Jan. 11, 1944. While escorting a group of B-17s and B-24s near Oschersleben, Germany, Lt. Col. James H. Howard engages a group of German Bf-109s and Bf-110s climbing to attack the bombers. Howard shoots downs one of the fighters and his squadron mates shoots down eight more. Realizing the “Big Friends’ are now unprotected, he climbs and single-handedly takes on 30 fighters attacking the bombers without waiting for his wingman or the rest of his squadron. He shoots down at least four of the attackers and then three of his six .50 cal. machine guns jam. Even though his fuel is low, he continues to press the fight and damages two more aircraft. He survives the engagement and is later awarded the Medal of Honor. He is the only pilot flying a North American P-51 Mustang to receive the Medal of Honor during World War II.
Read Valor: One Man Air Force

Jan. 11, 1944. The first US use of forward-firing rockets is made by Navy TBF-1C Avenger crews against a German submarine.

Jan. 22, 1944. Mediterranean Allied Air Forces fly 1,200 sorties in support of Operation Shingle, the amphibious landings at Anzio, Italy.

Feb. 3, 1944. Marine 1st Lt. Robert Hanson is shot down and killed while attacking a radar site at Cape St. George, New Ireland Island. In six months of action in the South Pacific, Hanson, recorded 25 victories, including 20 enemy aircraft in six missions over thirteen days in January 1944. He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Feb. 11, 1944. Despite constant mortar shelling and gunfire from Japanese shore installations and waves up to 15 feet high, Navy Lt. (j.g.) Nathan Gordon lands his Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina seaplane in Kavieng Harbor, New Ireland Island, four separate times (including flying directly over the enemy base on approach for the last landing) and rescues three Army Air Force crews whose North American B-25 Mitchells had been shot down. He is awarded the Medal of Honor. Gordon later serves as the governor of Arkansas for 20 years.

Feb. 15, 1944. The Nazi-occupied Abbey of Monte Cassino, Italy, is destroyed by 254 American B-17, B-25, and B-26 crews attacking in two waves. The ruins of the abbey will not be captured by Fifth Army until May 18, 1944.

Feb. 20, 1944. The first mission of “Big Week”—six days of strikes by Eighth Air Force (based in England) and Fifteenth Air Force (based in Italy) against German aircraft plants —is flown. Read Valor: Big Week—Day One

Feb. 20, 1944. Coming off bombing a target in Europe, lst Lt. William R. Lawley Jr.’s Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is attacked by 20 enemy fighters, is heavily damaged, and falls out of formation. With eight wounded crew members, a dead copilot, one engine on fire, and severe personal injuries, Lawley brings the bomber under control. Two crew members are too severely wounded to bail out, so Lawley attempts to land the aircraft. He evades additional enemy fighters, remains at his post, and refuses first aid until he collapses and is revived by the bombardier. Coming over the English coast, one engine runs out of fuel, and another starts to burn. Lawley manages to crash land at a fighter base. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions and goes on to complete a career in the Air Force.
Read Valor: One Turning and One Burning

Feb. 20, 1944. After a bombing run on enemy installations at Leipzig, Germany, a 510th Bomb Squadron Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is attacked, killing the copilot, severely wounding the pilot and radio operator, and extensively damaging the aircraft. SSgt. Archibald Mathies and 2nd Lt. Walter E. Truemper fly the aircraft back to their home station at Polebrook, England, where all but Mathies and Truemper bail out. The 510th BS commander orders them from the ground to abandon the crippled aircraft, but they refuse to desert the injured pilot. On their third attempt to land, the airplane crashes into an open field, killing Mathies, Truemper, and the injured pilot. Mathies and Truemper are posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor; Mathies is one of only four AAF enlisted men to receive the award in World War II.
Read Valor: A Tale of Two Texans

March 4, 1944. B-17s of the Eighth Air Force conduct the first daylight bombing raid on Berlin.

March 5, 1944. British Brig. Gen. Orde Wingate’s Raiders, popularly known as Chindits, are flown by US pilots in Waco CG-4A gliders to “Broadway,” a site near Indaw, Burma, in a daring night operation. Wingate will be killed 19 days later in an airplane crash.
Read The All–American Airman

March 6, 1944. In the first major USAAF attack on Berlin, 660 heavy bombers unload 1,600 tons of bombs.

March 16, 1944. NACA proposes that a jet-propelled transonic research airplane be developed. This ultimately leads to the Bell X-1.

March 25, 1944. Fifteenth Air Force crews temporarily close the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria. This mission, against the Aviso viaduct, is the first operational use of the VB-l Azon (Azimuth Only) radio-controlled bomb.

