UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES
SQUADRON & COMPANY GUIDONS
55th FIGHTER GROUP • ATTACHED SERVICE UNITS
Service groups were configured to support two fighter groups, the usual practice being to split the group into two teams, each supporting a fighter group. Team A of the 97th Service Group, supporting the 55th Fighter Group, embodied Detachment A, Headquarters Squadron, 97th SG, the 315th Service Squadron, the 59th Station Complement Squadron, a quartermaster detachment (supply & transportation), an ordnance company (vehicle maintenance; storage & issue of ammunition & bombs), a signal detachment and a military police company (one platoon detached ). Also assigned was the 2119th Engineer Firefighting Platoon.
Squadrons of service groups had guidons of the standard Air Corps pattern with the group number above and the squadron number below the branch insignia. Air Corps units other than squadrons of groups and separate squadrons had a guidon with the branch insignia only. Non-Air Corps companies assigned to service groups had branch-oriented guidons. Separate platoons were not authorized guidons. For detachments of squadrons and companies the guidon is depicted though in practice it would have remained with the headquarters element.
Credits: The drawings on this page are based on the specifications given in Army Regulation 260-10 dated 25 October 1944, a copy of which was kindly provided by FOTW Mailing List member Joseph McMillan. Order of battle information was taken from Dr. Leo Niehorster’s outstanding and essential website, World War II Armed Forces: Orders of Battle and Organizations.
