The 98th trained for bombardment missions with Consolidated B-24 Liberators during the first half of 1942.
The group was alerted and departed for the Middle East on 15 July 1942, arriving in Palestine in late July 1942.
The 98th was initially assigned to the USMEAF (United States Middle East Air Force).
However, the USMEAF was dissolved on 12 November 1942. At that time, the 98th came under Ninth Air Force.
It flew its first mission to Mersa Matruh, Libya on 1 August 1942, with the aircraft being serviced by Royal Air Force personnel until 98th maintenance personnel arrived in mid-August 1942.
It supported the British Eighth Army in its westward advance from Egypt into Libya and Tunisia.
It bombed shipping and harbor installations in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Crete, and Greece to cut enemy supply lines to Africa and to prepare for the Allied invasion of Italy.
The 98th earned a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for action against the enemy in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sicily from August 1942 to August 1943.
It received a second DUC for participation in a low-level bombing raid on enemy-held oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, on 1 August 1943. On this raid, of 47 B-24s launched, only 21 returned safely.
One crashed on takeoff with the loss of all crewmembers except two. Six aborted before reaching the target. Seventeen went down in enemy territory. Two went down at sea.
The Group Commander, Col. John R. (Killer) Kane was awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership.
The 98th was under the command of the Twelfth Air Force in September and October 1943.
From 1 November 1943 it was under the Fifteenth Air Force and moved to Italy.
It flew many long-range missions to France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania to bomb enemy heavy industries, airdromes, harbors, oil fields, and communication centers.
On another raid on Ploesti on 9 July 1944, Lt. Donald Pucket sacrificed his life trying to save three of his crewmembers who could not or would not bail out of their doomed B-24.
Donald Pucket was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his sacrifice.