THE UNIT

Combat Missions of the
390th Bomb Group (H)

This section contains the tabulation of the combat missions
flown by the 390th Bomb Group from 8 August 1943 to 20 April 1945.

Under "Claims" in the tables, a figure such as 2-1-3 means 2 enemy planes destroyed, 1 enemy plane probably destroyed, and 3 enemy planes damaged. The figures are evaluated credits as assessed by gunnery and intelligence experts of higher headquarters; they do not represent claims made by the gunners.

The Group was officially credited with destruction of 377 enemy aircraft, 57 probably destroyed, and 77 damaged. Many more than these were actually destroyed, as the figures do not include those destroyed by Flying Fortresses that were themselves shot down.

"B-17s Lost" denotes aircraft lost on operational missions. It does not indicate personnel losses, for in many cases a lost aircraft did not mean a missing crew.

Only 15 of the 35 original combat crews, those which trained as part of the Group in the States and launched the combat career of the 390th in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), finished their tours of operation... the others were missing in action.

The average number of missions for each B-17 was 33. During its operations in the ETO, 275 B-17s were assigned to the Group. On VE-Day there were 75 on hand, including 11 war wearies. The Group "used up" over 200 Flying Fortresses. Top ranking aircraft for missions flown were:

For 301 missions the Group had 9,403 aircraft scheduled to take off, of which only 72 failed to get away. This is an undeniable tribute to outstanding engineering. Aircraft losses were:

Total tonnage of bombs dropped on targets was 18,755. This does not include bombs jettisoned or brought back when the Group did not bomb. On 301 missions targets were bombed as follows:

Copyright © 1997 by The 390th Memorial Museum Foundation