The 342d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 4137th Strategic Wing. It was last stationed at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia and was inactivated on 1 February 1963. During World War II, the 342d Bombardment Squadron was a B-17 Flying Fortress squadron, assigned to the 97th Bombardment Group, Fifteenth Air Force. It earned two Distinguished Unit Citations. History World War II The squadron was established as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomb squadron in early 1942, and trained under Third Air Force in Florida. While training it flew antisubmarine patrols over the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Atlantic coastline. It was deployed to the European Theater of Operations in June 1942, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England with B-17E aircraft. Combat operations by the group began on 17 August 1942, when the squadron participated in the first Eighth Air Force heavy bomber mission of the war, attacking the Rouen-Sotteville marshalling yards in France. It then continued long-range strategic bombardment of occupied Europe, attacking airfields, marshaling yards, industries, naval installations, and other targets in France and the Low Countries. The squadron was deployed to Algeria in November 1942, assigned to the new Twelfth Air Force in North Africa and upgraded to B-17Fs. It raided shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and airfields, docks, harbors, and marshaling yards in north Africa, southern France, Sardinia, Sicily, and the southern Italian mainland in a campaign to cut supply lines to German forces in north Africa. It helped force the capitulation of Pantelleria Island in June 1943. It bombed in preparation for and in support of the invasions of Sicily and southern Italy in the summer and fall of 1943. The squadron was reassigned to the new Fifteenth Air Force and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in southern Italy, November 1943, flying a combination of B-17Fs and new B-17Gs. From Southern Italy it engaged in very long-range strategic bombardment missions, attacking targets in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece, attacking oil refineries, marshalling yards, aircraft factories, and other strategic objectives. It participated in the first shuttle-bombing mission to Russia (Operation Frantic) in June 1944. The squadron returned to the United States after the German capitulation in May 1945, and prepared for transition to Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft and deployment to Twentieth Air Force in the Pacific Theater.