Jan. 9, 1941. The Avro Lancaster heavy bomber prototype makes its first flight at Woodford, England. The four-engine Lancaster can carry 14,000 pounds of bombs and has a range of 1,600 miles. The Lancaster was used to carry the 22,000-pound ‘Tallboy’ bomb, the largest conventional bomb used by the Allies.

March 22, 1941. The first black flying unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, is activated. It becomes one of three squadrons of the 332rd Fighter Group—known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Read Tuskegee Airmen

April 11, 1941. With the possibility that the US would be drawn into World War II and that all of Europe could be in Axis hands, the Army Air Corps invites Consolidated and Boeing to submit design studies for a bomber capable of achieving 450 mph at 25,000 feet, a range of 12,000 miles at 275 mph, and a payload of 4,000 pounds of bombs at maximum range. This study results in the Convair B-36.

April 18, 1941. Local newspaper publisher Amon G. Carter and Army Air Corps Maj. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold break ground for the new Consolidated Aircraft plant in Fort Worth, Texas. The $50 million plant, which would produce B-24s and B-32s during World War II and later the B-36, B-58, F-111 and F-16 aircraft, is completed a year later, 100 days ahead of schedule.

April 22, 1941. During the battle for Greece, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Marmaduke Thomas St. John “Pat” Pattle, flying a Hawker Hurricane, shoots down three German fighters, and then is himself shot down by Messerschmitt Bf-110s. He crashes into the Aegean Sea. Officially credited with 23 aerial victories, he may have had as many as 20 more, which would have made him the RAF’s leading ace of World War II; however, most records are lost when the British evacuate Greece.

May 6, 1941. Company test pilot Lowery Brabham makes the first flight of the Republic XP-47B Thunderbolt at Farmingdale, N.Y. The P-47, the heaviest single-engine fighter ever built in the US, will see action in every theater in World War II as both a high-altitude escort fighter and as a low-level fighter bomber.

May 13–14, 1941. In the first mass flight of bombers over the Pacific, 21 B-17s fly from Hamilton Field, Calif., to Hickam Field, Hawaii, in 13 hours, 10 minutes.

June 26, 1941. Royal Air Force Pilot Officer James E. “Johnnie” Johnson, flying a Supermarine Spitfire, records his first aerial victory, shooting down a German Messerschmitt Me-109 over France. Johnson goes on to record a total of 38 “kills”— all fighters — to become the RAF’s leading ace of World War II.

June 27, 1941. The experimental—and by this time militarily obsolete—Douglas XB-19 bomber is flown for the first time by Army Air Forces Lt. Col. Stanley Umstead and Maj. Howard G. Bunker (with a crew of five) at Clover Field, Santa Monica, Calif. The XB-19, with a wingspan of 212 feet, a length of 132 feet, and a height of 42 feet is the largest aircraft built until the B-36 six years later.

July 8, 1941. The RAF makes a daylight attack on Wilhelmshaven, Germany, using Boeing Fortress Is. This is the first operational use of the B-17 Flying Fortress.

Aug. 7, 1941. The Grumman XTBF-2 torpedo bomber prototype makes its first flight at Bethpage, Long Island, NY. Officially nicknamed Avenger, the TBF/TBM (the General Motors-built version) series made its debut at the Battle of Midway in 1942 and would serve with the Navy in a variety of roles, including antisubmarine warfare and as an airborne early warning radar aircraft until 1954. Called “Turkey” by pilots, the Avenger would serve in the air arms of several other countries until the early 1960s. A total of 9,839 aircraft of all versions would be built.

Aug. 12, 1941. The first AAF rocket-assisted takeoff of an airplane is made by Capt. Homer Boushey, a Wright Field test pilot, at Dayton, Ohio. Boushey flies a civilian Ercoupe airplane with rockets attached to its wings.

Aug. 27, 1941. Pilot Officer William R. “Wild Bill” Dunn, an American volunteer pilot flying a Hawker Hurricane with the Royal Air Force, is the first US citizen to become an ace when he records his fifth and sixth aerial victories (downing two Messerschmitt Bf-109Fs) over western Belgium. Dunn is flying with 71 Squadron, one of three RAF Eagle Squadrons that are composed of American volunteers.

Oct. 20, 1941. Japan’s Mitsubishi Ki-46, the first truly high performance reconnaissance aircraft, makes its first operational sortie over Malaysia. First flown in late November 1940, the high speed, high altitude (375 mph at 19,000 feet) Ki-46, is given the Allied code name “Dinah.”

