VMSB-244 | "Bombing Banshees"

[walika]

VMSB-244 | "Bombing Banshees"

Commissioned as VMSB-242: 1 Mar 1942
Redesignated VMSB-244: 1 Jun 1942
Decommissioned: 10 Jun 1946
Nickname: "Bombing Banshees"
Date of Insignia: 1943
Aircraft: SBC-4, SNJ-3, SBD-3, SBD-3P, SBD-4, SBD-5, SB2C-4.


Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 244 was organized and commissioned as VMSB-242 at Midway Atoll on 1 March 1942. While at Midway they were responsible for defensive patrolling, escort missions, and tactical flight training. They remained on Midway until 11 April 1942 when they sailed aboard the USS William Ward Burrows (AP-6) headed for Hawaii. They remained at Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Oahu until 20 April when the entire squadron again set sail this time for the west coast of the United States.

The squadron arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara, California on 14 June 1942 and became part of Marine Aircraft Group 24. On 14 September 1942 the squadron was redesignated as VMSB-244. In October of that year they changed out their Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers for the new Curtiss SB2C-4 Helldiver.

During the early part of January 1943, the squadron was assigned to overseas duty and left San Diego on 7 January 1943 for Midway Atoll. After staging through Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, Hawaii for a little more than a month VMSB-244 disembarked at Midway on 20 March 1943 where they maintained the same duties as a year earlier. On 18 August 1943 the squadron departed Midway for the Hawaiian Islands where it was then split; both echelons arrived in Espiritu Santo in October where a brief training program and simulated attacks against shipping and airfields soon make them ready for combat. During this training period the squadron insignia and appropriate nickname, the "Bombing Banshees" was originated. Banshee was the USAAF's name for the SBD Dauntless and the title of an ancient Scottish and Irish spirit whose wailing foretold the coming of terror, death and destruction.

In May 1945, as the campaign on Mindanao wound down, the squadron replaced its Douglas SBD Dauntless aircraft with the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and shortly thereafter VMSB-244 became the only squadron of MAG-24 to remain active.

 

 

 

 

Combat missions in the new aircraft were flown during June and July, and up until August 11th when offensive operations came to an end in anticipation of the Japanese surrender. In late August SB2C-5s replaced the -4s and the squadron prepared for a move to China. Escorted by a VMB-612 PBJ navigation ship the flight echelon left Malabang on September 17th and headed north for Okinawa, where bad weather detained it past the end of the month. Unfortunately, a typhoon in early October caused minor damage to all the aircraft with the result that it was not until the 21st that they were able to reach their new base, Tsingtao on the Shantung peninsula.

Early operations in China involved the squadron in overseeing the Japanese surrender, and the return of Nationalist Chinese troops from the south of the country, after which it settled down to patrolling the lines of communication, particularly the railroads, connecting the coast and the Marine garrisons in the interior. After nearly seven months at Tsingtao the squadron's SB2Cs were transferred to Servron 32 on 17 May 1946 and the personnel prepared to return home. VMSB-244 was decommissioned on 10 June 1946.

Type I | Australian embroidery on wool.

 

 

Type II | Stenciled on wool.

 

 

 

 

Type III | American embroidery on wool.

Examples posted, here, posts #10 & #17.

 

Sources

Millstein, Jeff. U. S. Marine Corps Aviation Unit Insignia 1941-1946.

 

[The Iron Brigade]

Great thread Rick. Please keep them coming.