In addition to escort the 357th conducted counter-air patrols, made fighter sweeps, and flew strafing and dive-bombing missions in which it attacked airfields, marshalling yards, locomotives, bridges, barges, tugboats, highways, vehicles, fuel dumps, and other targets. It participated in the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the breakthrough at Saint-Lô in July, the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944–January 1945, and the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945.