On 27 January 1945 twenty-six officers and fifty-two enlisted men left the squadron with six aircraft for Belgium. Here they were to work with the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron in the Campaign of Western Germany.
The remaining part of the squadron, here in Italy, under the direction of Lt. Col. Bolender was initiating yet another new night fighter technique: Night bombing with the P-61. With bombs at their disposal they pounded harder than ever before at enemy installations during the last days of the Italian war. The climax was reached when, at the height of the Po Valley Campaign, the squadron was called on one day to perform daylight bombing missions. With everyone in the squadron hard at work, (even some of the cooks were helping on the line) a maximum effort was put forth, and the first mission saw every one of the squadron's aircraft airborne on a mission.
In the meantime the crews in Belgium had been maintaining an excellent intruder record and had moved on to Euskirchen, Germany with the 422nd. There they added two more "firsts" to the squadron's list, being the first American Night Fighter to take off on an operational mission from German soil and getting credit for the first four victories over enemy aircraft by American Night Fighters based in Germany.
In summing up, let us say again, we have an outfit to be proud of. Perhaps, not the most famous there is, but one that has done a job and done it well. Let our record speak for itself:
TOTAL OPERATIONAL HOURS: 6952:45
AIRCRAFT DESTROYED: 13
AIRCRAFT PROBABLY DESTROYED: 1
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED: 1
LOCOMOTIVES DESTROYED: 38
LOCOMOTIVES DAMAGED: 68
RAIL CARS DESTROYED: 17
RAIL CARS DAMAGED: 420
MOTOR TRANSPORT DESTROYED: 143
MOTOR TRANSPORT DAMAGED: 280
TOTAL WEIGHT BOMBS DROPPED: 195,000 lbs.
MISCELLANEOUS: Buildings, factories, fuel dumps, German Destroyers, and etc. destroyed and damaged.
----- to be continued -----
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