332nd Fighter Group

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-47s during Apr-May and changed to P-51s 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.

Squadrons

99th: 1944-1945
100th: 1942-1945
301st: 1942-1945
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

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.

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.)

Missing Air Crew Reports

Missing Air Crew Reports also known as MACRs are reports of US aircraft that went down, via enemy action or mechanical issues, behind enemy lines. These reports detailed the aircraft and crew along with their disposition; there were statements and eyewitness reports if available describing what they saw. The majority of these reports were completed in the years following the conclusion of World War II. This was so that the survivors who had become prisoners of war could provide statements of the events of that day. These reports differ from accident reports in that those documented aircraft that crashed on take off or landing; these events happened on allied lines.

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