Dec. 1, 1941. Civil Air Patrol is established. Read Valor: A CAP for the Sub Threat and The Citizen Air Fleet

Dec. 7, 1941. At 7:55 a.m. local time, the Imperial Japanese Navy air force strikes military facilities at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, (including Hickam and Wheeler Fields) in a surprise attack. The first wave consists of 183 aircraft (91 dive bombers, 49 torpedo bombers, and 43 fighters). The second wave began 45 minutes later and consisted of 170 aircraft (80 dive bombers, 54 torpedo bombers, and 36 fighters). In less than two hours, crews flying the 274 aircraft dropped 152.7 tons of bombs and torpedoes. Only 25 AAF fighter pilots got into the air, mainly against the second wave. Maj. Truman H. Landon, leading a flight of unarmed and out of fuel Boeing B-17s flying from California, has to land at Hickam Field in the middle of the raid. These aircraft were virtually ignored by the Japanese, and only one was destroyed and three were damaged. Damage to the US forces in Hawaii, however, was devastating: 2,403 were killed and 1,178 injured (including civilians, roughly 4,500 casualties): Five battleships were sunk (although one was later raised) and three more were damaged; two other ships were sunk; and three cruisers and three destroyers were damaged. Of the 231 US Army aircraft in Hawaii, only 79 were usable; of 169 US Navy aircraft, 82 survived the attack; and 47 of 48 US Marine aircraft were destroyed. Fortunately, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers were at sea at the time of the attack. Read Caught With our Planes Down

Dec. 7, 1941. 2nd Lt George Welch gets his P-40 into the air over Pearl Harbor and shoots down four Japanese aircraft.
Read Valor: Pearl Harbor and Beyond

Dec. 8, 1941. The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, company test pilot Robert Stanley makes the first flight of the Bell XP-63 Kingcobra, a bigger and more powerful version of the P-39, at Buffalo, N.Y.

Dec. 10, 1941. Five B-17s of the 93rd Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, carry out the first heavy bomb mission of World War II, attacking a Japanese convoy near the Philippines and also sinking the first enemy vessel by US aerial combat bombing.

Dec. 10, 1941. Legend says that Colin Kelley sank a Japanese battleship and received the Medal of Honor. Neither assertion is factual. However, Capt. Colin P. Kelley Jr., was a genuine hero. Three days after Pearl Harbor, Kelly’s B-17—lightly armed and without fighter escort—attacked a Japanese landing force in northern Luzon. With the B-17 hit by enemy fighters and burning, Kelly ordered the crew to bail out but the aircraft went down before he could escape himself. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Read Colin Kelly

Dec. 10, 1941. Marine Capt. Henry Elrod, flying one of the last remaining Grumman F4F Wildcats on Wake Island, shoots down a Mitsubishi G3M (Allied code name “Nell”) bomber. The next day, sinks the destroyer Kisaragi when his two 100-pound bombs detonate depth charges stowed on the ship’s deck and it explodes. Out of aircraft, the pilots of VMF-211 become traditional Marines and Elrod leads troops in ground combat and is killed on Oct. 23. For his actions in the war’s first month, he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1946, retroactively becoming the first Marine Medal of Honor recipient in World War II.

Dec. 11, 1941. Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr., the author of “High Flight,” the best known poem about aviation, is killed when his Supermarine Spitfire collides with another airplane over Britain. He was only 19 years old. An American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force, Magee had written “High Flight” in Aug. or Sept. and mailed a copy to his parents in Washington, D.C.

Dec. 12, 1941. Capt. Jesus Villamor, flying an obsolete Boeing P-26, manages to shoot down a Japanese bomber over the Philippines. This was the only aerial victory credited to a pilot while flying the “Peashooter,” the AAF’s first monoplane fighter.

Dec. 16, 1941. Lt. Boyd “Buzz” Wagner becomes the first American USAAF ace of World War II by shooting down his fifth Japanese airplane over the Philippines.
Read Valor: AAF’s First Ace

Dec. 20, 1941. Led by Claire L. Chennault and flying old shark-mouthed P-40 fighters, the American Volunteer Group—the legendary “Flying Tigers” —begins combat operations over China against the Japanese invaders. Before they are integrated into the US Army Air Forces on July 4, 1942, the Flying Tigers shoot down 300 Japanese aircraft, while losing 50 of their own airplanes and nine pilots.
Read Flying Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Tex; and The Flying Tigers

1942

Feb. 23, 1942. B-17s attack Rabaul, the first Allied raid on the newly established Japanese base.

Feb. 20, 1942. When his wingman’s guns jams, Navy Lt. (j.g.) Edward “Butch” O’Hare, flying a Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat, finds himself the only thing standing between nine attacking Japanese bombers and his ship, the USS Lexington off New Britain. He shoots down five of the Mitsubishi G4M (Allied code name ‘Betty’) bombers and forces the crews of another four to miss their target. O’Hare, the Navy’s first ace of World War II, is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Feb. 22, 1942. First American air headquarters in Europe in World War II, US Army Bomber Command, is established in England, with Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, commanding.

March 7, 1942. The first five African American pilots graduate from training at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. By the end of the war, the Tuskegee Airmen would include 950 pilots and open the door to the armed forces for other African Americans.

March 9, 1942. The US Army is reorganized into three autonomous forces: Army Air Forces, Ground Forces, and Services of Supply.

March 26, 1942. Company pilot John F. Martin (and crew) make the first flight of the Douglas C-54 at Clover Field, Santa Monica, Calif. This long range heavy transport will gain fame in World War II, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean War.

