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Constituted as 332d Fighter Group on 4 Jul 1942. Activated on 13 Oct 1942. Trained with P-39 and P-40 aircraft. Moved to Italy, arriving early in Feb 1944. Began operations with Twelfth AF on 5 Feb. Used P-39's to escort convoys, protect harbors, and fly armed reconnaissance missions. Converted to P-47's during Apr-May and changed to P-51's in Jun. Operated with Fifteenth AF from May 1944 to Apr 1945, being engaged primarily in protecting bombers that struck such objectives as oil refineries, factories, airfields, and marshalling yards in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Greece. Also made strafing attacks on airdromes, railroads, highways, bridges, river traffic, troop concentrations, radar facilities, power stations, and other targets. Received a DUC (Distinguished Unit Citation) for a mission on 24 Mar 1945 when the group escorted B-17's during a raid on a tank factory at Berlin, fought the interceptors that attacked the formation, and strafed transportation facilities while flying back to the base in Italy. Returned to the US in Oct 1945. Inactivated on 19 Oct 1945.
Activated on 1 Jul 1947. Equipped with P-47's. Inactivated on 1 Jul 1949.
Squadrons. 99th: 1944-1945; 1947-1949. 100th: 1942-1945; 1947-1949. 301st: 1942-1945; 1947-1949. 302d: 1942-1945.
Stations. Tuskegee, Ala, 13 Oct 1942; Selfridge Field, Mich, 29 Mar 1943; Oscoda, Mich, 12 Apr 1943; Selfridge Field, Mich, 9 Jul-22 Dec 1943; Montecorvino, Italy, 3 Feb 1944; Capodichino, Italy, 15 Apr 1944; Ramitelli Airfield, Italy, 28 May 1944; Cattolica, Italy, c. 4 May 1945; Lucera, Italy, c. 18 Jul-Sep 1945; Camp Kilmer, NJ, 17-19 Oct 1945. Lockbourne AAB, Ohio, 1 Jul 1947-1 Jul 1949.
Commanders. Lt Col Sam W Westbrook Jr, 19 Oct 1942; Col Robert R Selway Jr, 16 May 1943; Col Benjamin O Davis Jr, 8 Oct 1943; Maj George S Roberts, 3 Nov 1944; Col Benjamin O Davis Jr, 24 Dec 1944; Maj George S Roberts, 9 Jun 1945-unkn. Unkn, 1 Jul-28 Aug 1947; Maj William A Campbell, 28 Aug 1947-1 Jul 1949.
Campaigns. American Theater; Air Combat, EAME Theater; Rome-Arno; Normandy; Northern France; Southern France; North Apennines; Rhineland; Central Europe; Po Valley.
Decorations. Distinguished Unit Citation: Germany, 24 Mar 1945.
Insigne. Shield: Azure on a fess nebule or, a panther passant sable armed and incensed gules. Motto: Spit Fire. (Approved 15 Jan 1943.)
Data from Air Force Combat Units of World War II By Maurer, Maurer, Published 1986
332nd Honor Roll includes rosters and awards.
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Historical Artifacts: We are looking for photos, documents and other types of artifacts including uniforms, medals, insignia, gear, manuals, and training material. We accept electronic/scans or originals of pictures and paper records. A General Order could be an award document that contains information on many servicemen. Special Orders may contain transfers or other information. Flight records, accident reports, maintenance logs, after action reports, pilot encounter reports, diaries and biorgraphies; all of these types of documents help us support or mission: preserving your history! Contact us today for instructions on sending us this material. Contact Today
Are you an AAC, AAF or USAF Veteran, family member, historian or WW2 enthusiast? We Need YOU! Contact us today to see how you can help the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, a Texas Not-For-Profit Corporation. We need your help! We are looking for volunteers that can help us with the following tasks. Typing and Transcriptionists: One of our big projects is extracting data from the thousands of documents we have and putting this data into a database where we can display the information on a website such as this one. We also need assistance with retyping unit history documents.
