The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The units stationed at Avon Park Army Airfield, by designation

The wartime story of the airfield had been known only in general terms — B-17 and B-26 training, about 10,000 personnel — but not the units. The Air Force’s own two-volume official lineage histories, both freely readable, name them.[maurer-units][maurer-squadrons]

Two combat groups were stationed at Avon Park, and only two. Their stays barely overlapped and they were doing completely different things.

397th Bombardment Group (Medium) — October to November 1943

The 397th was a B-26 Marauder group being worked up for combat. It was activated at MacDill Field on 20 April 1943 and came down to Avon Park in October.

Unit Arrived at Avon Park Left for Hunter Field, Ga.
397th Bombardment Group (Medium), HQ 12 October 1943 1 November 1943
596th Bombardment Squadron 14 October 1943 1 November 1943
597th Bombardment Squadron 14 October 1943 2 November 1943
598th Bombardment Squadron 15 October 1943 2 November 1943
599th Bombardment Squadron 14 October 1943 1 November 1943

Maurer’s books style the station “Avon Park Bombing Range, Fla.” for this group, and “Avon Park AAFld” for the group that followed — the change of name in the records tracks the field’s promotion to a full base in November 1943.[maurer-units][maurer-squadrons][mfh-airfield]

The group’s commander during its Avon Park weeks was Col Richard T. Coiner, Jr., who took over on 5 October 1943.[maurer-units]

Where they went. Hunter Field, Georgia, then Gosfield and Rivenhall in England from April 1944 with the Ninth Air Force; Normandy, St Lô, then Gorges, Dreux and Péronne in France, Venlo in Holland. The 397th won a Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission on 23 December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, when it flew through heavy flak and fighter attack to cut the railway bridge at Eller on the Moselle. It was inactivated on 6 January 1946.[maurer-units]

The men who trained over Lake Arbuckle in October 1943 were in combat over France six months later.

88th Bombardment Group (Heavy) — November 1943 to May 1944

The 88th was the opposite kind of unit: it never went overseas. It was a B-17 replacement training unit, a school that turned out crews for other people’s groups, and Avon Park was its last station.

Unit At Avon Park
88th Bombardment Group (Heavy), HQ November 1943 – 1 May 1944
316th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) c. 9 November 1943 – 1 May 1944
317th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) c. 9 November 1943 – 1 May 1944
318th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) c. 9 November 1943 – 1 May 1944
399th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) c. 9 November 1943 – 1 May 1944

The group was constituted 28 January 1942, activated 15 July 1942, and served briefly as an operational training unit before becoming a replacement training unit from December 1942. It was assigned first to Second and then to Third Air Force, and was inactivated at Avon Park on 1 May 1944, along with all four of its squadrons.[maurer-units][maurer-squadrons]

Its commander at Avon Park was Lt Col William K. Kincaid, from 28 October 1943 to the inactivation.[maurer-units]

Campaign credit: American Theater only. No decorations. Its badge was blue with a shattered glass, and the motto was POWER TO SHATTER, approved 7 January 1943.[maurer-units]

What this changes

The airfield’s own busy period was short. Two groups, thirteen months between the first arrival and the last inactivation, and the last of them dissolved in May 1944 — sixteen months before the field went on inactive status in September 1945.[mfh-airfield] The range itself went on being used by MacDill and by the School of Applied Tactics at Orlando, which built a special incendiary target here later in the war, but the tenant combat units were gone by the middle of 1944.[mfh-airfield]

Do not say “the 88th Bomb Group flew combat missions from Avon Park.” It did not fly a combat mission anywhere. Its business was making crews, and the crews went to other groups.

The Museum of Florida History says of the Avon Park Air Force Range that “this site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places,”[mfh-airfield] but no Avon Park airfield or range appears in the National Register’s Highlands County listings. The state also gives the range’s Florida Master Site File numbers as HG771, HG772, HG773, HG876, HG889, PO4699 and PO5299.[mfh-airfield] Maurer’s two books cover combat groups and squadrons only; the airfield’s own base unit, station complement, ordnance, quartermaster, military police and medical detachments are not in them.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. USAF Historical Division / Office of Air Force History, Maurer Maurer, ed., Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Office of Air Force History), entries for the 88th and 397th Bombardment Groups (1983)
  2. USAF Historical Division / Office of Air Force History, Maurer Maurer, ed., Combat Squadrons of the Air Force in World War II (Office of Air Force History), entries for the 316th, 317th, 318th, 399th, 596th, 597th, 598th and 599th Bombardment Squadrons (1982)
  3. Museum of Florida History, Florida Department of State, Avon Park Army Airfield — Avon Park Air Force Range, World War II Historical Sites, Central Listing (2026)

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