By the end of July 1945, the 345th had completed a move from Clark Field to the small island of Ie Shima, just off the western shore of Okinawa. From this base area, they flew combat missions along the coast of the Korean peninsula, through the Tsushima Straits, and over the Japanese island of Kyushu. After the official end of hostilities, the 345th flew search missions for downed aircrews, escorted Japanese emissaries to surrender proceedings, and flew reconnaissance patrols over Japan to ensure compliance with the terms of surrender.
As with the other maps in this series, multiple missions to the same target areas are not displayed. Instead, one instance of a target is shown to maintain clarity and to allow for the labeling of locations. The search missions flown from Ie Shima were often described as being centered on a set of geographic coordinates or generalized by a phrase, such as, “along the east coast of Kyushu”. Those missions have been placed according to their description. As always, place names are shown as they were during the 1940’s.
This concludes this map series of 345th Bomb Group mission targets from each of their base areas.