to the South Pacific late in 1942. Assigned to Thirteenth AF in Jan 1943. Redesignated 4th Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping Group in May 1943, 4th Photographic Group (Reconnaissance) in Nov 1943, and 4th Reconnaissance Group in May 1945. From Dec 1942 to May 1945 the group, based successively on New Caledonia, Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, and Morotai, flew reconnaissance missions over enemy territory to supply air force units with target and damage assessment photographs and to provide army and navy units with intelligence on Japanese troop concentrations, installations, shore defenses, supply routes, and shipping. It also produced maps of Allied and enemy-held territory and prepared navigation charts for US units. During the last three months of the war the group photographed Japanese positions and installations on Mindanao and Borneo to aid US and Australian operations. Moved to Leyte in Sep 1945. Inactivated on 15 Jan 1946. Disbanded on 6 Mar 1947.
Squadrons. 17th: 1942-1946. 18th: 1942-1944. 19th: 1942-1943. 20th: 1942-1943. 38th: 1945-1946.
Stations. Colorado Springs, Colo, 23 Jul-24 Oct 1942; New Caledonia, 22 Nov 1942; Espiritu Santo, 22 Jan 1943; Guadalcanal, 6 May 1944; Morotai, 12 Dec 1944; Leyte, Sep 1945-15 Jan 1946.
Commanders. 2nd Lt Everett E Shaw, 23 Jul 1942; Lt Col Francis L Rivard, 10 Aug 1942; Lt Col Charles P Hollstein, 3 Sep 1942; Col Paul C Schauer, 18 Jul 1943; Lt Col Hillford R Wallace, 7 Jun 1944; Maj Sidney L Hardin, 4 Aug 1944; Lt Col Hershell E Parsons, 20 Jan 1945-unkn.
Campaigns. Guadalcanal; New Guinea; Northern Solomons; Bismarck Archipelago; Western Pacific; Leyte; Southern Philippines.
Decorations. Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.
Insigne. Shield: Azure, three piles and three like ordinaries transposed conjoined in honor point or. (Approved 28 Nov 1942.)
Data from Air Force Combat Units of World War II By Maurer, Maurer, Published 1986
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Historical Artifacts: We are looking for photos, documents and other types of artifacts including uniforms, medals, insignia, gear, manuals, and training material. We accept electronic/scans or originals of pictures and paper records. A General Order could be an award document that contains information on many servicemen. Special Orders may contain transfers or other information. Flight records, accident reports, maintenance logs, after action reports, pilot encounter reports, diaries and biorgraphies; all of these types of documents help us support or mission: preserving your history! Contact us today for instructions on sending us this material. Contact Today
Are you an AAC, AAF or USAF Veteran, family member, historian or WW2 enthusiast? We Need YOU! Contact us today to see how you can help the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, a Texas Not-For-Profit Corporation. We need your help! We are looking for volunteers that can help us with the following tasks. Typing and Transcriptionists: One of our big projects is extracting data from the thousands of documents we have and putting this data into a database where we can display the information on a website such as this one. We also need assistance with retyping unit history documents.