April 1942. Thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of the Japanese endure the Bataan Death March—or die.
Read Valor: Death March

April 8, 1942. The first flight of supplies takes place over “The Hump”—a 500-mile air route from Assam, India, over the Himalayas, to Kunming, China, where the Chinese continue to resist Japanese forces. By Aug., Tenth Air Force will be ferrying over 700 tons a month to these troops who were cut off by the Japanese control of the Burma Road.
Read Flying the Hump

April 12, 1942. Relaying a request from the pilots of the 94th Pursuit Squadron at March Field, Calif., to improve morale, Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s World War I “ace of aces,” asks Gen. H.H. “Hap” Arnold to restore the “Hat in the Ring” emblem to the 94th PS. The 94th had been forced to change in 1924 to the Indian Head emblem used by the World War I-era 103rd Aero Squadron because of possible commercial endorsement concerns with the Rickenbacker automobile. Arnold agrees.

April 18, 1942. Sixteen North American B-25s, commanded by Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, take off from USS Hornet (CV-8) and bomb Tokyo. For planning and successfully carrying out this daring raid, Doolittle is promoted to brigadier general (skipping the grade of colonel) and is awarded the Medal of Honor.
Read Valor: First Over Tokyo and "The Doolittle Raid," Air Force Magazine, April 1992.

April 27, 1942. The first contingent of 1,800 Army Air Forces personnel to be sent to Europe sails from Boston, headed for Liverpool. The first crews, flying 18 Boeing B-17s, will leave the US on June 23, and after flying the main ferry route through Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland, and reach England on July 1.

May 4–8, 1942. The Battle of the Coral Sea becomes the first naval engagement fought solely by aircraft.

May 7-8, 1942. On the first day of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Navy Lt. John Powers, flying a Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bomber from the USS Yorktown scores a hit on the Japanese carrier Shoho. The next day, a burst of Japanese gunfire injures both Powers and his radioman/gunner and holes one of the SBD’s fuel tanks. Streaming fire, Powers holds his drop to point-blank range on the Japanese carrier Shokaku. The 1,000 pound bomb sets off a secondary explosion that damages the ship so severely that it later sinks. He crashes in flames just beyond the carrier. Powers is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

May 8, 1942. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Navy Lt. (j.g.) William E. Hall, with radioman/gunner S1C John Moore, engages four Japanese Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers (Allied code name ‘Kate’) attempting to attack the USS Lexington (CV-3) and shoot down two of them. Jumped by three pilots flying Mitsubishi A6M Zeros (‘Zekes’), Hall claims two, while Moore gets credit for shooting down the other. Injured during the fight. For this and other actions during the battle, Hall is awarded the Medal of Honor.

May 14, 1942. The first captured German aircraft arrives in the United States for evaluation. The aircraft, a Messerschmitt Bf-109E that had previously been evaluated by the British, is delivered to Wright Field, Ohio.

May 26, 1942. Contract test pilot Vance Breese makes the first flight of the Northrop XP-61 Black Widow from Northrop Field in Hawthorne, Calif. The Black Widow is the Army Air Forces’s first purpose-designed night fighter.

May 30, 1942. The Sikorsky XR-4 Hoverfly, the prototype of the world’s first production helicopter and the only US helicopter to see action in World War II, is officially accepted by the Army Air Forces at Wright Field, Ohio. Company pilot C.L. “Les” Morris had flown the prototype 761 miles from the Stratford, Conn., factory to Wright Field in five days and 16 flights, and Igor Sikorsky was the passenger on the last hop from Springfield, Ohio, to the base. They were met by Orville Wright when they arrived.

June 3–4, 1942. In the Battle of Midway, three US carriers destroy four Japanese carriers while losing one of their own, inflicting a major defeat on the Japanese fleet.
Read Valor: Marauders at Midway

June 12, 1942. In the first mission against a European target, 13 B-24s of HALPRO Detachment fly from Egypt against the Ploesti, Romania, oil fields.

June 4, 1942. After his squadron commander is shot down in the Battle of Midway, Marine Capt. Richard Fleming, flying a Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber, leads an attack on the Japanese carrier Hiryu, dropping his bomb from an altitude of 400 feet and scoring a hit, despite heavy antiaircraft fire and fighter attacks. He returns to the airstrip on the island with 175 holes in his aircraft. The next day, flying an obsolete Vought SB2U-3 Vindicator, he attacks the cruiser Mikuma, but the aircraft is shot down and both he and gunner PFC George Toms are killed. Fleming is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

June 26, 1942. The Grumman XF6F-1 prototype makes its first flight at Bethpage, Long Island, NY. In two years of combat, Naval aviators flying Hellcats (as the type was later officially nicknamed) would account for the destruction of 5,216 Japanese aircraft, while British F6F pilots in the South Pacific added 47 more, and British and American Hellcat pilots downed 13 German aircraft in Europe. Approximately 270 F6Fs were lost in air combat, but with a grand total of 5,216 Axis aircraft destroyed, Hellcat pilots recorded a 19:1 kill ratio. A total of 12,275 Hellcats were built and the type remained in service with several foreign countries until 1961.

