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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
United States Army Air Forces formations and units in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) were the second-largest user of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. There were a total of six combat groups (twenty-four squadrons) equipped with the bomber assigned to the Theater.
Initially equipped with the B-17F Flying Fortress, the 97th and 301st Bombardment Groups were flown from airfields in England to Algiers and Oran, Algeria in November 1942 after the Operation Torch landings. They were assigned to the 5th Bombardment Wing, XII Bomber Command, Twelfth Air Force.[1]
These initial two groups were joined in February 1943 by the 99th and in April 1943 by the 2d Bombardment Group, which both arrived from the United States. These heavy bomber units supported the American Fifth Army as it drove west into Tunisia during the North African Campaign. Initial targets were enemy positions in Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean Sea.[1]
On 1 November 1943, the Twelfth Air Force became a tactical organization of fighters and medium bombers. Its heavy bombardment units (B-17 and B-24) were joined with those of the Ninth Air Force which had been based in Libya and which was moving without personnel or equipment to be re-established as a tactical organization in England. The combined heavy bomber forces in the Mediterranean were then designated as the Fifteenth Air Force, with all B-17 groups remaining assigned to the 5th Bombardment Wing. Fifteenth Air Force's mission was to carry out long distance bombardment missions against enemy targets in Southern and Central Europe. The groups also received their first B-17G Flying Fortresses in late 1943, and were moved to newly captured airfields in the Foggia area of Southern Italy. In Italy two new B-17 groups, the 463d and 483d Bombardment Groups, arrived from Third Air Force’s training airfields in the Southeastern United States in the spring of 1944 to reinforce the command.[1]
From their bases in Southern Italy, the Fortresses engaged in long-range strategic bombardment attacks against the enemy in Austria, the Balkans, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, and Romania. Additionally, Fifteenth Air Force B-17s joined with Eighth Air Force B-17s as part of Operation Frantic, shuttle bombing raids against targets on the Eastern Front, landing at Poltava Airfield (AAF-559) in the Soviet Union during the spring of 1944.[1]
Fifteenth Air Force, along with its B-17 units were inactivated after the German capitulation in May 1945.[1]
B-17 units in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations operated from the following Airfields:
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Most combat airfields were temporary wartime facilities quickly constructed with pierced-steel planking runways and parking areas, with tents used for personnel quarters and a few wooden buildings used for operations. In Tunisia and Italy, some captured German Luftwaffe or Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) airfields were repaired and placed into service. Today, most show little evidence of their existence other than some faint outlines in agricultural fields.
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