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

August 23, 1944 Mission to Settimo Road Bridge

Squadron War Diary

486th Not assigned to this mission

487th Not assigned to this mission.

488th From mission report: Two compact patterns thru center of town with possible hits on both of the bridges in town.

489th August 21-24 - This period was one of ordinary activity with nothing special to note.

Squadron	War Diary
486th	Not assigned to this mission
487th	Not assigned to this mission.
488th	From mission report: Two compact patterns thru center of town with possible hits on both of the bridges in town.
489th	August 21-24 - This period was one of ordinary activity with nothing special to note.

Personal Accounts of the Mission:

Author Personal Account

Roger Juglair The author has written a book about the effect of this raid on his town. The book is in Italian, "Ponte San Martino. Martirio di un paese valdostano."
The raid devistated the town leaving 130 civilians dead and 300 injured.

A condensed version of Roger Juglair's book in English can be found here:
Raid on the Settimo Road Bridges

Joseph Heller Note that on the flight manifest below for the 488th Bomb Squadron the bombardier in plane 8P was 2nd Lt. J. Heller. In 1961 this bombardier would publish one of the greatest novels to come out of the war, Catch-22

Heller used his experience of the Settimo raid in his discription of the mission to Sant'Ambrosio in the novel:

"They'll be bombing a tiny undefended village, reducing the whole community to rubble. [...] Why, this tiny mountain village is so insignificant that it isn't even there." (Heller, Catch-22, p.325)

Target in 1944

Target Today

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Author	Personal Account
Roger Juglair	The author has written a book about the effect of this raid on his town. The book is in Italian, "Ponte San Martino. Martirio di un paese valdostano." The raid devistated the town leaving 130 civilians dead and 300 injured. A condensed version of Roger Juglair's book in English can be found here: Raid on the Settimo Road Bridges
Joseph Heller	Note that on the flight manifest below for the 488th Bomb Squadron the bombardier in plane 8P was 2nd Lt. J. Heller. In 1961 this bombardier would publish one of the greatest novels to come out of the war, Catch-22 Heller used his experience of the Settimo raid in his discription of the mission to Sant'Ambrosio in the novel: "They'll be bombing a tiny undefended village, reducing the whole community to rubble. [...] Why, this tiny mountain village is so insignificant that it isn't even there." (Heller, Catch-22, p.325)

Crew Lists and Mission Reports

Crew List 488th


57th Bomb Wing Intelligence Summary (Courtesy Roger Juglair)


340th Bomb Group Reports

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