Established in late 1943 as a B-24 Liberator heavy bomb squadron; trained under Second Air Force. Deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in April 1944, being assigned to Fifteenth Air Force in Southern Italy.



Despite designation, squadron did not perform pathfinder missions. Instead it engaged in very long range strategic bombardment missions against enemy strategic targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Balkans until April 1945. Bombed aircraft factories, assembly plants, oil refineries, storage areas, marshalling yards, airdromes, and other objectives until the German Capitulation in May 1945.



Attached to Air Transport Command in May 1945; used B-24s as transports flying personnel from locations in France and Italy to Casablanca, French Morocco. Also engaged in transport operations from North Africa to Azores or Dakar in French West Africa where personnel eventually were transported to Florida. Squadron inactivated in place in French Morocco during July 1945.