[1][5] The ground echelon proceeded to the port of embarkation at Camp Patrick Henry, sailing on the SS Henry Baldwin,[6] while the aircrews staged at Herington Army Air Field, Kansas, and ferried their planes to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations via the South Atlantic Ferry Route.

[9] Targets included aircraft factories and assembly plants, oil refineries, marshalling yards, airfields and storage areas.

[9] Shortly after arriving in theater, the squadron participated in Big Week, attacking aircraft factories at Regensburg, Germany and Steyr, Austria.

[12][b] During the spring of 1944, the squadron flew missions for Operation Strangle, the effort to choke off supplies for Axis military in Italy through air interdiction.

[8] The squadron also supported Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in September 1944 by attacking troop concentrations, lines of communications and enemy coastal defenses.

[5] The squadron returned to the United States in May 1945, assembling at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota at the end of the month.

It moved to Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska in July and trained with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, however after V-J Day in August the squadron inactivated on 15 October.

[1][14] In the late fall of 1957, the 450th Fighter-Day Wing at Foster Air Force Base, Texas underwent a major reorganization.

[1][18][19] One half of the squadron's Boeing B-52H Stratofortresses were maintained on fifteen minute alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike.