USAAF Fighter Squadron organization

[keith A]

In an old copy of Rust/Hess "353rd Fighter Group" I see the standard organization of a squadron was three pilots in an HQ Flight and three flights of eight pilots.

I assume the three HQ pilots were the squadron commander, the executive officer and the oparations officer. All with the rank of Major or above?

With each flight there was a flight commander (a Captain?) and presumably a deputy flight commander (Captain or First Lieutenant?). Would these pilots have another role in the squadron e.g. engineering officer?

regards

Keith

[KM1957]

It was not always a uniform, set pattern for units. Many squadrons (Eighth and Ninth Air Force) had four flights besides the Squadron CO and Operations Officer (Execs were non-pilots), flight leaders were more often than not Lieutenants not Captains. Some squadron commanders were Captains until being promoted if around long enough, same for operations officers. In some Ninth Air Force squadrons, 1st Lieutenants were operations officers until being promoted later. Also, and primarily from what I have seen it was in Ninth Air Force units, some pilots did have duty as an engineering officer. In a totally unrelated way, at war's end with large numbers of personnel being transferred out, many pilots were assigned "additional" duties which were non-flying related.

Kent

[Graham Boak]

Can also add that near the end of the war there was considerable over-staffing, with some units (including the 4th and 56th?) able to send formations of double the "normal" size.

[keith A]

In essence - no real structure? A formation that lost cohesion with its first losses or was without any real disciplined structure? Flight commanders and HQ members are promoted on best performance, career structure, whimsy, political influence, regional influence ...etc. Squadron commanders are Captains, Majors, Lieutenant Colonels etc.... Squadrons are three, four or more flights? In short what the world calls a Trump formation. Golly!

[KM1957]

You are misunderstanding--there was structure within each group and squadron, but sometimes things didn't fit the "mold" everyone expects. Just like Lt. X did not always fly "his" plane on every mission. Not sure where the idea Squadron Commanders have to be a Major came from, but many instances are known of Captains doing the job. Even in Group Headquarters, there were times a Major was a Deputy CO, Captains were Group Operations Officers, and so on. I cannot explain how those decisions were made, but to say things were left to run without structure is false. Following is an example from the 396th Fighter Squadron, 368th Fighter Group as of April 1944. The Squadron CO, Ops Officer and Assistant Ops were at the top and flew with any flight they wished. Red Flight had 5 pilots with a Captain as leader, Blue Flight also 5 pilots with a Captain. Yellow Flight had 4 pilots and had a Lt. as leader. Green flight had 5 pilots and a Lt. as leader. White and Purple Flights each had 4 pilots and had a Lt. heading up the flight. Most squadrons I have seen had only 4 or 5 flights, but again, not every one of them had a Captain as leader.

Kent