Following the invasion of North Africa, the squadron moved to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it earned two Distinguished Unit Citations.

[1][3] The following month, it moved to Sarasota Army Air Field, Florida, where it trained with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and also flew antisubmarine patrols.

[1] The ground echelon sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth, arriving in Scotland on 10 June and at RAF Polebrook two days later.

The squadron's B-17s began arriving at Polebrook on 1 July, where they formed part of the first heavy bomber group assigned to Eighth Air Force.

Most pilots had not flown at high altitudes on oxygen; some gunners had never operated a turret, much less fired at a moving target.

The squadron's first weeks in England were devoted to intensive training, with numerous specialists attending Royal Air Force (RAF) schools to prepare for combat.

[3] In September, the 97th Group and its squadrons were transferred to XII Bomber Command in the preparations for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.

[3][4] Through May 1943, the squadron engaged in the campaign to cut German supply lines in North Africa by striking shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and bombing docks, harbors, airfields and marshalling yards in North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily and southern France and Italy.

[3] The group also flew air support and interdiction missions against enemy lines of communication, airfields and transportation facilities.

[3] Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base at Klamath Falls, Oregon it named after him.

[8] Reactivated in 1946 under Strategic Air Command, assuming the personnel and Boeing B-29 Superfortresses of the inactivating 829th Bombardment Squadron.

The B-50 gave the unit the capability to carry heavy loads of conventional weapons faster and farther as well as being designed for atomic bomb missions if necessary.

By 1951, the emergence of the Soviet MiG-15 interceptor in the skies of North Korea signaled the end of the propeller-driven B-50 as a first-line strategic bomber.