page_title: Iceland Base Command
section_title: 342nd Composite Group
hierarchical_section_title: Iceland Base Command / History / 342nd Composite Group
caption_attribution_description: English: A USAAF Lockheed P-38F-5-LO Lightning fighter (s/n 42-12596) of the 50th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group, at Camp Tripoli airfield, Iceland, November 1942.
context_page_description: Iceland Base Command is an inactive United States Army organization. It was established for the United States defense of the Kingdom of Iceland during World War II. It was inactivated on 4 March 1947.
context_section_description: The 342nd Composite Group was activated at Meeks Field on 11 September 1942, however its aircraft operated largely from Patterson Field due to the congestion of ATC traffic at Meeks.  It reported directly to the HQ, IBC.  The group flew a mixture of P-38 Lightning and P-40 Warhawk fighters, as well as some B-18 Bolos and P-39 Airacobras assigned to the Group's Base Flight.  Operational squadrons were:
  33rd Fighter Squadron, (P-40s), 11 September 1942 – 18 March 1944
  50th Fighter Squadron (P-38s), 14 November 1942 – 1 February 1944
  337th Fighter Squadron (P-38s), 11 September – 26 November 1942
  The group's mission was the aerial defense of Iceland by intercepting and destroying some of the German planes that on occasion attempted to attack Iceland or that appeared in that area on reconnaissance missions. The unit also conducted antisubmarine patrols in the North Atlantic and provided cover for convoys on the run to Murmansk, Soviet Union.
  The USAAF first engaged enemy forces near Iceland on 28 April 1942 and had been followed by a three months' lull. Then in late July three more encounters took place. Up to this point the honors had gone to the Norwegian patrol squadron, which, under RAF command, was operating off the northern and eastern coast; but it was not long before the American air forces in Iceland had their chances at the Nazis. Having missed being the first to engage the enemy, an American plane became the first to bring one down.
  On the morning of 14 August 1942 two American fighter pilots, Lt. E. E. Shahan and Lt. J. D. Shaffer, intercepted and destroyed a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 about ten miles north of Reykjavík. It was the first German plane of the war to be shot down by the Army Air Forces.
  During the next two months American fighter planes of the Iceland Base Command bagged two more German planes, intercepted and attacked seven, and unsuccessfully tried to intercept three others. Planes of the Norwegian RAF squadron, meanwhile, had met and attacked three German aircraft with varying degrees of success, and during the same period the ground troops opened fire on German planes a dozen times. A few planes appeared during the winter, but none was intercepted and only two came under antiaircraft fire. Some of this air activity over the North Atlantic was undoubtedly related to the enemy's efforts to set up weather and radio stations in Greenland.
  The spring of 1943 promised to be just as lively. In April German planes were spotted or reported on at least ten occasions. One of the intruders, a Junkers Ju 88 bomber, was shot down at the end of the month by two planes of the 50th Fighter Squadron. Throughout the year the number of enemy or unidentified planes reported was about 15 percent less than in 1942. Actual contacts were considerably fewer. Apparently the German planes were successfully avoiding the antiaircraft defenses and evading the American fighters.
  On 5 August American planes, making their second interception of the year, shot down another German bomber, the fifth and last enemy plane to be destroyed over Iceland.
  After the summer of 1943, little German activity was noted over the North Atlantic skies. The enemy was on the defensive, and the American defensive outposts in the Atlantic (Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and Bermuda) were shifting to secondary roles.
  The 342nd Composite Group was inactivated on 18 March 1944. Its squadrons were reassigned to England and the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces.
  IBC was removed from ETOUA and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Army Eastern Defense Command, 30 July 1944.   It was further transferred to the jurisdiction of the United States Army Air Forces effective 1 January 1946.
caption: Lockheed P-38F-5-LO Lightning 42-12596 of the 50th Fighter Squadron in Iceland, 1942
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