Can someone help me out with the Army Air Corps order of battle. Was it...

Squadron
Group
Wing
Command
Air Force

Is that right?

Also how many planes were in a Squadron? 12? 4 Squadrons in a Group? 4 Groups in a Wing?

Any help would be appreciated.

Yes.

Depends on what you are looking at. Very Heavy, Heavy, Medium and Fighter groups and squadrons were different sized, with 15-36 planes per group and 2-4 groups per wing.

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Best Regards,
JW

I am looking at Bombers, Very Heavy. B-29s. The 881st Squadron to be exact. How many bombers would usually be in one of these squadrons? The 881st was part of the 500th BG (VH). The 500th consisted of 3 other squadrons 882nd, 883rd, 884th. Was 4 squadrons to a group the norm when dealing with heavy bombers? In turn, the 500th BG (VH) was part of the 73rd Bomb Wing which consisted of 3 other groups: 497th, 498th, and 499th. Did Bomb Wings usually consist of 4 bomb groups?

Thanks for the assistance Jeff.

I found this page:
73rd Bomb Wing Data

It shows three squadrons per wing. I remember reading the reason the Very Heavy wings had only three sqadrons per, but I can't remember why or where I read it.

In the ETO, each wing had 24 aircraft with 18 normally flying each raid. I don't know what the norm was for the PTO.

The Eighth was also divided above Wing and below Command into Divisions with the divisons also controlling fighter groups. From my reading there wasn't a definative command structure for the air forces, with adaptations for each theater and air force as needed.

__________________
Best Regards,
JW

Thanks again Jeff.

According to my B-29 book, each squadron had ten B-29's. Each wing had four Bombardment Groups, the 497th, 498th, 499th, and the 500th. Based in the Marianas. They wanted two 9000 foot runways to start with but early on they just had one 6000 foot runway.

The chain of command for operations in the 1944-45 period is:

Joint Chiefs of staff
20th Air Force General Hap Arnold
US Strategic Air Forces Pacific General Carl Spaatz
XXI BC Maj.Gen Haywood Hansell Jr Aug 44-Jan 45
Maj. Gen Curtis LeMay Jan 45- Aug 45
73rd Bomb Wing Oct 44 Brig Gen Emmett O'Donnell
Then the four squadrons of ten aircraft each.

73rd aircraft were marked by an uncolored square on the tail
The 500th Bomb Group had the letter Z
A B-29 would have on the tail Z-square-50 would denote the B-29 with the squadron number 50, belonging to the 500th BG of the 73rd BW
Aircraft numbers later appeared on the nose and engine cowls.

Combat losses for XXI Bomber Command were;
334 combat
37 non combat
371 total plus anouther 10 lost in transit from the USA

From the Book B-29 Superfortress by John Pimlott, co-written by Michael Moore.

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Good information TA. Thanks for that.

Anything about the TR-6 in that book?