Special Orders, December 1943
306th Bomb Group--Thurleigh, England

Special Orders (SO's) were issued by the various Army Air Force commands during WWII for the purpose of tracking personnel matters, identifying by name and serial number who had arrived at the unit and what their assignments were to be, who was granted leaves of absence, who was being promoted or demoted to a new rank, who was being transeferred out of the unit for special training or for having completed their tour of duty, etc, all things personnel related. In the case of the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 306th Bombardment Group, he was also CO of Army Air Force Station #111 and would issue Special Orders under the letterhead of Station 111 as well as the 306th Bombardment Group. Special Orders were issued virtually daily at the group and station levels of command, and were numbered sequentially during each year starting with Special Order #1 on January 1st or which ever day the first SO of the year was issued on. There were far fewer SO's issued at the squadron level and were primarily used to assign flight commanders, squadron bombardiers and navigators, etc. Russell Strong was able to gather copies of over 770 special orders at all levels of command. Of special interest are the special orders and movement orders found in July and August 1942 sending the 306th Bombardment Group on its way from Wendover, Utah to England. Over the course of the war, virtually everyone who served with the 306th Bombardment Group and its supporting ground echelon are named somewhere in this collection of Special Orders.
1 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #256 2 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #257 3 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #258 4 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #259 5 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #260
6 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #261 7 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #262 8 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #263 9 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #264 10 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #265
11 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #266 12 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #267 13 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #268 14 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #269 15 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #270
16 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #271 17 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #272 18 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #273 19 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #274 20 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #275
21 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #276 22 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #277 23 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #278 24 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #279 25 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #280
26 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #281 27 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #282 28 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #283 29 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #284 30 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #285
31 December 1943 Station 111 Special Order #286 31 December 1943 306th BG Special Order #318