Luke Field/Air Force Base and 56th Fighter Wing Heritage Pamphlet ...
Luke Field/Air Force Base and 56th Fighter Wing Heritage Pamphlet ...
Luke Field/Air Force Base and 56th Fighter Wing Heritage Pamphlet ...
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13<br />
13 April 1945 Group fighters attacked German airdrome <strong>and</strong> destroyed or damaged 190<br />
of the enemy <strong>Air</strong>craft parked there.<br />
21 April 1945 The last group combat mission flown over Munich. During its 2-year<br />
involvement in World War II, <strong>56th</strong> <strong>Fighter</strong> Group destroyed 667 enemy<br />
aircraft in aerial combat, destroyed another 324 on the ground, probable<br />
kills totaled 58, <strong>and</strong> another 543 were damaged. <strong>56th</strong> posted that record<br />
of 1592 aircraft damaged/destroyed while losing only 25 fighters in<br />
aerial combat. Unit produced 40 aces.<br />
11 October 1945 The entire group returned to the United States aboard the Queen Mary.<br />
18 October 1945 <strong>56th</strong> inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.<br />
1 May 1946 <strong>56th</strong> <strong>Fighter</strong> Group activated at Selfridge <strong>Field</strong>, Michigan.<br />
Maj Lucian A. Dade, Jr., 62d <strong>Fighter</strong> Squadron,<br />
flew this P-47D-25 with a bubble canopy during June 1944.<br />
Shown is Tail Number 42-26417, painted with the D-Day paint scheme.<br />
Dade later comm<strong>and</strong>ed the <strong>56th</strong> <strong>Fighter</strong> Group. He also comm<strong>and</strong>ed <strong>Luke</strong>'s<br />
3600th Maintenance <strong>and</strong> Supply Group in the mid-1950s.
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