The 376th Bombardment Group has its origins in the British Mandate of Palestine, as a result of the buildup of American air power in the Middle East in January 1942.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army Air Forces to mount retaliatory raids on the Japanese Home Islands.

A task force, commanded by Colonel Harry E. Halverson and composed of 231 officers and enlisted men and 23 Consolidated B-24D Liberator bombers, was assembled at Fort Myers Army Air Field, Florida.

Thirteen B-24 Liberator heavy bombers under the command of Colonel Harry A. Halverson from RAF Fayid, Egypt, dropped eight bombs into the Black Sea, two onto Constanța, six onto Ploiești, six onto Teișani, and several onto Ciofliceni.

[3] To make matters worse, the German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel was poised to attack Allied forces in Egypt.

HALPRO was quickly diverted from its original mission to a new one again: interdictory raids from airfields in Egypt against shipping and North African ports supporting Axis operations as part of United States Middle East Air Forces (USMEAF) on 20 June 1942, a quickly assembled organization based in Cairo.

At the same time, the U.S. and British had reached an understanding with the Soviets about establishing an Anglo-American air force in the Transcaucasus to protect its flank in the Middle East.

It received a Distinguished Unit Citation for action against the enemy in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sicily, November 1942 – August 1943.

Participated in the famed Operation Tidal Wave, the low-level assault on oil refineries at Ploiești and received another DUC: nearing Ploiești on 1 August 1943 and realizing that it was off course, the group attempted to reach its assigned objective from another direction; by that time, however, enemy defenses were thoroughly alerted and intense opposition forced the 376th to divert to targets of opportunity in the general target area.

On 9 November 1958, British geologists flying over the Libyan Desert spotted an aircraft resting on the sand dunes approximately 400 statute miles (640 km) south of Benghazi, Libya.

A ground party reached the site in March 1959 and discovered the plane to be the "Lady Be Good", a B-24D Liberator of the 514th Bombardment Squadron.

Coalition aircraft previously based here have included tankers (KC-135s), tactical airlift (C-130s), fighters (F-18, F-16, Mirage 2000) and helicopters (Super Puma).