July 4, 1942. US crews of the 15th Bombardment Squadron, operating British Boston IIIs (the RAF version of the Douglas A-20 Havoc), fly the first Army Air Forces bomber mission over Western Europe. Four aerodromes in The Netherlands were attacked.

July 4, 1942. The Flying Tigers are incorporated into the AAF as the 23rd Pursuit Group.
Read Valor: They Said It Couldn’t Be Done

July 7, 1942. A B-18 of 396th Bombardment Squadron sinks a German submarine off Cherry Point, N.C., in first sure aerial victory off the Atlantic coast by aircraft.

July 10, 1942. Company test pilot Ben O. Howard makes the first flight of the Douglas XA-26 Invader prototype at El Segundo, Calif. The A-26 would experience development difficulties, but Invaders would be used to great effect in World War II and Korea, and would be recalled to service in Vietnam.

July 18, 1942. The all-jet powered Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe (“Swallow”) prototype makes its first flight at Leipheim, Germany. (A piston-engine powered version had been flown the previous year). The Me-262 is the world’s first jet to enter operational service. In just over a month in 1944, Jagdverband a squadron hand assembled by Gen. Adolf Galland, the Luftwaffe’s chief of fighters, shoots down 45 Allied bombers.
“ The Coming of the German Jets,” Air Force Magazine, August 1987.

Aug. 7, 1942. Capt. Harl Pease Jr., had flown a mission on Aug. 6 in his Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, which lost an engine near Rabaul, New Britain. He was forced to return to his base in Australia. He was not scheduled for the next day’s missions and all serviceable airplanes had crews assigned. He locates an unserviced bomber, somehow persuades the crew chief to get it in shape, and, with a volunteer crew, joins the day’s mission against the enemy at an airfield near Rabaul. When the formation is intercepted by approximately 30 enemy fighter pilots, Pease’s crew destroys several Zeroes before dropping his bombs as planned. The fight lasts 25 minutes until the group dives into cloud cover. After leaving the target, Pease’s aircraft falls behind and the enemy ignites one of his bomb bay fuel tanks. He is seen dropping the flaming tank, but the airplane and crew do not return to base. Pease is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, and in 1957, the (now closed) air base at Portsmouth, N.H., will be named Pease AFB in his honor.
Read Valor: Rabaul on a Wing and a Prayer

Aug. 17, 1942. The first American heavy bomber mission in western Europe in World War II is flown by B-17s of the 97th Bombardment Group against the Rouen-Sotteville railyards in France.

Aug. 30, 1942. Marine Capt. John L. Smith, flying a Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, shoots down four Japanese aircraft over Guadalcanal. From Aug. 21 through the middle of October, Smith shoots down 19 Japanese aircraft. For this feat and his leadership in which his squadron shot down 126.5 aircraft, he appears on the cover of Life Magazine and is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Sept. 9, 1942. The three Royal Air Force squadrons (Nos. 71, 121, and 133), which are composed of American volunteers, are transferred to the Army Air Forces and reformed into the 4th Fighter Group. The pilots of the Eagle Squadrons, which had flown Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires, had been in combat since mid 1941.

Sept. 21, 1942. Company test pilot Eddie Allen and crew make the first flight of the Boeing XB-29 Superfortress in Seattle, Wash. Designed as a replacement for the B-17 and B-24, the B-29 is considered the ultimate World War II bomber.

Oct. 1, 1942. The Bell XP-59A lifts off from Rogers Dry Lake, Calif., with Bell test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls. It is the first flight of a jet airplane in the United States. The next day, Col. Lawrence C. “Bill” Cragie becomes the first AAF pilot to fly a jet when he makes the type’s “official” first flight.

Oct. 2, 1942. Marine Maj. Bob Galer, leading a force of a dozen Grumman F4F-4 Wildcats, goes against nine Mitsubishi G4M (Allied code name “Betty”) bombers over Guadalcanal, but quickly realizes he has been caught in an ambush, as 36 Mitsubishi A6M Zero (‘Zeke’) fighters swoop down. He fights his way out of the engagement, shooting down two Zeros. By October, his total of aerial victories will reach 13. Galer was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism and leadership.

Oct. 16, 1942. At the end of a five-hour ferry flight and nearly out of fuel, Marine Lt. Col. Harold Bauer, leading a flight of Grumman F4F-4 Wildcats, encounters nine Aichi D3A dive bombers (Allied code name “Val”) attacking the USS McFarland, a transport bringing vital supplies to Guadalcanal. The other 18 US aircraft have to land, but Colonel Bauer, remaining airborne, catches four of the attackers as they withdraw and shoots three down and forces the fourth to crash land. He then lands with his aircraft running on fumes. On Nov. 14, Bauer is shot down and his body is never recovered. He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Oct. 25, 1942. In two missions over Guadalcanal, Capt. Joe Foss, the executive officer of VMF-121, shoots down five Japanese aircraft, becoming the Marine Corps’ first “ace in a day.” Foss’s total of aerial victories eventually reaches 26, making him the first American pilot in World War II to match Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker’s World War I record. Foss is awarded the Medal of Honor. After the war, he moves to the Air National Guard and becomes national president of the Air Force Association.

