page_title: 455th Air Expeditionary Wing
section_title: Combat operations
hierarchical_section_title: 455th Air Expeditionary Wing / History / World War II / Combat operations
caption_attribution_description: English: B-24H 42-64500 455th Bombardment Group 743d Bombardment Squadron
context_page_description: The 455th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Force unit located to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. It is one of two expeditionary wings in Afghanistan. Most wing personnel are located at the Air Force Village known as Camp Cunningham.
  The first predecessor of the wing was organized in 1943 as the 455th Bombardment Group. After training in the United States with Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers, the 455th deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, participating in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It earned two Distinguished Unit Citations for its combat operations. Following V-E Day, it remained in Italy without its flight echelon until inactivating in September 1945.
  The group was activated in the reserve in 1947, but apparently was not fully manned or equipped before inactivating in June 1949 and transferring most of its resources to another unit. It was redesignated the 445th Fighter-Day Group and activated in 1956, but did not become operational before inactivating in July 1957.
context_section_description: The air echelon of the group was delayed in Tunisia and was not entirely lodged at the 455th's combat station of San Giovanni Airfield, Italy until 1 February 1944, and the group flew its first mission on 16 February. The group was engaged primarily in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, attacking targets like airfields, factories, oil refineries, harbors, marshalling yards in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia.
  On 2 April 1944, the group attacked a ball-bearing plant at Steyr, Austria for which it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC).  The primary target, the Daimler-Pusch aircraft engine factory was obscured by clouds, so the unit attacked the nearby ball bearing plant although attacks by an estimated 75 twin-engine fighters continued through the bomb run and heavy, accurate flak was encountered.  The 740th claimed the destruction of seven of these fighters against the loss of one squadron Liberator.   The 742d lost two Liberators in the attack but claimed the destruction of six enemy aircraft.  Five crewmembers from one of the squadron's B-24s lost in the attack bailed out in territory controlled by Yugoslav Partisans and were able to evade German forces and returned to the squadron a month after the attack.  The 743d Squadron claimed the destruction of nine fighters against the loss of two squadron Liberators.
  On 26 June 1944, the group, which was leading the 304th Bombardment Wing on the raid, encountered fighter opposition that was described as the strongest Fifteenth Air Force had encountered to date, and which destroyed several Liberators of the 455th Group.  One 740th Liberator was lost on the raid, while the squadron claimed eleven enemy aircraft destroyed (two shared claims).    Enemy fighters were able to separate the 741st Squadron from its fighter escort and intensified their attacks on the squadron.  One 741st bomber was lost when a Luftwaffe fighter dove head-on into it.  The Liberator continued on the bomb run and dropped its bombs on the target before crashing into the ground. Other fighters continued their attacks to within 100 feet of the group's planes.  On this mission, the 742d Squadron suffered its heaviest losses of the war, with six planes lost to enemy action.  Only one of the squadron's Liberators that reached the target returned safely.  The 743d Squadron put nine bombers over the target, but was the only squadron of the group to bring all its planes home.  The group pressed its attack on an oil refinery at Moosbierbaum, Austria, for which it received a second DUC.
  The group provided air support to ground forces in Operation Shingle, the landings at Anzio and the Battle of Monte Cassino in the spring of 1944.  It knocked out coastal defenses to clear the way for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in September.  As Axis forces were withdrawing from the Balkan peninsula in the fall of 1944, the squadron bombed marshalling yards, troop concentrations and airfields to slow their retreat.  It flew air interdiction missions to support Operation Grapeshot, the Spring 1945 offensive in Northern Italy.
  The group flew its last combat mission on 25 April 1945 against rail yards at Linz, Austria. Following the surrender of German forces in Italy, it flew some supply missions and transported personnel to ports and airfields for shipment back to the United States.  Most of the air echelon returned to the United States, ferrying their aircraft in June.  The 740th Squadron's ground personnel moved to Bari Airfield in July 1945, where they serviced the aircraft assigned to headquarters, Fifteenth Air Force.   Many of the group's remaining personnel were transferred to other units in the 304th Bombardment Wing for shipment back to the United States, while the group remained in Italy, serving as a replacement depot.  The last of the air echelon departed Italy in July and the group was inactivated on 9 September 1945.
  The group lost 118 aircraft. It suffered 147 killed in action, 268 Missing in action, 179 prisoners of war, and 169 wounded in actio
caption: Consolidated B-24H-10-CF Liberator 42-64500, 743d Bomb Squadron. Lost on 11 June 1944
exif: {}