28 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
and weather reconnaissance.
Of the 55 78th FG pilots known to
have transferred to North Africa, at
least 36 were reassigned to the 48th
and 49th Squadrons of the 14th FG.
Thirteen of them joined the 49th FS
on 27 March and six more on 6 April.
The 14th had been relieved from
combat at the end of January after
suffering particularly heavy losses
that resulted in very poor morale. Its
surviving original pilots were sent
home and its remaining P-38s and
replacement pilots were reassigned to
the 82nd FG. Hence its need for the
former 78th FG pilots to rebuild its
two squadrons.
In March, the 37th FS, previously
a part of the 55th FG in Washington
State, joined the 14th FG at
Mediouna. (The 14th’s original third
squadron, the 50th, had been detached
from the Group in Iceland during the
Bolero operation.) Only one of the
former 78th Group pilots is known
to have joined the 37th Squadron. At
least eleven of them were reassigned
to the 1st FG, while just two went to
the 82nd FG.of a permanent air base in oh-so-
civilized England, they would be
operating from crude desert airfields
in the backward French colonial
countries of Algeria and Tunisia. And
they would be flying a wide variety of
missions from them: High-altitude
B-17 escorts, lower-level twin-engine
North American B-25 Mitchell and
Martin B-26 Marauder escorts, lots of
dive-bombing and strafing of ground
targets, skip bombing of Axis ships,when 84th FS pilot 2nd Lt. Harry H.
Vogelson destroyed P-38G-10-LO
42-12988 while taking off on another
ferry flight. (Vogelson eventually made
it to North Africa and was reassigned
to the 14th FG.)
The 78th’s former pilots would
soon be involved in a very different
war from the one in which they had
expected to be serving. Instead of
flying long-range heavy bomber escort
missions from the relative comfort
The Mediouna Airport near Casablanca
on 9 April 1943. This is where the 14th
FG reformed from February to May of
that year. The P-38 in the background
is being serviced and/or repaired, while
the one in the foreground is being
cannibalized for parts.In this photo Lt. Sam Sweet (second from the left) is celebrating his third and fourth
victories, two Bf 109s he shot down over Sicily on 25 May 1943. These four 27th FS
pilots scored a total of eight kills on that mission.