Some pilots of the 397th plotting out a mission on the wing of a P-47.
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After supporting the Normandy landings, the 397th began to operate on the European mainland in several airfields across Northern France. From Chievres Airfield in Belgium, the 397th supported the Allied counteroffensive at the Battle of the Bulge, making strikes against gun positions, rails, and roads behind the Siegfried Line. Specifically, some of the squadron’s ground strike missions were aimed at supporting the offensive of the 9th Infantry Division. They took out a train carrying a load of tanks on December 11. The 397th continued flying ground attack missions and some air superiority missions from Belgium, in which they got into numerous dogfights with some Nazi ME 109’s, until December 27, when they moved to Juvincourt, France to assist the offensive further away from the front line. The 397th would move locations twice more before VE day and twice more after the surrender.
Once the Nazis surrendered, the 397th was for a time a part of the occupation of West Germany, located first in Buchschwabach, then in Straubing in Bavaria until the squadron was deactivated on August 20, 1946. |