US Army Air Force

Mustang at San Severo

U.S Air Force

Italy 1944: USAAF's North American P-51B Mustang of 31st Fighter Group going to take off a combat mission from San Severo Airfield. Note auxiliary fuek tanks under wings and the runway in pierced steel planking. Built by United States Army Corps of Engineers (COE) in late September 1943, located approximately 40 km north-northwest of Foggia, part of Foggia Airfield Complex, San Severo was a temporary airfield used primarily by Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Force reconnaissance and fighter units. In particular: 90th Reconnaissance Wing, 1 December 1943-4 April 1945; 3d Reconnaissance Group, 8 December 1943-4 January 1944; 5th Reconnaissance Group, 8 December 1943-11 October 1944; 31st Fighter Group, 2 April 1944-3 March 1945. At war ended, the San Severo Airfield was closed in September 1945 and abandoned. Today is an agricultural area. After operational cycles in UK (Spitfire V) and North Africa (Spitfire IX), in April 1944, after being assigned to Fifteenth Air Force, the 31st Fighter Group was equipped with North American Mustang (P-51B and C and late D) and engaged primarily, from this Italian base, in missions to escort heavy bombers to enemy targets in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece. The 31st earned a Distinguished Unit Citation for an 21 April 1944 mission to cover a raid on production centers in Romania. It escorted reconnaissance and cargo aircraft participating in the airborne invasion of Southern France strafing airfields and communications targets of German forces. As part of a Fifteenth Air Force task force, it attacked targets in Romania while flying to Russia on 22 July 1944. After escorting P-38 Lightning aircraft from a Russian base for a raid on an airdrome in Poland on 25 July, it attacked a German fighter-bomber force and a truck convoy, earning a second Distinguished Unit Citation. In April 1945, when Allied forces pursued their final offensive in Northern Italy, the group strafed enemy rail and highway traffic. Returned in USA, Drew Field, Florida, in August 1945, the 31st Fighter Group was inactivated on 7 November 1945. The 31st Fighter Group is the direct ancestor of today's 31st Fighter Wing from 1994 based again in Italy, Aviano Air Base, and equipped with F-16. Victor Sierra