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

September 3, 1943 Mission to Camigliatello Landing Ground

Squadron War Diary

486th Not assigned to this mission.

487th Mission today: “bomb and immobilize Camigliatello L/G #1 at Z1388.” Time up 0625. Each box hit a different target. 1st box probably hit Camigliatello L/G #2 at right angles to runway, bombs falling half way across runway. 2nd box probably hit Camigliatello L/G at western part of field. The field was overshot with but 20 percent hits on field. The impermanent nature of the L/G/s prevented accurate observations of the results. Even in later photographs, it was difficult to tell which were L/G's. They evidently were abandoned, for only one damaged plane could be seen in the photos. This morning the invasion of Italy took place, at 0430 hours. We had been prepared fro this by a talk by the Air Liaison Officer last night at 1815 hours. The Americans evidently are not participating in the show, and everyone wonders what they are going to do next.

488th

489th There was a mission today at 0630, twelve of our planes going out to bomb the landing ground at Camigliatello, Italy. The mission was successful. The big news of today though was the invasion of Italy. At 11:30 last night, Allied Forces landed on the toe [of Italy] then larger units followed up at 4:30 AM. Our laiason officer, Capt. Simpson, spoke to us on the invasion and gave us the details of the tactics to be shortly put into action.

Target in 1943

Target Today

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Squadron	War Diary
486th	Not assigned to this mission.
487th	Mission today: “bomb and immobilize Camigliatello L/G #1 at Z1388.” Time up 0625. Each box hit a different target. 1st box probably hit Camigliatello L/G #2 at right angles to runway, bombs falling half way across runway. 2nd box probably hit Camigliatello L/G at western part of field. The field was overshot with but 20 percent hits on field. The impermanent nature of the L/G/s prevented accurate observations of the results. Even in later photographs, it was difficult to tell which were L/G's. They evidently were abandoned, for only one damaged plane could be seen in the photos. This morning the invasion of Italy took place, at 0430 hours. We had been prepared fro this by a talk by the Air Liaison Officer last night at 1815 hours. The Americans evidently are not participating in the show, and everyone wonders what they are going to do next.
488th
489th	There was a mission today at 0630, twelve of our planes going out to bomb the landing ground at Camigliatello, Italy. The mission was successful. The big news of today though was the invasion of Italy. At 11:30 last night, Allied Forces landed on the toe [of Italy] then larger units followed up at 4:30 AM. Our laiason officer, Capt. Simpson, spoke to us on the invasion and gave us the details of the tactics to be shortly put into action.

Crew Lists and Mission Reports

Crew List 488th

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