20 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
The 78th FG, comprised of
the 82nd, 83rd, and 84th Fighter
Squadrons (FS), was activated at Baer
Field, Indiana, in February 1942 and
in April moved to southern California
to begin training on P-38s. It did so
at a number of airfields there and
in the San Francisco area until the
second week of November, when
its personnel traveled to the East
Coast for shipment to England. They
departed from New York aboard the
luxury liner turned troop transport
Queen Elizabeth on 23 November
and arrived at Greenock, Scotland, on
the 29th. They were then transported
to their temporary new home, the
Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Goxhill,
in Lincolnshire, near England’s east
central coast, arriving there on 1
December. Goxhill was then being
utilized by the USAAF, with the
designation Station 345 (the control
tower building at Goxhill, often
called “Goat Hill” by American pilots,
was moved to the Military Aircraft
Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia,
where it has been restored).
The Group’s first P-38s (F and
G models) arrived at Goxhill on 20
December, and they continued to
arrive through 22 January — for
a total of about 65 aircraft. These
aircraft had arrived at Belfast,
Northern Ireland, by ship from the
US and were cleaned up, reassembled,
and flight tested at the nearby
Lockheed Langford Lodge facility
(BAD 3). The 78th’s pilots were then
flown in Douglas C-47 transports to
Langford Lodge to ferry the P-38s
back to Goxhill.
A little over a week after the first
P-38s arrived at Goxhill the 78th FGLangford Lodge (BAD 3) was located on the shore of Lough (Lake) Neagh, about fifteen
miles west of Belfast. Although a USAAF facility, it was operated under contract by the
Lockheed Overseas Corporation (LAC) from 1942 to 1944, for the maintenance and repair
of the former’s aircraft, including many P-38s and F-5s. In December 1942 the 78th FG’s
pilots picked up their new P-38s at Langford Lodge and flew them to Goxhill, and the
following month they flew them back to BAD 3 to have the special air filters installed
before ferrying them to North Africa.
Personnel for the 78th FG traveled to England aboard RMS
Queen Elizabeth, which had been painted in an overall gray
camouflage.25 November 1942: A P-38 that has just arrived on the deck of a ship from the US is
lowered onto a flatbed trailer on a Belfast dock. It will then be towed to the Langford
Lodge air depot to be made flyable again.
82nd FS flight jacket patch.