Nov. 2, 1942. NAS Patuxent River, Md., is established as the Navy’s test center for aircraft and equipment.

Nov. 8, 1942. Col. Demas T. Craw, the deputy executive officer of the 2nd Bomb Command, Maj. Pierpont M. Hamilton, assistant chief of staff for intelligence for the landings in North Africa, and one infantryman come ashore with the first wave of the 9th Infantry Division at Port Lyautey, French Morocco, in a clandestine effort to secure an armistice from the Vichy French commander. The Americans get behind the Vichy lines, but Craw is killed as their vehicle is attacked. Hamilton and the enlisted driver are captured. With a full scale attack eminent, the French commander in Casablanca agrees to a armistice with Hamilton, who, after reaching a US tank on the beach, radios Gen. George S. Patton to stop the action. Both Craw and Hamilton are awarded the Medal of Honor. Hamilton’s service career would extend into the mid 1950s. He will pass away in 1982.
Read Valor: A Desperate Venture

Nov. 8–11, 1942. Army pilots take off from carriers to support the invasion of North Africa. The P-40 pilots then touch down at land bases.

Nov. 9, 1942. The Piper L-4, the Piper Cub in its military incarnation, is flown into combat for the first time, as three aircraft take off from a Navy aircraft carrier deck to spot for ground forces going ashore in the invasion of North Africa. The L-4s are piloted by Lt. William Butler (with Capt. Brenton Deval sitting in the back seat), Lt. John R. Shell, and Capt. Ford Allcorn.

Dec. 1942. The first issue of the AAF’s Air Force Magazine is published. It succeeds the Army Air Forces Newsletter.

Dec. 4, 1942. Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberator crews, based in Egypt, bomb Naples—the first American attacks in Italy.

Dec. 27, 1942. 2nd Lt. Richard I. Bong, who would later go on to be America’s leading ace of all time and receive the Medal of Honor, records his first aerial victory. Bong recorded all of his victories while flying the Lockheed P-38, scoring more than half of his aerial victories while flying with the 9th Fighter Squadron.

1943

Jan. 1, 1943. US Marine Corps dive and torpedo bombers are jumped by Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeros (Allied code name “Zeke”) in the Solomon Islands. Marine 1st Lt. Jefferson DeBlanc, flying cover, engages the Zeros, but abandons that fight to take on Mitsubishi F1M (“Pete”) floatplanes now attacking the bombers. He shoots down two and disperses the others before the Zeros reappear. Low on fuel, he shoots down three Zeros before bailing out of his severely damaged Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat. In 1946, he is recalled to active duty specifically to go to the White House to “trade in” the Navy Cross, originally awarded for this action, for the Medal of Honor.

Jan. 5, 1943. Army Air Forces Maj. Gen. Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz is appointed commander in chief of the Allied Air Forces in North Africa.

Jan. 5, 1943. Brig. Gen. Kenneth N. Walker leads an effective daylight bombing raid against shipping in the harbor at Rabaul, New Britain, scoring direct hits on nine enemy vessels. His airplane is disabled and forced down by enemy fighters. As commanding general of the 5th Bomber Command, Walker had repeatedly accompanied his B-24 and B-25 units on bombing missions deep into enemy territory and developed a highly efficient technique for bombing when opposed by enemy fighter planes and by anti-aircraft fire. For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty at an extreme hazard to life, he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. In 1949, the now closed Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico is renamed Walker AFB in his honor.
Read Valor: Courage and Conviction

Jan. 9, 1943. Famed Boeing test pilot Edmund T. “Eddie” Allen and Lockheed test pilot Milo Burcham make the first flight of the Lockheed C-69 transport (the military version of the Model 49 Constellation) at Burbank, Calif. Allen was on loan to Lockheed for the occasion.

Jan. 27, 1943. The first American air raid on Germany is made by Eighth Air Force B-17 crews against Wilhelmshaven and other targets in the northwestern part of the country.

Feb. 15, 1943. It is announced that Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker will succeed Maj. Gen. Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz as commander of AAF’s Eighth Air Force.
Read “Eaker of the Eighth,” Air Force Magazine, October 1987 and Eaker's Way

Feb. 18, 1943. First class of 39 flight nurses graduates from AAF School of Air Evacuation, Bowman Field, Ky.

Feb. 27, 1943. RAF Bomber Command announces that the Allied air forces have made 2,000 sorties in the past 48 hours.

March 1–3, 1943. In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, land-based airplanes sank every ship in a Japanese convoy en route to resupply and reinforce the Japanese garrison on New Guinea.
Read Victory in the Bismarck Sea

March 2–4, 1943. A Japanese attempt to reinforce Lae, New Guinea, is foiled by aircraft of the Southwest Pacific Air Forces during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Modified B-25s are used for the first time in low-level skip bombing techniques. More than 60 enemy aircraft are destroyed, and some 40,000 tons of Japanese shipping are sunk.

