US Army Air Force

Lead missions

15th Air Force

A Lockheed P-38 Lightning of 154th Weather Squadron, an unit of the USAAF’s 15th Air Force very little known like so is very little known its mission: the weather reconnaissance and the role of “lead missions”. Formed from an Arkansas National Guard unit as 154th Observation Squadron on 4 Jul 1942, afterwards 154th Reconnaissance Squadron (Fighter), 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron on 13 Nov 1943 and finally, after a cycle in North Africa, 154th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron was assigned to the Twelfth Air Force and finally to the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, at Bari, taking over the duty of 15th Air Force’s Weather Reconnaissance Detachment which on 13 February 1944 flew the first mission in Italy, over Rome. The news unit’s official name was 154th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Medium), formed on 12 May 1944 and equipped with Lightning’s versions P-38 and F-4 (Reconnaissance). The operations was centered on weather reconnaissance and the 154th instituted the concept of “lead missions” in which a weather/recon plane preceded Fifteenth Air Force heavy bombers by 50-75 miles to the target and/or on return from the target sending real time radio weather data to the trailing bombers. The 154th WRS was innovative in the installation and use of the K-24 aerial camera. The weather flights, take off before 06.00 a.m. was long from 3 to 4 hours at 20,000-30,000 feet. The “led mission” preceded a group of bombers of the 15th Air Force by about 30 minutes, regularly reporting weather conditions to the bomb group(s). With this information, decisions was made as to whether to continue the mission. In many instances the P-38 reconnaissance aircraft remained over the target area and returned to base with photos of the bombing results. The Engineering Section of the 154th converted an F-4 Lightning (photo version of the P-38) into an R-1 recon ship with the nacelle of the aircraft modified for carrying an observer and with window. Victor Sierra