mixture of B-17, B-24, B-25, B-29, F-2, F-9, F-10, and A-20 aircraft equipped with cartographic cameras. The 11th PG inactivated in October 1944, being replaced by several intelligence and mapping training units at the airfield from 1945 through 1948.Several bases in Florida, including MacDill, also served as detention centers for German prisoners of war (POWs) in the latter part of 1944 and 1945. At its apex, 488 German POWs were interned at MacDill. In February 1945, the 323d Combat Crew Training Wing (Very Heavy Bomber) was established at the base with a mission of training B-29 Superfortress aircrews. The first training class began at the end of February. The B-29 Superfortress arrived at MacDill Field on 26 January 1945, with additional aircraft arriving during the spring and summer and the first B-29 aircrew graduating in May. On 16 April 1945, MacDill was assigned to Continental Air Command, and became a primary training facility for aircrew assigned to the B-29 Superfortress. On 24 June 1945, a hurricane hit the Tampa Bay area, and the B-17 aircraft were evacuated to Vichy Army Airfield, Missouri. At the end of June 1945, B-17 replacement crew training ended at the base. With the end of the war in Europe and the B-17 being used almost exclusively in Europe, the need for replacement personnel by Eighth and Fifteenth Air Force units was ended. The 326th Army Air Forces Base Unit was reorganized into an Army Air Forces separation (326th AAFBU (Separation Station) ) unit to process military demobilizations. The demobilization and separation functions became the major mission at MacDill in the fall of 1945, but a lack of personnel was the main inhibiting factor. On 1 January 1946, with the closure of Drew Army Airfield, the demobilization and separation activities performed by the 301st Army Air Forces Base Unit (Separation Station) at Drew were transferred to MacDill Field, with the separation station remaining open until December 1949. With the end of hostilities in September 1945, the B-29 aircrew training program began to scale down and the base became a reception facility for returning Twentieth Air Force bomb groups from the Marianas. These groups were: 462d Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (November 1945) 497th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (January 1946) 498th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (January 1946) The rapid demobilization after the war led these units to be inactivated during 1946. Headquarters, III Fighter Command, moved from Drew