page_title: 388th Operations Group
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: 388th Operations Group / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: B-17F "Tom Paine" of the 388th Bomb Group, RAF Knettishall, England, World War II.
context_page_description: The 388th Operations Group is the flying component of the 388th Fighter Wing, assigned to the Air Combat Command Twelfth Air Force. The group is stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
  During World War II, its predecessor unit, the 388th Bombardment Group was an Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress unit in England, stationed at RAF Knettishall. The group earned four Distinguished Unit Citations, flying over 300 combat missions. It also conducted Aphroditie radio-controlled B-24 Liberators as test guided bombs.
context_section_description: Activated on 24 December 1942 at Gowen Field in Idaho. Nucleus at Gowen moved to Wendover Field, Utah in early February 1943. Final training was conducted at Sioux City AAF SD from early May 1943 to 1 June 1943. The aircraft then began their overseas movement, taking the northern route via Newfoundland and Greenland, and finally from Iceland to Prestwick, Scotland. The ground unit left Sioux City on 12 June 1943 for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and sailed on the Queen Elizabeth on 1 July 1943, arriving in Clyde on 7 July 1943. Assigned to the Eighth Air Force's 45th Combat Bombardment Wing. Its group tail code was a "Square-H".
  The 388th BG began combat operations on 17 July 1943 by attacking an aircraft factory in Amsterdam. The unit functioned primarily as a strategic bombardment Organization until the war ended. Targets included industries, naval installations, oil storage plants, refineries, and communications centers in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Norway, Romania, and the Netherlands.
  The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for withstanding heavy opposition to bomb a vital aircraft factory at Regensburg on 17 August 1943. The 388th received another DUC for three outstanding missions: an attack against a tire and rubber factory in Hanover on 26 July 1943; the bombardment of a synthetic oil refinery in Brux on 12 May 1944; and a strike against a synthetic oil refinery at Ruhland on 21 June 1944, during a shuttle raid from England to Russia.
  The unit attacked many other significant targets, including aircraft factories in Kassel, Reims, and Brunswick; airfields in Bordeaux, Paris, and Berlin; naval works at La Pallice, Emden, and Kiel; chemical industries in Ludwigshafen; ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt; and marshalling yards in Brussels, Osnabrück, and Bielefeld. Operations also included support and interdictory missions. It helped prepare for the invasion of Normandy by attacking military installations in France, and on D-Day struck coastal guns, field batteries, and transportation. Continued to support ground forces during the campaign that followed, hitting such objectives as supply depots and troop concentrations. Bombed in support of ground forces at Saint-Lô in July 1944 and at Caen in August. Covered the airborne assault on the Netherlands in September 1944 by attacking military installations and airfields at Arnhem. Aided the final drive through Germany during the early months of 1945 by striking targets such as marshalling yards, rail bridges, and road junctions.
  Altogether the 388th flew 331 raids to European targets including nineteen Operation Aphrodite missions from nearby RAF Fersfield. After V-E Day, the group flew food to the Netherlands to relieve flood-stricken areas.
  Redeployed to the US from June to August 1945 . The aircraft left RAF Knettishall between 9 June 1945 and July 1945. The ground unit sailed on the Queen Elizabeth from Greenock on 5 August 1945 and arrived in New York on 11 August 1945. The group was established at Sioux Falls AAF, South Dakota, and was inactivated there on 28 August 1945.
caption: Boeing B-17F-90-BO Fortress Serial 42-30793
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