15th Bombardment Squadron The 15th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . Its last assignment was with the Twelfth Air Force , based at Nouvion Airfield , Algeria . It was inactivated on 1 October 1943 . On 4 July 1942 , crews and aircraft of the 15th Bombardment Squadron were first USAAF unit to bomb targets in Occupied Europe . History . The squadron was initially activated as part of the 27th Bombardment Group ( Light ) at Barksdale Field , Louisiana in 1940 . Was reassigned to V Air Support Command in late 1941 and stationed at Fort Dix Army Airfield , New Jersey . After the Pearl Harbor attack , the unit as assigned to flying antisubmarine patrols over the New York and New Jersey coasts . Reassigned to Lawson Field , Georgia and manned in May 1942 by personnel of its original unit , ( inactivated 27th Bombardment Group ( Light ) ) who had fought in the Philippines Campaign ( 1941 – 42 ) and Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns . The squadron was reassigned to Eighth Air Force , arriving at RAF Grafton Underwood on 12 May , then to RAF Molesworth on 9 June . Under Eighth Air Force the airmen were organized as the 15th Bombardment Squadron ( Light ) and equipped with the British Boston III light bomber , receiving their aircraft from No . 226 Squadron RAF . After a few weeks of familiarization training with the new aircraft , on July 4 , 1942 , six American crews from the 15th Bomb Squadron joined with six RAF crews from RAF Swanton Morley for a low - level attack on Luftwaffe airfields in the Netherlands , becoming the first USAAF unit to bomb targets in Europe . The 4th of July raid had been specifically ordered by General Henry H . " Hap " Arnold and approved by President Roosevelt . Arnold believed that the 4th of July would be an ideal day for the USAAF to open its strategic bombing campaign against the Nazis , but General Carl Spaatz did not have any of his heavy Eighth Air Force bomb groups ready for operational missions . Two of the 15th ' s planes did not return from the mission , along with one RAF aircraft . The squadron commander , Capt . Charles Kegelman , plane was shot up badly and almost did not return . Spaatz considered the mission a " stunt " triggered by pressure in the American press who believed the people of both the United States and Great Britain needed a psychological boost . However , Kegleman was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and its British equivalent for his valor on that Fourth of July mission — the first Eighth Air Force airman to receive the nation ' s second highest combat decoration . The 15th flew most of its missions from Molesworth in its British Bostons , and did not receive USAAF Douglas A - 20 Havoc aircraft until 5 September . The squadron was transferred to RAF Podington on 15 September where it flew a few missions before being transferred to Twelfth Air Force for support of Allied landings in North Africa on 15 October . In North Africa , the squadron was assigned to the Northwest African Training Command where its combat veterans provided advanced training in ground air support with A - 20s and later A - 36 Apache s at several airfields throughout 1943 . It was inactivated at Médiouna Airfield , Algeria on 1 October 1943 and its crews and aircraft were absorbed into the 47th Bombardment Group . During its period of existence , the 15th Bombardment Squadron had earned a unique but sometimes forgotten place in Air Force history .