B-24´s at the Harbor of Naples, Italy, February 07, 1943

Hi everyone. I´m new to this forum and I´m from Germany, so first of all: SORRY if my English is not sooooo well ...
I´m doing some ancestry research, and right now I´m trying to find out a bid more about the circumstances of my uncle´s death, who died at the age of 19 in a bombing at February 07, 1943 at the harbour of Naples, Italy. On your site http://www.armyairforces.com/Data/Chronology.aspx I found out: „Ninth AF – B-24´s hit harbor at Naples, scoring direct hit on 1 vessel and hits on others“.
My question is: Can anybody give me some more information about this bombing of Naples´ harbor at Febr. 07, 1943? What was its aim? (I suppose to  cut off supply for Northern Africa?) How many B 24´s were involved and which of the different B-24 types were used? And from which USAAF group? Are there photos or (newspaper-)articles about it? I would highly appreciate any information about it. THANKS A LOT!

There were three bomb groups with the 9th Air Force at this time,  93rd, 98th and the 376th.  On 7 February the 93rd and the 376th bombed Naples.  (Links are below at the end).   Naples and its harbor were heavily bombed in WWII.  It was a transportation hub.  At this point in the war the Germans were squeezed into Tunisia and there were still ships running supplies down to the few ports they still held in North Africa or to Sicily.
http://ac-support.europe.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/naples/Naples%20bombing.htm
Here are a couple of photos of Naples harbor and the Bay of Naples.
http://www.arkmilitaryheritage.com/_private/images/wwii/DISC_7/77.09.1513.jpg
http://www.arkmilitaryheritage.com/_private/images/wwii/DISC_9/77.09.2072.jpg
While it appears no ships were sunk in Naples on the 7th, on the 15th of February the bombers returned and two ships were sunk, the Modica and the Molo Carmine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_February_1943
Here are some links to clips of B-24s  bombing Naples and Naples Harbor in Feb 43.
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675034864_B-24-aircrafts_Mount-Vesuvius-volcano_flying-low-over-airbase_bombs-dropped-away
 
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675034863_B-24-aircrafts_top-turret-gunner-checking-his-gun_bomb-explosions-in-water_waist-gunner-on-alert

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Here are the links about the bomb groups that bombed Naples on the 7th.
Here is a story about  member of the 93rd and there is a link at the bottom of the first page showing his missions.  You can see he flew to Naples on  7 Feb 43.
http://www.pbs.org/mosthonorableson/theairwar.html
This next link will get you to missions of the 376th in 1943.  It also shows Naples on 7 Feb 43.   
First go to the archive site here:
http://archive.org/web/web.php
then paste this next link in after the http://
www.376bghistory.com/missions/1943.php
Then on the calender display, select the May 14  2008 capture of the site. 
 
 

Rolland...A small correction....the 93rd BG was assigned to the 8th AF...it was never assigned to the 9th AF...there were two times that a DETACHMENT was sent to Africa....the first was in Dec 42, and they were awarded a DUC for operations from Dec 42-Feb 43.
A detahcment returned to Mediterreane Theater Jun-Jul43 to support the invasion of SIily and to participate in the famous low level attack against enemy oil insatallations at Ploes,and again was ent back to ti on Aug 1, 1943. The detachment returned to England, and again was sent to the Med to support Fifth Army at Slaermo for the invasion of Italy, and rejoined teh group in Oct 43.
 
JIm :-)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        one was for the Low Level Ploesti Raid, and

Thanks a lot for your help! Some of your links were very helpfull to me, RSwank, thank you very much! Unfortunately the links to 376bghistory don´t work ...
 
If someone has any more information especially about the bombing Febr. 07, 1943, please let me know.
 
 
 
 
 
 

The 376th link should work now if you follow the "corrected" instructions on how to get there.  The 376th website exists in the Internet Archives, so it takes a little work.