The 5th moved to North Africa in November, and its subordinate units began flying missions from French Morocco in late 1942.

The first of these occurred on 18 October 1942 when General Mark Clark, commander of ground forces in the Western Task Force, flew to Gibraltar, along with a box containing $100,000 in gold 20 Franc coins, which were going to be paid to corrupt Vichy France officials in North Africa in order to secure their cooperation during the coming invasion.

The following day, General James Doolittle, the newly named commander of Twelfth Air Force was flown to Gibraltar.

Doolittle's B-17 was intercepted by four Ju-88s over the Bay of Biscay, forcing the pilot to dive sharply and make a run for it just above the ocean's surface.

As the American forces moved eastward, the 5th's units flew from Algeria beginning in January 1943, attacking coastal targets in Tunisia, and also concentrations of Rommel's Afrika Corps.

From its airfields in Tunisia, its subordinate units bombed Pantelleria, Sicily, and marshaling yards and airdromes on the Italian mainland.

It was hoped that the 15th AF stationed in the Mediterranean would be able to operate when the Eighth Air Force in England was socked in by bad English weather.

Missions were flown from Tunisia in November against a Messerschmidt assembly plant in Austria, and against some Italian targets, however the wing and its groups were in the process of moving to new airfields captured around Foggia in Italy in late September.

Advanced echelons moved initially, working with engineering units to prepare the airfields and extend runways to accommodate the B-17.

Once settled into their new bases around Foggia the 5th began a series of raids, attacking enemy targets in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Bulgaria.

Although the kingdom honored other international commitments made by France, it insisted on new negotiations to determine the status of the division's bases.

[1] Sixteenth Air Force also controlled four new bases in Spain that were being prepared for SAC use in anticipation of the possible loss of its Moroccan airfields.

The unit was inactivated on 15 January 1958, effectively being redesignated (though not in formal USAF lineage terms) the 4310th Air Division.