March 5, 1943. The Gloster F.9/40, the prototype of the Meteor jet fighter, makes its first flight at Glouscestershire, England. The Meteor is the Royal Air Force’s first operational jet and is the only Allied jet fighter to see combat in World War II.

March 10, 1943. Fourteenth Air Force is formed under the command of Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault.

March 19, 1943. Lt. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold is promoted to four-star rank, a first for the Army Air Forces.

April 4, 1943. The B-24 Lady Be Good, returning from a bombing mission, overshoots its base at Soluch, Libya, and is not heard from again. In 1959, the wreckage will be found by an oil exploration party 440 miles into the Libyan desert.

April 7, 1943. Marine 1st Lt. James E. Swett, flying a Grumman F4F-4 ,shoots down eight Aichi D3A (Allied code name “Val”) dive bombers near Guadalcanal, setting the Marine Corps record for aerial victories in a single flight. He later receives the Medal of Honor.

April 8, 1943. The Republic P-47 enters combat, as Thunderbolt pilots escort B-17s over Europe. The 56th and 78th Fighter Groups were the first to equip with the “Jug.”

April 15, 1943. In action in the Solomon Islands, Marine 1st Lt. Kenneth Walsh, whose group is outnumbered six to one, repeatedly dives his plane into an enemy formation. Although his plane is hit numerous times, he shoots down two Aichi D3A (Allied code name “Val”) dive bombers and a Mitsubishi A6M Zero (‘Zeke’). Two weeks later, Walsh shoots down four Zeros. After being hit with machine gun and cannon fire, he ditches off Vella Lavella. For his actions on these two missions, he receives the Medal of Honor .

April 18, 1943. P-38 pilots from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, intercept and shoot down two Mitsubishi “Betty” bombers over Bougainville. The aerial ambush kills Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack. Read Magic and Lightning

April 21, 1943. Navy Capt. Frederick M. Trapnell becomes the first Naval aviator to pilot a jet powered aircraft when he flies the Bell XP-59 Airacomet at Muroc, Calif., as an exchange pilot.

May 1, 1943. SSgt. Maynard H. Smith flies his first mission as a gunner aboard a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with the 306th Bomb Group’s 423rd Squadron over Europe. On return, over St. Nazaire, France, his bomber is subjected to intense enemy antiaircraft fire and fighter airplane attacks, being hit several times with fires in the radio compartment and waist sections. Three of the crew bail out over water. On his own, Smith succeeds in extinguishing the flames, renders first aid to a wounded crew member, mans the workable guns, and throws exploding ammunition overboard. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, one of only four AAF enlisted men to receive the award in World War II.
Read Valor: First of the Few

May 6, 1943. USAAF Capt. H. Franklin Gregory, flying the Sikorsky XR-4 Hoverfly, makes the first helicopter landing on a ship as he touches down on the S.S. Bunker Hill riding at anchor in Long Island Sound, N.Y.

May 17, 1943. Eleven crews flying Martin B-26s take off from England for a low level bombing mission in Holland. One turns back because of mechanical difficulty. The remaining 10 aircraft are all shot down. This mission results in a change in tactics, as from that point on, Marauder crews bomb from medium altitudes of 10,000 to 15,000 feet where they will suffer only light losses to anti-aircraft fire.

May 17, 1943. The crew of the Memphis Belle, a 91st Bomb Group Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress, becomes the first heavy bomber crew in the European Theater to complete a full tour of 25 missions. The milestone mission was a raid on the German U-boat pens at Lorient, France. After returning to their base at Bassingbourne, England, the crew, led by Capt. Robert Morgan, would go on a “26th mission”—returning to the United States to sell War Bonds. A wartime documentary produced by noted director Lt. Col. William Wyler would chronicle this historic mission.

May 18, 1943. An aerial bombing offensive is opened against the island of Pantelleria, off the coast of Italy, to weaken it for invasion. As landing craft approached the island on June 11, its defenders surrendered, completely exhausted from weeks of being bombed. This marked the first time a major military objective had surrendered because of airpower.
Read Pantelleria, 1943

May 30, 1943. All organized Japanese resistance ceases on Attu in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. Attu was recaptured by American forces at a fearful cost in lives; all but 28 members of the Japanese garrison sacrificed themselves.

June 15, 1943. The 58th Bombardment Wing, the Army Air Forces’ first B-29 unit, is established at Marietta, Ga.

June 15, 1943. The world’s first operational jet bomber, the German Arado Ar-234V-1 Blitz, makes its first flight.

