19th Air Division

19th Air Division

Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker refueling a B-52D Stratofortress

LGM-25C Titan II in its launch silo. During the 1970s and 1980s the 19th Air Division controlled two ICBM Wings
Active1929–1941; 1942–1945; 1946–1949; 1951–1988
Country United States
Branch United States Air Force
RoleCommand of strategic strike forces
Equipmentsee "Aircraft / Missiles" section below
Insignia
19th Air Division emblem (approved 11 May 1959)[1]

The 19th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force formation. Its last assignment was with Eighth Air Force at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, where it was inactivated on 30 September 1988.

During World War II, the unit was designated as IX Bomber Command and was the command and control organization for Ninth Air Force in the Western Desert Campaign. Using predominantly B-24 Liberator heavy and B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, it supported the British Eighth Army against the German Afrika Korps from airfields ranging from Palestine in 1942 across North Africa to the final defeat of German forces in the Tunisia Campaign in May 1943.

Later, during the 1944 Battle of Normandy and the 1945 Western Allied invasion of Germany, as the 9th Bombardment Division, the unit directed B-26 Marauder medium bombers in tactical roles supporting Allied ground forces from D-Day to V-E Day.

  1. ^ Maurer, pp. 435–436