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22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron

military unit

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 23, 2023
Entity authorityQ4631419 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron was a part of the Eighth Air Force 7th Photographic Group that was activated in 1942 and based at Mount Farm England between 1943 and 1945.

Peterson Field

The unit was constituted by general orders on 14 July 1942 and activated on 2 September 1944 at was later to be known as Peterson Field in Colorado Springs as part of the 5th Photographic Group. The outfit existed essentially on paper until 21 December 1943 when 12 officers and 129 enlisted men were transferred from the 10th Photographic Reconnaissance and Training Squadron. The commanding officer was Capt. George A. Lawson. The Squadron left Colorado Springs on 17 May 1943 and traveled to England aboard the RMS Queen Mary.

Mount Farm

The Squadron arrived at the RAF Mount Farm airfield on 8 June 1943. The unit was equipped with Lockheed F-5 (P-38) Lightning photographic aircraft and the first mission was flown on 24 June 1943. The 22nd Reconnaissance Squadron was combined with the 13th Photographic Squadron and 14th Photographic Squadron, into the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping Group that was activated on 7 July 1943.

In 1943, the 22nd was among the squadrons flying the first photoreconnaissance missions against Peenemünde.

Editorial summary

“22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron” enters the record as military unit. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what 22nd, Photographic and Reconnaissance can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 1943, 1945, 1944—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around 22nd, Photographic and Reconnaissance.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, 22nd, Photographic and Reconnaissance provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 23, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q4631419. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1943, 1945 and 1944.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.