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This incredible WWII 461st Bomb Group B-24 mission raid photograph shows an incredible amount of strategic detail of the future bombing location. This mission target is focused on oil storage in Romania. Aerial photographs like this were used and given to pilots, navigators, and bombardiers of the 461st Bomb Group for mission briefings for more accurate Target identification and bomb accuracy. This CONFIDENTIAL-marked mission photograph was used by the 461st Bomb Group during one of their raid missions.

461st Bomb Group:

The 461st deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in February 1944, the air echelon flying B-24's via the South Atlantic transport route, stopping in North Africa before joining the ground echelon in Italy. It was assigned to the 49th Bombardment Wing of Fifteenth Air Force at Torretto Airfield, Italy, in late February.

The group began combat operations in April, engaging in long range strategic bombardment operations of Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe. It engaged chiefly in bombardment of communications, industries, and other strategic objectives in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece. It supported Fifteenth AF's counter-air operations by bombing enemy airdromes and aircraft centers, receiving a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for a mission on 13 April 1944 when the group battled its way through enemy defenses to attack an aircraft components plant in Budapest. The 461st BG conducted Oil Campaign of World War II operations against Brux, Blechhammer, Moosbierbaum, Vienna, and Ploiești; receiving a second DUC for a July 1944 bombing of Ploiești despite flak, clouds, smoke, and fighters. Also operated in support of ground forces and flew some interdictory missions.

It hit artillery positions in support of the invasion of Southern France in August 1944 and flew supply missions to France in September. The group aided the Allied offensive in Italy in April 1945 by attacking gun emplacements and troop concentrations. After the German Capitulation, the 461st dropped supplies to prisoner-of-war camps in Austria during May 1945.[1] During its operations in the Mediterranean, the group suffered 108 aircraft lost in combat, and was credited with the destruction of 129 enemy aircraft. It dropped over 13,000 tons of bombs in over 46,000 hours of combat flying.

The group was alerted for redeployment to the Pacific Theater in June 1945 and was programmed for Very Heavy bomber training with B-29 Superfortresses. The unit returned to the United States in July; many personnel being demobilized upon arrival. A small cadre formed at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota and unit was awaiting new personnel and aircraft when the Japanese capitulation ended the Pacific War in August. The group was inactivated on 18 August.

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