Air Base, Panama on 13 November 1940 from Langley Field, Virginia. The squadron was one of the units designated to move to Piarco Airport on Trinidad in late April 1941 after the U.S. gained base rights there from the British in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. In fact, the 1st Bomb Squadron's entire sojourn in the Caribbean after its brief interval at Rio Hato was based on Trinidad, moving from Piarco to the new Waller Field by 12 May 1941 and, later, to Edinburgh Field on 23 August 1942. As of the United States' entry into the war, it was the only USAAF antisubmarine unit on Trinidad. By August 1941, the squadron was the proud operator of a solitary Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress (probably sin 38-264) at Waller (together with six Douglas B-18A Bolos), certainly one of the very few B-17's to fly anti-submarine patrols in the Caribbean. Although the surviving records arc rather confusing and very truncated, it appears that the squadron may have briefly been assigned or attached to the 72d Observation Group, although no orders or formal correspondence to this effect survive. By January 1942, the B-17B was gone, and only five of the B-18As were still airworthy at Waller, where the squadron was nominally under the operational control of the Trinidad Base Command. By mid-February 1942, with four airworthy B-18A's still on hand, the squadron received a number of Consolidated LB-30 Liberators originally intended for the British. With these, the unit flew patrols over the Caribbean approaches to the Panama Canal to test the newly sited radars placed there, as well as routine anti-submarine patrols. The unit was technically still based at Waller Field, however, the Squadron was also called upon to detach an element to conduct patrols of the Vichy French Martinique area during April and May 1942. ed antisubmarine patrols and conducted reconnaissance of the Vichy French fleet at Martinique. Although scant records survive, the 1st Bomb Squadron attacked a German U-boat on at least one occasion. On 17 August 1942, a squadron B-18A sighted a submarine some 20 miles from a convoy and dropped four depth charges after it crash dived. About 10 minutes later, a patch of oil appeared on the surface where the now-submerged submarine had been. The B-18A remained in the area a further 45 minutes, until it was relieved by another aircraft. There was no further sign of the