Plaque566th Signal Air Warning Battalion9th Army Air Force

IXth Tactical Command

9th Air Force

Campaigns: Normandy; Northern France.Ardennes-Alsace (Battle of the Bulge), Rhineland, & Central Europe

Link to maps of the area of campaigns

Decorations.

Company B:
Meritorious Unit Commendation: while attached to the 438th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion
Company C:
Meritorious Unit Commendation 1 November 1944 – 1 June 1945

Documents:

History of the 566th from October, 1942 to July, 1945

Chronology

1942

10 October Activated:Drew Field, Tampa, Florida

1943

Oct 29

In a letter from General (Hap) Arnold to the CG 3rd Air Force the 555th,
566th and 573rd Signal Air Warning Battalions were to be prepared for overseas shipment by 15 November 1943 and the 563rd and the 564th were to be prepared for overseas shipment by 1 January 1944.

1944

April: Arrived: in England

June 6-7 Omaha Beach:
Three officers and twenty-seven enlisted men served on ships.

July 8: Landed at Omaha Beach.

Northern France 25 July - 14 September 1944

Jul 13

In accordance with verbal orders of the Commanding General of the Ninth Air Force. Company D, 738th Signal Air Warning Company) was to work in the Levast area with the 71st Fighter Wing and the 566th Signal Air Warning Battalion.

Jul 23

On July 23rd XIX TAC General Order 134 was issued disbanding the 563rd Battalion, effective on 2359 hours on the 20th of July. Personnel of the 563rd Signal Battalion were transferred to and absorbed by the 566th Signal A. W. Battalion. The equipment was to be absorbed into the Air Force stocks.

Ardennes-Alsace (includes Battle of the Bulge) 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945

Rhineland 15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945

1945

Rhineland 15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945

Ardennes-Alsace (includes Battle of the Bulge) 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945

Central Europe 22 March – 11 May 1945

Occupation Credit: 2 May – 31 October 1945 Germany

What did the WW II Signal Aircraft Warning Battalions in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) do?

The Signal Aircraft Warning Battalions that were in the European Theatre of Operations were U S Army Signal Corps units who worked with Army Air Corps Fighter Control Squadrons primarily to direct fighters and fighter- bombers to their targets.

Each battalion had strength of about 1,000 men.

Many were highly trained technicians and engineers.

They were operating tactical units of the Ninth Air Force.

(The US Air Force was not established as a separate branch of the armed forces until after WWII).

During the campaign in northern Europe air support for each of the three Armies was provided by a Tactical Air Command (TAC).

A Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion (SAW Bn.) was assigned to each TAC.

The 555th SAW to IX TAC, First Army, -- the 563rd SAW to XIX TAC, Third Army, -- the 573rd SAW to XXIX TAC, Ninth Army.

Two battalions, the 564th & 566th, were assigned to Ninth Air Force air defense missions.

Functionally the battalions provided radar location, “friend or foe” identification, and visual front-line ground observer information to the Air Corps controllers located at the radar sites, and at the TAC operations centers where command decisions and aircraft dispatch orders originated.

These battalions were equipped with radar, radio, telephone, teletype and encryption equipment that was “state of the art” at the time.

The systems they used to track and communicate with fighters were the forerunners of today's air traffic control systems, and the radar weather maps seen in TV weather reports.

Every microwave oven contains a descendant of the high power magnetrons used in the radar transmitters. Almost every thing the SAW Battalions did, and the equipment they used was a big secret.

Some of the men in these units were on special duty as radio operators on offshore ships during D-Day. Others were ground observers and in radar crews that landed with light- weight radar equipment on D-Day.

They provided enemy and friendly aircraft tracking and warning information to the landing ground forces.1

As the invasion progressed in the following weeks additional units and heavier equipment were landed.

Some of the radar sets weighed as much as 30 tons.

All of this great activity could not have happened if each of the battalions had not contained several hundred support personnel to prepare and serve the meals, keep the trucks and power plants running, obtain supplies and fuel, and
handle the paper work.

By October 1944 all of the battalions were on the Continent supporting fighter nd fighter- bomber operations of the Ninth Air Force.

By: William L. Freienmuth, Veteran of the 573rd Signal AW Battalion
August 2008

1 The 566th has Normandy Campaign credit but not Assault Landing Credit. That means that 566th was not among the Signal Aircraft Warning that provided support on June 6 and 7, for D-Day landings as described

Sources:

What did the WW II Signal Aircraft Warning Battalions in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) do?

555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion


Consolidated History of the 555th Signal Air Warning Battalion in Combat in World War II

Mobile Military Radar web site: Units 562-599

563rd Signal Air Warning Battalion in Combat in the ETO WWII

566th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion


<< Signal Corps Units in the Normandy Campaign

<< Unofficial Informal Archive of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in WWII



All material not in the public domain © 2020 Leonard H. Cizewski

Last Major Update: February 3, 2023
Minor Revision: December 15, 2020
Posted:December 14, 2020
Last Reviewed:

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Acknowledgement: Research assitance provided by Lynn Welch of the Herrick Memorial Library in Wellington, Ohio

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