Back then, and somewhat the case now, Group is interchangeable with WING.
These days :
192d Fighter Wing contains the 149th FS.
1st Fighter Wing contains the 27th 94th and 71st fighter squadrons
Back Then, replace the word wing with group..
sorry for the confusion earlier.
In a squadron, you would have 16 fighters. it would be comprised of two flights of 8 aircraft each. On any given "Mission" you would send up 4 aircraft from each flight to comprise two seperate formations. One would be deligated as flight lead.
It was not uncommon to have a few less or even a few more aircraft up depending on the # of healthy aircraft and pilots. But typically between petrol shortages, crew rest, parts available and generally health of the fleet kept most down. And, it was common practice to have an aircraft RTB in good enough shape to be returned to duty, but being bad off enough to be considered "Lost". They then would .. "Hide" the aircraft and use it for spare parts and request a new one in its place.
Some stories even say that those aircraft would eventually get patched up enough to return to service, so you could end up with 17 or more aircraft in a fighter squadron, but only 16 officially. They did the same for all airframes. The begginings of the "Hangar Queens / Canned Bird" where they would cannabilize parts off of it.
