340th Bomb Group History

340th Bombardment Group History

340th BG Patch

340th BG Squadron Insignia
	486th B.S.	487th B.S.	488th B.S.	489th B.S.
	Click on the squadron insignia above for links to digitized squadron histories

April 7, 1944 Mission to Ficulle Railroad Bridge

Squadron War Diary

486th Briefing was called for 1020 and the target for today was the Ficulle RR bridge on which the Rome-Florence RR crosses the Ritorba River. The 486th pattern was 2000 feet west of the bridge. Photos taken by the first box over, show that an earlier mission had cratered the south side of the bridge near its center. A/A was light, moderately accurate, three of our ships were holed. Interrogation of the crew stated that our bomb pattern started short of the bridge and walked up to the north end with a possible hit on the bridge as it joined the north bank of the stream.

487th Today's mission, after being postponed several times finally took off at 11:55 with a railroad bridge at Ficulle, Italy, as their target. Six of our planes were over the designated area at 14:10 hours and dropped 24x1000 pounders, but sad to say, not very effectively. No hits were scored on the bridge. Some bombs were observed to have overshot the bridge and landed about 300 ft. from the center of bridge in the fields on the south side of the target. Ack-ack was heavy, moderate & accurate, slightly holing three of our ships. All planes and crews returned safely to the field.

488th Mission to Ficulle R.R. Bridge. Made two runs on the target. Nice Spring day.

489th Carrying a total of twelve tons of bombs, six of our Mitchells struck out for the R.R. bridge at Ficulle, Italy. Using a Norden Sight, they scored two direct hits on the west trestle of the bridge. On the way back 9N, with Lt. Roberts in the pilot's seat, was badly shot up and Capt. Corcoran, co-pilot, was seriously injured. The plane made an emergency landing at Pomigliano L/G.

Target in 1944

Target Today

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Squadron	War Diary
486th	Briefing was called for 1020 and the target for today was the Ficulle RR bridge on which the Rome-Florence RR crosses the Ritorba River. The 486th pattern was 2000 feet west of the bridge. Photos taken by the first box over, show that an earlier mission had cratered the south side of the bridge near its center. A/A was light, moderately accurate, three of our ships were holed. Interrogation of the crew stated that our bomb pattern started short of the bridge and walked up to the north end with a possible hit on the bridge as it joined the north bank of the stream.
487th	Today's mission, after being postponed several times finally took off at 11:55 with a railroad bridge at Ficulle, Italy, as their target. Six of our planes were over the designated area at 14:10 hours and dropped 24x1000 pounders, but sad to say, not very effectively. No hits were scored on the bridge. Some bombs were observed to have overshot the bridge and landed about 300 ft. from the center of bridge in the fields on the south side of the target. Ack-ack was heavy, moderate & accurate, slightly holing three of our ships. All planes and crews returned safely to the field.
488th	Mission to Ficulle R.R. Bridge. Made two runs on the target. Nice Spring day.
489th	Carrying a total of twelve tons of bombs, six of our Mitchells struck out for the R.R. bridge at Ficulle, Italy. Using a Norden Sight, they scored two direct hits on the west trestle of the bridge. On the way back 9N, with Lt. Roberts in the pilot's seat, was badly shot up and Capt. Corcoran, co-pilot, was seriously injured. The plane made an emergency landing at Pomigliano L/G.

Crew Lists and Mission Reports

488th Squadron

340th BG Squadron Insignia
	486th B.S.	487th B.S.	488th B.S.	489th B.S.
	Click on the squadron insignia above for links to digitized squadron histories