June 16, 1943. Capt. Jay Zeamer Jr. volunteers as pilot of a bomber to photograph the formidable defended area of Buka, Solomon Islands. Although 20 enemy fighters were taking off from the airfield, Zeamer proceeds with his mapping run. In the attack, he is injured in both arms and legs, but maneuvers the damaged airplane so skillfully that his gunners fight off the enemy for 40 minutes, destroying five planes. In wavering consciousness, he turns over the controls and directs the flight to a base 580 miles away. Zeamer is later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Read Valor: Battle Over Bougainville

June 16, 1943. 2nd Lt. Joseph R. Sarnoski volunteers as a bombardier on a Consolidated B-24 Liberator crew for an important photographic mission covering the heavily defended Buka area in the Solomon Islands. When the mission is nearly completed, approximately 20 enemy fighter pilots intercept the aircraft. At the nose guns, Sarnoski fights off the first attackers, allowing the pilot to finish the plotted course. When a frontal attack extensively damages the airplane and seriously injures five of the crew, he continues firing and shoots down two enemy airplanes, despite his own injuries. A 20 mm shell bursts in the nose, knocking him into the catwalk under the cockpit. He crawls back to his post and continues firing until he collapses on his guns and dies. Sarnoski is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Read Valor: Battle Over Bougainville

July 2, 1943. AAF Lt. Charles Hall shoots down a German FW-190 over Sicily, becoming the first black US flier to down an Axis airplane.

July 6, 1943. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bruce A. Van Voorhis, piloting a Consolidated PB4Y-1 Privateer, reportedly attacks the Japanese base on Hare (Greenwich) Island in the Carolines, and “makes six bold, ground-level attacks to demolish the enemy’s vital radio station, installations, antiaircraft guns, and to destroy one fighter plane in the air and three on the water. Caught in his own bomb blast, [he] crashed into the lagoon.” He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. After the war,.it is determined that little damage was inflicted on the radio station and that Commander Van Voorhis was likely shot down while make a low approach to the airfield.

July 6, 1943. Mladshy Leitenant (Captain) Ivan Kozhedub, flying a Lavochkin La-5 fighter, records his first aerial victory. Kozhedub would eventually reach 62 “kills,” making him the Soviet Union’s all-time leading ace.

July 19, 1943. Rome is bombed for the first time. Flying from Benghazi, Libya, 158 B-17 crews and 112 B-24 crews carry out a morning raid. A second attack is staged in the afternoon.

July 28, 1943. 2nd Lt. John C. Morgan is copilot of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress when it is attacked and damaged by enemy fighter pilots; the pilot is injured and falls over the aircraft’s control yoke. Morgan takes the controls and, despite the frantic struggles of the semiconscious pilot, pulls the airplane back into formation. Hearing no fire from the bomber’s gunners, he believes they have bailed out. He decides to continue the flight unassisted to and over the target and back to safety to protect any crew members still on board. For two hours, he flies in formation with one hand on the controls and the other holding off the struggling pilot before the navigator enters the cockpit and pulls the pilot off. The mission is completed and the aircraft and crew return safely. Morgan was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. He was shot down over Germany on March 6, 1944, and held as a prisoner of war until May 1, 1945.
Read Valor: Crisis in the Cockpit

Aug. 1, 1943. Staging from Benghazi, 177 Ninth Air Force B-24s drop 311 tons of bombs from low level on the oil refineries at Ploesti during Operation Tidal Wave. Forty-nine aircraft are lost, and seven others land in Turkey. This is the first large-scale, minimum-altitude attack by AAF heavy bombers on a strongly defended target. It is also the longest major bombing mission to date in terms of distance from base to target. Five AAF officers, Col. Leon Johnson, Col. John R. Kane, Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker, Maj. John L. Jerstad, 2nd Lt. Lloyd Hughes would be awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions. More AAF Medals of Honor were awarded for this mission than any other in the service’s history.
Read Valor: Into the Mouth of Hell and Valor: The Ordeal of Sad Sack II

Aug. 5, 1943. The Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS), composed of women flyers with commercial licenses, is merged with the Women’s Flying Training Detachment, which had been formed to recruit and train women pilots for ferrying duties. The new organization, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), is led by famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran.
Read Valor: The WASPs of World War II and The WASPs

Aug. 6, 1943. The Fourteenth Air Force insignia, a winged, pouncing tiger under the Army Air Forces star, is officially approved. The insignia, which had been the symbol of the American Volunteer Group in China, was drawn at the request of Gen. Claire Chennault, the AVG commander, by Hank Porter, an artist with Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif. The idea for the design, however, was originated by Roy Williams, who will become the “Big Mouseketeer” on the “Mickey Mouse Club” television show in the 1950s.

Aug. 17, 1943. Eighth Air Force bombers attack the Messerschmitt works at Regensburg, Germany, and ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt in a massive daylight raid. German fighters down 60 of the 376 American aircraft.
Read Against Regensburg and Schweinfurt

Aug. 18, 1943. While leading a formation of North American B-25 Mitchell bombers against the heavily defended Japanese air base at Wewak, New Guinea, Maj. Ralph Cheli’s aircraft is intercepted and damaged. Although a crash is inevitable, only after the bombing and strafing run is completed and the base heavily damaged does Cheli relinquish the formation lead. He then ditches the B-25 in the sea. Captured by the Japanese, he dies on March 6, 1944, when, while being transferred to Japan, the troop ship that he was on was bombed and sunk. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Wewak.
Read Valor: Triumph and Tragedy

Aug. 31, 1943. The Grumman F6F Hellcat goes into operational use with VF-5 off USS Yorktown (CV-10) in an attack on Marcus Island, 700 miles south of Japan. Hellcat pilots will account for nearly three-fourths of all Navy air-to-air victories in World War II.

