Brig. Gen. Carlyle H. Ridenour

Commanding Officer of the 47th Bomb Wing
from 14 Jan 1943 to 20 Feb 1944

This website displays some history of the 47th Bomb Wing during the North African Campaign and the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy when Brigadier General Carlyle H. Ridenour was its commanding officer. During that time, the 47th Bomb Wing was part of the US Army 12th Air Force and the allied Mediterranean Air Command (MAC) as it moved from Chateaudun, Algeria to El Guerrah, Algeria on 1 Mar 1943, to Souk-el-Arba, Tunisia on 8 Jun 1943, and Hammamet, Tunisia on 7 Aug 1943. In late 1943, the wing was assigned to the 15th Air Force of the Mediterranean Allied Air Force and stationed at Manduria, Italy for the remainder of the war in Europe (11 Nov 1943 - May 1945).

During the North African Campaign, the wing operated primarily in Jimmie Doolittle's Northwest African Strategic Air Force of MAC. Because of the 47th Bomb Wing's diverse bomber and fighter groups, Ridenour may have had more different types of aircraft at his disposal than any other wing commander in WWII. Groups assigned to the 47th Bomb Wing during this period were:

Photo Album

Most of these photographs came from Brigadier General Carlyle Ridenour's scrapbook that was discovered by friends of Earl Young in boxes in a chicken house about to be bulldozed in Marietta, Georgia. General Ridenour and Earl Young worked at Lockheed Georgia Aircraft Company in Marietta. Earl Young kindly provided the images for this website.

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