The 834th Eng.Avn. Bn. was formed at Westover Field in Mass. in May of 1942 and landed in England in August 1942. They proceeded to Matching Green, Essex and for the next 18 months built an airbase which was then used by a medium bomber group. The advance elements of the unit were scheduled to land on Omaha beach at H-Hour +4 but due to heavy enemy fire were forced to lay over and landed the next morning. After recon. they built an emergency air strip from which the first Allied fighter planes landed and took off since the fall of France. They continued on through four campaigns and were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
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