Warbird Information Exchange

I am trying to find information on the 158th liaison squadron in World War II. My grandfather flew with them and I am having a very hard time finding anything about what he and his squadron did. If anyone can offer some help on where to go or look, that would be amazing

A site here.

http://veteransfootlocker.com/cgi-bin/Display_Item.asp?3150

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Bob

Laurenann,

A man named Ken Wakefield in England is the "expert" and author of several books on liason air operations in Europe during WWII. Mr. Wakefield lives in England. I do not have contact information for him, but if you pm me your contact, I can put you in contact with someone that does.

C2j

One of my L-5's was assigned to the 158th Liaison Squadron. It never made it overseas, instead it was a stateside trainer. My 158th LS L-5 is serial number 42-98333. Do you have any of your fathers logbooks? Maybe he flew 98333. I think I have some documents pertaining to the 158th (maybe even their post-war squadron history), but I'll have to check. I won't be home for two more weeks. Remind me!

Also, Ken Wakefield is a great resource, but hands down the best US authority on L-5s is Jim Gray. He frequents this site occasionally. PM me if you have any questions.

Thank you for your father's service.

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Taylor Stevenson

Do you have access to the info on the 158th Liaison Sqd in World War II Combat Squadrons of the United States Air Force? If not, PM me your email and I'll send you a pdf scan of that info. It is basic stuff but should help some.

Randy

They are an ETO Liaison Squadron, meaning they were in Europe in WWII. Below is their basic information from a website. Based on where they were located, I would guess they were attached to either 1st US Army, 9th US Army, or 12th Army Group.

158th Liaison Squadron: Constituted on 2/23/44 as 158th Liaison Squadron and activated on 3/1/44.
Constituted on 9/1/43 as 423rd Night

1944 Continental Nov 12/13/44 Natwich, England 2/4/45 Somme-Suippe, France 2/15/45 Celles, Belgium 4/17/45 Ahrweiler, Germany

I concur with Taylor about Jim Gray. He has a great store of knowledge about Liaison Squadrons in WWII. But here is the general info on a Liaison Squadron in WWII in ETO from my research. They were assigned to a theater air force (I believe the 158th was 9th Air Force) but were attached to Army Ground Forces, usually at the Field Army or Army Group level. Use varied from Army to Army, but generally speaking, the squadron attached field detachments to the subordinate Army Corps which were part of the Field Army. A few airplanes, pilots, mechanics and a driver or two would be attached to the Corps Headquarters and do whatever was needed. Missions varied- mail, courier work, personnel transport, artillery spotting, and combat control of air support were some of them, but most missions were the first three. Pilots were mostly Sergeant Pilots, but there were Commissioned pilots in the squadrons. 140 people were assigned to each squadron. The squadrons trained in the US for about a year, then were shipped overseas for use for the rest of the war.

One reason you will have a hard time finding information is that while they were AAF units, they were really assigned to Army Ground Forces (AGF). So the AAF, which didn't want them in the first place, wasn't particularly interested in preserving their history. And the AGF moved them around so much, and they weren't officially part of their units, so they didn't write much about what they did. They are really an orphan unit from WWII, only existing during WWII and right after.

I have done a lot of research on one particular Liaison Squadron- the 14th, which was an ETO unit, so I can provide some information if you have specific questions. I know more about their equipment and operations in general but ask and I'll see what I can come up with.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Taylor already asked this, but if there are any logbooks, pictures, or anything he still had, it would be useful to know. Liaison units weren't the most popular / newsworthy units that made headlines, but they were very important in their role.

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Thank you. I have seen this site before. The book and the Bugs Bunny patch are the only things that we have of his from the war.

I don't drop in on this forum too often unless I get a heads-up on posts having to do with liaison aircraft or liaison squadrons. Over the past 15 years or so I have made this a subject of special study and have collected what may be the largest private archive of liaison aircraft information in existence. Included in my collection are the microfilmed Air Force files on the WWII liaison squadrons of the USAAF including the 158th. These microfilm reels are available from the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Last I knew these reels cost $30 apiece and you may order them for your own use. However, if you don't have a microfilm reader you'll need to avail yourself of one at a local school or library. It can be rather tedious work going through the files that way so I've had my collection digitized for easier browsing by computer. These days high-speed digitizing can be done commercially for around $150 per reel, which is much cheaper than when I had all of my 30-odd reels digitized over ten years ago. The reel covering the 158th Liaison Squadron contains approximately 800 pages some of which are unreadable due to faded ink at the time they were microfilmed. Through much personal effort I've been able to digitally enhance many of the barely readable pages and in some cases I have hired a private researcher to hand copy many of the worst ones.

What all this is leading to is that I can search the records fairly efficiently for the mention of specific individuals or events, but it is still tedious, time consuming work. Because of limited free time at present and owing to the large investment in building my archive I cannot afford to do research for free, however. My fee is reasonable though and I do offer an exchange of some of my time for high-resolution copies of period photos and documents that are not in my collection. Unless you want the entire 800 page file, I can probably find and copy the pertinent parts concerning your grandfather in a few hours time. If you are interested in having me search the 158th records for your grandfather I would be glad to do it, so send a note to me through the private mail (PM) function of this thread.

Jim Gray

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Sentinel Owners and Pilots Association
www.sentinelclub.org
"All things L-5"

Jim's the best. Knows way too much about the L-5 though

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Taylor Stevenson

Somebody needs to.

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.