340th Bomb Group History

340th Bombardment Group History

340th BG Squadron Insignia
	486th B.S.	487th B.S.	488th B.S.	489th B.S.
	Click on the squadron insignia above for links to digitized squadron histories

December 10, 1944 Calliano Railroad Bridges

Squadron War Diary

340th HQ Diary After a week of stand-down our crews went back to the Brenner railroad again and successfully attacked the two 120-foot bridges at Calliano besides cratering the track at Rovereto and securing hits on the rail fill at Osseniga. The Calliano mission was exciting, insofar as 15 to 20 Me-109's and FW190s were observed in the target area although they did not attack. Two B-25s of the 319th group were shot down by fighters over Rovereto.

486th Mission again - intense flak a few ME-109's battling with our P-47's over the Brenner Pass.

487th After a long period of idleness we finally got in a mission today when all of our twenty-one ships participated in an attack on the Calliano railroad bridge in Northern Italy. 7N returned to the field shortly after takeoff due to mechanical failure while the rest of the formation proceeded to their target and successfully dropped their bomb load from 10800'. The first box crossed railway tracks to north of bridge. 2nd box hit the south approach of bridge cutting tracks. Heavy, scant & inaccurate anti-aircraft fire was encountered, but did no damage to our formation and all ships returned safely to the base

488th Not assigned to this mission

489th Not assigned to this mission

Target in 1945

Target Today

Squadron	War Diary
340th HQ Diary	After a week of stand-down our crews went back to the Brenner railroad again and successfully attacked the two 120-foot bridges at Calliano besides cratering the track at Rovereto and securing hits on the rail fill at Osseniga. The Calliano mission was exciting, insofar as 15 to 20 Me-109's and FW190s were observed in the target area although they did not attack. Two B-25s of the 319th group were shot down by fighters over Rovereto.
486th	Mission again - intense flak a few ME-109's battling with our P-47's over the Brenner Pass.
487th	After a long period of idleness we finally got in a mission today when all of our twenty-one ships participated in an attack on the Calliano railroad bridge in Northern Italy. 7N returned to the field shortly after takeoff due to mechanical failure while the rest of the formation proceeded to their target and successfully dropped their bomb load from 10800'. The first box crossed railway tracks to north of bridge. 2nd box hit the south approach of bridge cutting tracks. Heavy, scant & inaccurate anti-aircraft fire was encountered, but did no damage to our formation and all ships returned safely to the base
488th	Not assigned to this mission
489th	Not assigned to this mission

Crew Lists and Mission Reports

486th Squadron

487th Squadron

340th BG Squadron Insignia
	486th B.S.	487th B.S.	488th B.S.	489th B.S.
	Click on the squadron insignia above for links to digitized squadron histories