813th Fighter-Bomber Squadron 813th Fighter-Bomber Squadron The 813th Fighter-Bomber Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with 482d Fighter-Bomber Group at Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia. During World War II, the squadron was activated in England as the 813th Bombardment Squadron (Pathfinder). Its Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft were equipped with first generation radars to guide other bombardment units to targets obscured by cloud cover over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation in January 1944. In March 1944, it was removed from combat to focus on training pathfinder aircrews and develop tactics, although
RAF Bomber Command aircrew of World War II aircrew were given the task of flying a required number of operations, an "operational tour", usually of about 30 operations (missions in USAAF terminology). On completion of an operational tour the airman (and often his complete crew as they tended to remain very tight-knit, always flying together) would be "screened" (taken off operational flying) and split up as they received their future postings which would frequently be serving at Operational Training Units or Heavy Conversion Units preparing the next groups of young bomber crews for their postings to operational squadrons. Between March 1943 and the early summer of 1944 the