abstract
| - Constituted as 464th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 19 May 1943 (activated 1 August). Activated as a B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment unit; assigned to II Bomber Command for training. Primarily trained in Idaho and Utah received deployment orders for the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in February 1943. Deployed to Southern Italy in February 1944; entered combat in April, being assigned to Fifteenth Air Force 55th Bombardment Wing. Air echelon training for a few weeks in Tunisia before joining the remainder of the group in Italy. Engaged in very long range strategic bombing missions to enemy military, industrial and transportation targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia, bombing railroad marshalling yards, oil refineries, airdrome installations, heavy industry, and other strategic objectives. Notable missions of the Oil Campaign of World War II included bombings of the Ploesti Concordia Vega refinery on 18 May 1944, the marshalling yards and oil refinery at Vienna on 8 July 1944 (1st DUC), and the Pardubice oil refinery and nearby railroad tracks on 24 August 1944 (2nd DUC). Sometimes engaged in support and interdictory operations. Supported Allied forces during the Operation Dragoon invasion of Southern France in August 1944. Hit railroad centers to assist the advance of Russian troops in southeastern Europe in March 1945. Bombed enemy supply lines to assist the advance of US Fifth and British Eighth Army in northern Italy in April 1945. After V-E Day, was assigned to Green Project which was the movement of troops from Europe to the United States via the South Atlantic Transport Route. B-24s were modified with sealed bomb bays, removal of all defensive armament and internal fuselage equipped with seating to carry approximately 30 personnel. Was assigned to Air Transport Command at Waller Field, Trinidad. Moved personnel from Natal, Brazil and Atkinson Field, British Guiana to Morrison Field, Florida. Provided air transport until the end of July when the unit was inactivated.
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