page_title: 340th Weapons Squadron
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 340th Weapons Squadron / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: A formation of B-17Gs from the 340th Bombardment Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group wing their way towards Linz, Austria, while their P-38 Lightning escorts contrail above them.
context_page_description: The 340th Weapons Squadron is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the USAF Weapons School. It is stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The 340th is assigned to the 57th Wing, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The mission of the squadron is to provide Boeing B-52 Stratofortress instructional flying.
  On 3 February 1942, Captain Paul Tibbets was given command of a new squadron that would later become the 340th Bombardment Squadron. The 340th Bomb Squadron was involved in combat missions in both the European and Mediterranean theaters from 1942 through 1945. The most notable of these were the Operation Tidal Wave raids on Hitler’s largest oil refinery in Ploiești, Romania. During the Vietnam War, B-52 crews from the 340th BS participated in the Linebacker offensives over the skies of North Vietnam. In August 1990 the 340th deployed aircrews for Operation Desert Storm.
context_section_description: Established in early 1942 as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomb squadron; trained under Third Air Force in Florida.   Deployed to European Theater of Operations (ETO) in  mid-June 1942, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England.  The squadron was one of the first B-17 heavy bomb squadrons in the ETO.   During the summer of 1942, engaged in long range strategic bombardment of enemy military, transport and industrial targets, primarily in France and the Low Countries with limited fighter escorts.
  Reassigned to the new Twelfth Air Force in England, being deployed to Algiers as part of the initial Operation Torch forces that arrived in North Africa.  Squadron aircraft carried Triangle-O on tail.  Engaged in bombardment of enemy targets in Algeria and Tunisia as part of the North African Campaign, and attacked enemy strong points around Tunis as part of the Tunisian Campaign.  Continued heavy bomb missions of enemy targets in Sicily and Southern Italy and in late 1943 was reassigned to new Fifteenth Air Force formed in Southern Italy.  From airfields around Foggia, conducted long-range strategic bombardment missions over Southern Europe and the Balkans of enemy targets until the German Capitulation in May 1945.   Demobilized squadron personnel and aircraft were sent to the United States for reclamation in the fall of 1945; being inactivated in Italy in October.
caption: A formation of B-17Gs from the 340th Bomb Squadron wing their way towards Linz, Austria, while their P-38 Lightning escorts contrail above them.
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