322d Bombardment Group

322d Air Expeditionary Group
SSG Austin Layton marshals a C-130 Hercules aircraft
Active	1942–1945; 1947–1949; 1954–1957; 2004-
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Garrison/HQ	Ramstein/Sembach
Motto(s)	Recto Faciendo Neminem Timmeo Latin I Fear None in Doing Right
Insignia
322d Air Expeditionary Group emblem (Approved 9 January 1943)

The 322d Air Expeditionary Group (322 AEG) is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe. As a provisional unit, it may be activated or inactivated at any time.

The group appears to have been activated periodically on-order to provide support to U.S./AU activities in Africa under USAFE's Seventeenth Air Force. In 2004, elements of the Group assisted the AU deployment to Sudan.

During World War II, the group's predecessor unit, the 322d Bombardment Group (Medium) was a B-26 Marauder bombardment group assigned to the Eighth and later Ninth Air Force.

Constituted as 322d Bombardment Group (Medium) on 19 June 1942. Activated on 17 July 1942 at MacDill Field, Florida, later relocating to Lakeland Army Air Field/Drane Field, Florida. Trained with Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft. Part of the group moved overseas to RAF Bury St Edmunds, England, November–December 1942; planes and crews followed, March–April 1943. Initially assigned to the Eighth Air Force. The group was assigned to the 3d Bomb Wing.

Ongoing construction at Bury St. Edmunds forced two of the group's squadrons to locate at RAF Rattlesden, and the group's aircraft did not arrive until late in March 1943. Once operational, the 322d flew two low-level bombing operations from Bury St. Edmunds. The first, on 14 May when it dispatched 12 planes for a minimum-level attack on an electrical generating plant near Ijtnuiden. This was the first operational combat mission flown by B-26s.

The second was a disastrous mission to the Netherlands on Monday, 17 May, when the group sent 11 aircraft on a similar operation from which none of the aircraft penetrating the enemy coast, returned. 60 crewmen were lost to flak and interceptors. Group morale was not improved when, on 29 May, a B-26 crashed onto the airfield killing the crew and damaging a hangar.