 Over the following seven weeks the 386th embarked on an intensive training program covering aircraft recognition, flying control procedures, German fighter tactics, combat formations, and medium altitude bombing (between and ).After flying four diversionary missions in mid-July, the 386th BG began combat operations on July 30, 1943, attacking the Luftwaffe fighter base at Woensdrecht Airfield in the Netherlands.The attack was the first at medium altitude by B-26s in Europe and was sharply contested by Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters of II./JG 26.