Sept. 12, 1943. German commandos, led by Capt. Otto Skorzeny, help Italian dictator Benito Mussolini break out of a hotel in Gran Sasso where he is being held prisoner. Skorzeny and Il Duce escape in a Fieseler Fi-156 Storch observation airplane.

Sept. 27, 1943. P-47s with belly tanks go the whole distance with Eighth Air Force bombers for a raid on Emden, Germany.

Oct. 11, 1943. Col. Neel E. Kearby volunteers to lead a reconnaissance mission over a heavily defended Japanese base near Weewak, New Guinea. After completing the mission and shooting down a stray fighter, Kearby sights 12 enemy bombers and 36 fighters, and despite being low on fuel, gives his flight the signal to press the attack. He personally shoots down three aircraft in quick succession and then shoots down two enemy aircraft who were pursuing his wingman. He pulls his flight together in the clouds and then escapes to safety. For his actions on this date, Kearby was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Read Valor: Giant in a Jug

Oct. 14, 1943. Eighth Air Force conducts the second raid on the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany. As a result, the Germans will disperse their ball-bearing manufacturing. The raid becomes known as “Black Thursday,” since only 228 of the 291 B-17s sent on the raid actually put their bombs on the target. Sixty B-17s were shot down over the continent, five more crashed in England because of battle damage, 12 more had to be scrapped because of battle damage or crash landings, and 121 bombers had to be repaired before flying again. The human toll was even higher, as 600 men were lost over enemy territory, and there were five dead and 43 airmen wounded on the B-17s that did return. Only 35 German fighters were shot down.

Oct. 17, 1943. Marine Corps Maj. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington and his squadron shoot down eight Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeros. Before being shot down and captured in 1944, Boyington records 22 aerial victories. For his leadership of the Black Sheep squadron and his officially credited 28 victories (six of them with the Flying Tigers in China), he is first awarded the Navy Cross, and later the Medal of Honor.

Oct. 31, 1943. Over New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, a Chance Vought F4U-2 Corsair aviator accomplishes the Navy’s first successful radar-guided interception.

Nov. 2, 1943. Maj. Raymond H. Wilkins leads a formation of eight North American B-25 Mitchells against enemy shipping in Simpson Harbor, Rabaul, New Britain, on his 87th combat mission. Starting the attack, his airplane is hit almost immediately, the right wing is damaged and control is rendered extremely difficult. He holds fast, leads his squadron into the attack, strafes a group of small harbor vessels and then, at low level, attacks an enemy destroyer, which explodes. He also attacks and explodes a transport. As he begins to withdraw, a heavy cruiser bars the path, so he goes in for a strafing run to neutralize the cruiser’s guns and attract their fire. Wilkins’s airplane is damaged beyond control and crashes into the sea. He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic self-sacrifice. Wilkins AFS at Shelby, Ohio, was named in his honor during its period of activation.
Read Valor: Raid on Rabaul

Nov. 20, 1943. The stage play “Winged Victory” opens on Broadway. The Army Air Forces sponsored play, penned by famed playwright Moss Hart, tells the story of the AAF Training Command and the efforts of cadets to earn their wings. The cast of nearly 300 are all service members and includes such personalities as SSgt. Edmund O’Brien, Sgt. Barry Nelson, and Cpls. Karl Malden and Red Buttons. The play is later produced as a Hollywood film.

Nov. 22–26, 1943. At the Cairo Conference, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, along with Chiang Kai-Shek, agree that B-29s will be based in the China-Burma-India theater for strikes on the Japanese home islands.

Dec. 5, 1943. P-51 pilots begin escorting US bombers to European targets. Ninth Air Force begins Operation Crossbow raids against German bases where secret weapons are being developed.

Dec. 20, 1943. A 20 mm cannon shell explodes in the radio compartment of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during the bombing of Bremen, seriously injuring TSgt. Forrest L. Vosler. At about the same time, a direct hit on the tail gunner wounds him and damages his guns. Vosler keeps up a steady stream of fire, even after another enemy shell explodes, wounding him in the face and neck and lodging pieces of metal in both eyes. When the pilot decides to ditch, Vosler, working entirely by touch, gets the radio equipment up and running and sends out distress signals despite lapsing into unconsciousness. When the airplane is ditched, he gets out on the wing himself and holds the wounded tail gunner from slipping off until the other crew members could help them into the dinghy. For his actions, President Roosevelt later presents Vosler the Medal of Honor at the White House.
Read Valor: Ordeal by Flak and Fighter