The mission of the 56 OG is to train Air Battle Managers, command and control operators, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35A Lightning II fighter pilots.

Expansion of the group began after the move to Charlotte Army Air Base, North Carolina in May 1941 when they were equipped with a small number of Bell P-39 Airacobra and Curtiss P-40 Warhawk aircraft.

Intensive training at Charleston Municipal Airport, South Carolina in Dec 1941 and from January to June 1942 at airfields in New York, at area headquarters at Mitchel Field.

It received 24 newly commissioned 2nd lieutenant pilots in December and set up a makeshift assessment school using five types of obsolete fighter aircraft, including P-35s and P-43s.

[12] At the end of three months of breaking in new equipment, trouble-shooting performance problems with their new airplanes, and training in the British tactics and procedures adopted by the VIII Fighter Command, the group moved to a new base at RAF Horsham St.

Other rapid identification measures used were white banding on both the tail fin and horizontal stabilizers, and the use of oversized USAAF roundels on the undersides of both wings.

Like all Allied aircraft flying over the continent, the 56th applied alternating 18-inch (460 mm) black and white bands, known as "invasion stripes", to the rear fuselage and wings of its fighters just prior to D-Day.

[20] The 56th flew 24 missions and 900 sorties (almost entirely Rodeo fighter sweeps and Circus diversions) in April and May, losing a total of 3 aircraft to enemy action.

In June the group staged out of a forward base at RAF Manston, Kent, to extend its range and registered its first victories over the Luftwaffe, shooting down four fighters on sweeps along the coast of France and Belgium on the 12th and 13th.

On 26 June, providing withdrawal support for a late afternoon bomber mission to Villacoublay airfield, it fought a 20-minute battle with veteran Fw 190 pilots of III/JG 26 over Forges-les-Eaux, France.

[21] When the Eighth Air Force resumed deep penetration bombing missions between 2 and 14 October, the 56th FG shot down 37 Germans while losing just one Thunderbolt.

The 56th dropped from a horizontal attitude with mixed results, but the dive-bombing technique used by the 78th FG was particularly successful; the missions led to the subsequent development of the P-47 as a fighter-bomber, which became its primary role in the ETO.

The campaign opened with Operation Argument, better known as "the Big Week", a sustained attempt to destroy the Luftwaffe in the air while attacking aircraft factories with strategic bombing.

At the same time the 56th was assigned a bomber escort sector in the vicinity of Osnabrück, and the combination resulted in the shooting down of 49 Luftwaffe fighters over four days.

[2] The campaign also resulted in highly publicized speculation of which among the emerging P-47 and P-51 aces would break the U.S. World War I record of 26 destroyed by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.

The Eighth Air Force needed Halesworth for a new B-24 Liberator group, and sent the 56th to RAF Boxted on 18 April, a base the 354th FG had just vacated, moving to southern England in preparation for the invasion of France.

Although several second tour pilots were later killed, most survived to provide a sizable core of experienced leadership that enabled the 56th to maintain its position as the leading air-to-air combat fighter group.

After splitting almost 550 victories with the P-47s in the Big Week-Berlin campaign, the five veteran groups of Mustangs totally dominated air-to-air combat in April, their 310 kills outscoring the Thunderbolts 6 to 1.

The battle on 12 May was also notable in that 1st Lt. Robert J. Rankin,[27] responding to Zemke's call for help, shot down five German fighters during the action, becoming the group's first "Ace in a day".

The modified tactics were put into effect on an escort mission the morning of 22 May, when the 61st FS attacked a large number of Fw 190s of JG 11 over Höperhöfen airfield near Rotenburg an der Wümme and shot down 11 without loss.

Nale, HV-J near Süderwalsede and R. Heineman, HV-N, near Westerwalsede) In a second mission that afternoon, the 56th was part of a 4-group Thunderbolt raid against a railroad bridge at Hasselt, Belgium, dropping 500-pound bombs at varying altitudes and using level, glide-bombing, and dive-bombing tactics, trying to determine the most effective means of using the P-47 as a fighter-bomber.

On the evening of 5 June 1944, all the P-47s of the group had their fuselages and wings painted with distinctive "invasion stripes" (see Camouflage, unit markings, and radio call signs above).

The next day the 56th, led by Major Harold E. Comstock, dispatched 39 fighters to attack antiaircraft positions in support of a resupply mission for the U.S. airborne divisions by B-24 bombers, for which the group was awarded its second Distinguished Unit Citation.

Technical problems were believed resolved with the identification of brittle ignition harnesses (as experienced in the P-47C two years before) and the final D-model left the group on 1 March.

[35] The advent of the German jet threat and the belief by Allied intelligence that it used low grade (high flash point) fuels that resisted ignition by .50-caliber strikes led to the development of new ammunition for American fighters.

Walter V. Cook C, 62d Fighter Squadron, flying P-47C 41-6343 (LM-W Little Cookie), claimed the first aerial victory by a 56th pilot on 12 June 1943, over Blankenberge, Belgium, downing an Fw 190.

The group's final victory was an Me 262 of JG 7 shot down on 10 April 1945, by 2d Lt. Walter J. Sharbo, also of the 62d Fighter Squadron, in P-47M 44-21237 (LM-C Marion – North Dakota Kid), near Wittstock, Germany.

[43] Two AR 234 jet bombers were claimed 14 March 1945, by the 62d FS, 1st Lt. Norman D. Gould shooting down one and the other shared by 1st Lt. Sandford N. Ball and 1st Lt. Warren S.

Nickname source Little Friends website and Freeman, 56th Fighter Group ¹Totals include one Me 262 jet shot down With the end of hostilities, the unit's aircraft went to depots in September 1945.

European Theatre of World War II[5] This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency Further reading |}