The 397th Bombardment Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit, last assigned to the 45th Air Division of Strategic Air Command at Dow Air Force Base, Maine, where it was inactivated on 25 April 1968. It was originally organized as the 397th Bombardment Group, a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. It deployed to Western Europe with Ninth Air Force as a medium bombardment unit equipped with Martin B-26 Marauders. It returned to the United States during December 1945, being inactivated on 6 January 1946. The 397th Bombardment Wing was organized in 1963 as a component organization of Strategic Air Command's deterrent force during the Cold War. It was inactivated when Dow closed. In early 1984 the group and wing were consolidated into a single unit, but have not been active since. History World War II Constituted as 397th Bombardment Group (Medium) on 20 March 1943. Activated on 20 April 1943. Trained with B-26's. Moved to RAF Gosfield England, March–April 1944, and assigned to Ninth Air Force, however. no sooner had they arrived than they were moved on to RAF Rivenhall. The group's identification marking was a yellow diagonal band across both sides of the vertical tailplane. Over the next few days, more than 60 'bare metal' B-26s were to be seen on the Rivenhall hardstands. Although fresh from the training grounds in south-eastern United States, and having only reached the UK early in April. the 347th undertook its first combat mission on 20 April: an attack on a Pas de Calais V-1 site. During its tenure of Rivenhall the 397th undertook 56 bombing missions, 32 of them attacks on bridges. Other targets were enemy airfields, rail junctions, fuel and ammunition stores, V-weapon sites and various military installations in France and the Low Countries. During these missions a total of 16 B-26s were missing in action and several others wrecked in crash-landings at the base. Early in August, officially on the 5th, the 397th transferred from Rivenhall to RAF Hurn in Hampshire, to give the Marauders a better radius of action as the break-out of the Allied forces from the Normandy beachhead meant that potential targets were receding. Although moving from Rivenhall, the group arrived without ceasing operations and flew 72 missions from Hurn before moving to the Advanced Landing Ground at Gorges, France (A-26) on 19 August, with the last departures on the