The 726th Bombardment Squadron is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last assigned to the 451st Bombardment Group at Dow Field, Maine, where it was inactivated on 26 September 1945. The squadron was activated during World War II as one of the original squadrons of the 451st Bombardment Group. After training in the United States, it served in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It earned three Distinguished Unit Citations for its combat actions. After VE Day the squadron returned to the United States, where it was inactivated. History Organization and training in the United States The squadron was first activated at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona as one of the four original squadrons of the 451st Bombardment Group. Although original plans were for the squadron to be an Operational Training Unit at Davis-Monthan, instead a cadre of the 451st Group moved to Dyersburg Army Air Base, Tennessee, where the 726th and other elements of the group were filled out by personnel drawn from the 346th Bombardment Group. The squadron commander, Capt Charles C. Haltom, and a model crew joined other members of the group for advanced tactical training with the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida. This cadre joined the remainder of the squadron at Wendover Field, Utah, for training with the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The squadron continued its training at Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska, starting in September. On 18 November, the air echelon of the squadron departed Fairmont for staging at Lincoln Army Air Field, Nebraska to ferry their aircraft via the Southern Ferrying Route to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The ground echelon left on 26 November for the port of embarkation at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, for transportation by ship. Combat operations The squadron arrived at Gioia del Colle Airfield, Italy at the beginning of January, although the air echelon remained at Telergma Airfield, Algeria until 20 January to conduct additional training. The squadron functioned primarily as a strategic bombing unit, attacking targets like oil refineries, marshalling yards, aircraft factories and airfields in Italy, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Greece and Albania. It earned a Distinguished Unit Citation during Big Week, Eighth Air Force's campaign against German aircraft manufacturing plants, for an attack on a Messerschmitt aircraft factory at Regensburg, Germany on 25 February 1944.