An interactive map of the combat missions flown by the 345th Bomb Group during WW2, displayed using the Firefly map style.
I came across this “Firefly” map style in an Esri ArcGIS blog post written by James Nelson and thought it might be an interesting way to present the mission data for the 345th Bomb Group. Each mission is represented by a small, fuzzy, dot, but using this style, missions that are close together coalesce into larger glowing dots. This clustering has the effect of showing which areas received the most attention from the 345th and still maintains the accuracy that is lost with a “heat” style map. As you zoom in to a particular area or mission, the clustering effect is reduced until you are looking at individual missions.
Clicking on a map dot will open a popup that displays the mission number, mission date, squadron, target description, latitude and longitude, and any comments included in the mission logs.
The mission data includes most of the earliest missions flown by all four squadrons as orientation missions in June 1943. Some of the mission data was illegible and is not included. Reference to these missions was found in the historical narratives and Form 34’s included in the Unit Histories for each squadron. These documents were provided in digital format by AFHRA, the Air Force Historical Research Agency, located at Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
While there are some discrepancies between the Form 34’s and the narrative histories, with these two sources the history of the 345th Bomb Group during WW2 can be more fully portrayed.