Luke Field/Air Force Base and 56th Fighter Wing Heritage Pamphlet ...

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56th Fighter Group Chronology
15 January 1941 56th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) activated and assigned at
Savannah AB, Georgia, equipped with Seversky P-35, and Curtis
P-36 Hawk aircraft.
26 May 1941 Group moved to Charlotte Army Air Base, North Carolina, and
switched to Bell P-39 Airacobra and Curtis P-40 Warhawk
aircraft.
15 May 1942 Unit redesignated 56th Fighter Group (FG).
June 1942
56th Fighter Group reequipped with Republic P-47B
Thunderbolt.
13 November 1942 The first 56th pilots break sound barrier when P-47s dove from
35,000 feet and reached speed of 725 miles per hour.
6 January 1943 All the Group personnel boarded the Queen Elizabeth for passage
to England from the New York port of Embarkation.
12 January 1943 56th Fighter Group reassigned to Kings Cliffe, England, and
joined air war in Europe.
5 April 1943 Moved to a permanent location at Horsham St Faith (Norfolk),
England, after extensive combat training elsewhere, as part of the
VIII Fighter Command.
8 April 1943 Unit reached operational status.
13 April 1943 56th Fighter Group aircraft flew first combat missions of World
War II, fighter sweeps over occupied France.
12 June 1943, Capt Walter V. Cook, 62d Fighter Squadron, recorded the 56th Fighter
Group's first aerial victory against a Foch-Wulf 190 near Blankenberghe, Beljium. Cook
flew Little Cookie, his P-47C, Tail No. 41-6343. Pictured with his Crew Chief