Site Edited and maintained by Doug Cook

Last Update December 30, 2010

12^th AIR FORCE 340^thBOMB GROUP

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340^thBOMB GROUP SQUADRON PATCHES

340th BOMB GROUP HISTORY

Lt. Johnny Moyer and his copilot

Credit: Dana Craig, Don Kaiser

http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/page.html

Medenine, Tunisia, March 1943
Sfax, Tunisia, Apr. 1943
Hergla, Tunisia, 2 June 1943
Comiso, Sicily, 2 August 1943
Catania, Sicily, 27 August 1943
San Pancrazio, Italy, 15 October 1943
Foggia, Italy, 19 November 1943
Pompeii, Italy, 2 Jan. 1944

Squadrons
486th: 1942-1945; 1947-1949
487th: 1942-1945; 1947-1949
488th: 1942-1945; 1947-1949
489th: 1942-1945; 1947-1949 Stations
Columbia AAB, SC, 20 Aug. 1942
Walterboro, SC, 30 Nov. 1942 - 30 Jan.1943
El Kabrit, Egypt, March 1943

Guado (Paestum), Italy, 23 March 1944
Corsica, 14 April 1944
Rimini, Italy, Apr. - 27 July 1945
Seymour Johnson Field, NC, 9 Aug. 1945
Columbia AAB, SC, 2 Oct. - 7 Nov. 1945
Tulsa Mun Airport. Okla, 31 Oct. 1947 - 19 Aug. 1949

Activated on 20 August 1942. The 340th. Bombardment Group trained with B-25's for duty overseas. They arrived in the Mediterranean theater in March 1943. Assigned first to the Ninth Air Force and later (in August 1943) to the Twelfth. Served in combat from April 1943 to April 1945. Engaged chiefly in support and introductory missions, but sometimes bombed strategic objectives. Targets included airfields, railroads, bridges, road junctions, supply depots, gun emplacements, troop concentrations, marshaling yards and factories in Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Also dropped propaganda leaflets behind enemy lines.

Participated in the reduction of Pantelleria and Lampedusa in June 1943, the bombing of German Evacuation beaches near Messina in July, the establishment of the Salerno beach head in September, the drive for Rome during Jan.- Jun. 1944, the invasion of southern France in Aug. and attacks on the Brenner Pass and other German lines of communication in Northern Italy from Sept. 1944 to Apr. 1945. Received a DUC for the period Apr. - Aug. 1943 when, although handicapped by difficult living conditions and unfavorable weather, the group supported British Eighth Army in Tunisia and Allied forces in Sicily.
Received a second DUC for the destruction of a cruiser in the heavily defended harbor of La Spezia on 23 Sept. 1944 before the ship could be used by the enemy to block the harbors entrance. Returned to the U.S., Jul. - Aug. 1945. Inactivated on 19 Aug. 1949.

Commanders
Lt. Col. Adolph E. Tokaz, 3 Sept. 1942
Col. William C. Mills, 21 Sept. 1942
Lt. Col. Adolph E. Tokaz, 7 May 1943
Col. Charles D. Jones, 8 Jan. 1944
Col. Willis F. Chapman, 16 Mar. 1944 - 7 Nov. 1945

Campaigns
Air Combat, EAME Theater: Tunisia; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Anzio; Rome-Arno; Southern France; North Apennines; Central Europe; Po Valley.

Decorations
Distinguished Unit Citations: North Africa and Sicily, Apr. 17 - Aug. 1943, Italy, 23 Sept. 1944.

A colorful daily accounting of 340^th BG life and combat from 1943 to 1945

487^th SQUADRON HISTORY and WAR DIARY

HISTORY of the FAMOUS 487^th ‘DOGFACE’ SQUADRON

HISTORY of the 340^th BOMB GROUP from the

487th Squadron Album

Sept 1942 to May 1944 (Selected Images credit to the anonymous 487^th Editors)

Property of Capt. Charles M. Cook: 487^th Squadron Pilot Mar. 1944-Feb. 1945

MIA and KIA

SQUADRON HISTORY

Ordinance and Armament

COMBAT CREWS

ALBUM CONTINUED

BOMBING

PERSONNEL DIRECTORY

Text Box: 487^th Squadron Insignia: The Black Knight over the battlefield of red and white is truly analogous to the modern medium bomber. As in days of old this hard-hitting force is out in front, back on the line and everywhere that a maneuverable shock force is needed. With the courage of the Black Knight we carry on these traditions.

On a typical mission a B-25 squadron consisted of 12 planes each crewed with 6-7 men with the total combat crew in the air being about 75 men. The following list of men MIA or KIA from the 487^th Squadron in action from March 1943 to the album printing in May 1944 attest to the dangerous missions and tremendous sacrifice the men of the entire squadron endured to put 75 combat crewmen in the air day after day against the German enemy. Don Kaiser’s site documents similar losses for the 489^th Squadron: http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/squadbook.html Note that the 487^th’s C.O. Major Cyrus Whittington was killed in action at Sfax, Tunisia April 25, 1943.