 Additional operations included striking airfields, bridges, and gun batteries prior to and during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944; hitting enemy positions to assist ground forces south of Caen and at Saint-Lô in July 1944; bombing German fortifications to cover the airborne attack on the Netherlands in September 1944; attacking enemy communications during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944-January 1945; and assisting the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945.The 493d Bomb Group flew its last combat mission, an attack on marshalling yards at Nauen, on 20 April 1945.The unit returned to Sioux Falls AAF South Dakota and was inactivated on 28 August 1945.