Fremantle, Western Australia. The squadron continued to participate in combat in the Southwest Pacific 4 May 1942. On 12 February pilots of the 91st flew their A-24s to Malang Java in the Netherlands East Indies to defend the island. From 27 February through 1 March, three A-24s of the 91st participated in Battle of the Java Sea. For its efforts in the Philippines and the Southwest Pacific during late 1941 and early 1942, the squadron received three Distinguished Unit Citations (DUC). On 25 March the surviving 27th Bombardment Group personnel were assigned to the 3rd Bombardment Group at Charters Towers Airfield in Queensland, Australia. The remaining A-24 aircraft were added to the 8th Bombardment Squadron. On 4 May the unmanned and unequipped 91st Bombardment Squadron was transferred back to the United States. Mediterranean Theater The squadron was re-manned and re-equipped at Hunter Field with the Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber. After additional training in Mississippi and Louisiana, the group moved to Ste-Barbe-du-Tlelat Airfield, Algeria, arriving on 26 December to enter combat in North Africa with Twelfth Air Force. Maintenance and support personnel went by sea to North Africa while aircrews and the A-20s flew to South America then across to North Africa, In North Africa, the A-20s were sent to other groups and the 91st was redesignated as the 524th Fighter-Bomber Squadron and equipped with the North American A-36 Apache dive bomber. The squadron flew its first combat missions of the war from Korba Airfield, Tunisia on 6 June 1943. The 524th was redesignated the 524th Fighter Squadron in May 1944 and converted first to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, then to the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft. During Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, operations included participation in the reduction of Pantelleria and Lampedusa Islands and supporting ground forces. In the Italian Campaign the squadron covered the landings at Salerno and received a DUC for preventing three German armored divisions from reaching the Salerno beachhead on 10 September 1943. In addition, the group supported the Fifth Army during the Allied drive toward Rome. The squadron took part in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, and assisted Seventh Army's advance up the Rhone Valley, receiving a fifth DUC for helping to disrupt the German retreat on 4 September 1944. The 524th took part in the air interdiction of the enemy's communications in northern Italy, and assisted in the Allied drive