Before and Beyond

The group has 404 serial combat victories, a Distinguished Unit Citation, and a Mediterranean theater record for destroying 102 enemy aircraft in 30 days. The group achieved its most spectacular successes during the crucial days of the Tunisian campaign and in the great air battles fought last summer while escorting 15th Air Force heavy bombers in their attacks against strategic targets in southern Europe and the Balkans.

Landing in North Ireland in July of 1942, it was one of two American fighter groups to be equipped with British Spitfires. Fighter sweeps were flown over France from a base in England during September, 1942 and on Nov. 10 and 11 of that year they landed near Oran, Algeria to participate in the North African campaign.

Particularly active during the battle of the Kasserine Pass, the group provided cover for the retreat there, and later, when the Americans counterattacked, the 52nd's Spitfires supported General Patton's ground forces at Kasserine, El Guettar, and final defeat of the enemy at Cape Bon.

Shooting down 13 JU-87's in one evening of aerial combat, the group was credited with performing the outstanding aerial feat of the battle of El Guettar, and throughout the entire Tunisian campaign led all fighter groups in the number of enemy planes destroyed.

There were many instances during the Tunisian campaign when ground crew personnel maintained their posts under fire to service the planes and get them back in the air. Master Sergeant Paul J. Reiner, a crew chief, had assisted in getting three planes into the air one day, and was working furiously on the fourth, when ten enemy fighters came in to strafe the field. He continued his efforts in the face of the attack and finally sought cover only when ordered to do so.

Prior to, and during the battle of Pantelleria, the invasion of Sicily and the landing at Salerno, the group provided air cover for shipping. In July, 1943 the group moved to Sicily and four months later went to Corsica where it engaged in strangle operations during the Rome-Arno campaign, attacked shipping between Marseilles and Civitavecchia.

On April, 1944, while based in Corsica, the group began using P-51 Mustangs and the following month moved to its present base in Italy to act as escort for 15th Air Force heavy bombers.

The score of enemy planes destroyed in aerial combat increased rapidly and during a 30 day period last June the group set a new Mediterranean theater record by shooting down 102 Nazi aircraft. On June 9, the success of a bomber escort mission to Munich, in which 14 German planes were destroyed won a Distinguished Unit Citation for the gr...