April 11, 1944. Led by Royal Air Force Wing Commander R.N. Bateson, six de Havilland Mosquitos of No. 613 Squadron bomb an art gallery at The Hague where population records are kept. These records, many of which were destroyed, were used by the Gestapo to suppress the Dutch resistance.

April 11, 1944. On a bombing mission to Germany, AAF lst Lt. Edward S. Michael’s Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is singled out by a swarm of enemy fighter pilots who riddle the airplane from nose to tail, follow it as it loses altitude, and continues firing, wounding the copilot, wrecking the cockpit instruments, and seriously wounding Michael in the right thigh. He orders the crew to bail out and seven crew members jump, but the bombardier stays as his parachute was shot up and useless. Disregarding his own injuries, Michael continues evasive action for 45 minutes, continuing into France through heavy flak, until he loses consciousness from loss of blood. The copilot takes over and gets to England and an RAF airfield. Michael awakens and takes the controls to land the crippled aircraft. Despite bomb bay doors that are jammed open, no hydraulic system, altimeter, or airspeed indicator, a ball turret that is jammed with the guns pointed down, and flaps that will not respond, Michael lands the B-17. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on this flight.
Read Valor: Gauntlet of Fire

April 12, 1944. AAF Maj. Richard I. Bong records three aerial victories in a single mission to bring his personal tally to 28, for which he is recognized amid much hoopla as surpassing the total of America’s World War I “Ace of Aces,” Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker even sent Bong a case of scotch.

April 25–26, 1944. The first combat rescue by helicopter takes place, as AAF 2nd Lt. Carter Harman, flying a Sikorsky YR-4 Hoverfly, lifts a downed L-1 pilot and the three injured British soldiers he was carrying out of the jungle in Burma one at a time. AAF Col. Philip Cochran, commander of the lst Air Commando Group, later writes, “Today, the ‘egg beater’ went into action and the damn thing acted like it had good sense.”

May 11, 1944. Operation Strangle (March 19–May 11) ends. Mediterranean Allied Air Forces’ operations against enemy lines of communication in Italy total 50,000 sorties, with 26,000 tons of bombs dropped.

May 21, 1944. Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo—systematic Allied air attacks on trains in Germany and France—begins.

May 29, 1944. The concept of the “frangible” bullet (a ceramic filled round developed by Bakelite Corp. and Duke University that disintegrates on impact) for aerial gunnery training is tried out for the first time at Buckingham Field, Fla. Capt. Charles T. Everett flies a heavily armored A-20 nicknamed Alclad Nag, and is fired on in mid air by a gunner in the top turret of the Boeing YB-40, a heavily armed B-17.

June 2, 1944. The first shuttle bombing mission, using Russia as the eastern terminus, is flown. AAF Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, head of Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, flies in one of the B-17s.

June 5, 1944. A crew flying a North American B-25 Mitchell, approaching a target over Wimereaux, France, is hit repeatedly by anti-aircraft fire that seriously cripples the bomber, kills the pilot, and wounds several crew members including Lt. Col. Leon R. Vance Jr., whose right foot is nearly severed. Despite his injury and with three engines lost to the flak, he leads his formation over the target, bombing it successfully. He realizes the bomber is approaching a stall with the last engine failing, so he cuts the power, feathers the engine, and puts the aircraft in a steep glide to maintain airspeed. As they reach the English coast, he orders the crew to bail out, knowing they will reach land safely. However, he receives an interphone message that leads him to believe one injured crew member was unable to jump; he decides to ditch the ship in the channel to give the crew member a chance of survival. Vance, after being pinned in the wreckage as it begins to sink, is then thrown clear by an explosion. After clinging to a piece of floating wreckage and inflating his life vest, he begins to search for the crew member whom he believed to be aboard. Failing to find anyone, he begins swimming and is rescued within an hour by an air-sea rescue craft. Vance was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Later, while being evacuated to the US, his aircraft went down without a trace between Iceland and Newfoundland. In 1949, Enid Army Air Base, Okla., is redesignated Vance AFB in his honor.
Read Valor: The Iron Hand of Fate

June 6, 1944. Allied pilots fly approximately 15,000 sorties on D-Day. It is an effort unprecedented in concentration and size.
Read “ Airpower Made D-Day Possible ” Air Force Magazine, June 1984.

June 9, 1944. Allied units begin operations from bases in France.

June 13, 1944. The first German V-1 flying bombs fired in combat are launched against England. Four of 11 strike London.

June 15, 1944. Forty-seven B-29 crews, based in India and staging through Chengdu, China, attack steel mills at Yawata in the first B-29 strike against Japan.

June 19, 1944. In two sorties during the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. David McCampell, flying a Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat nicknamed Minsi III, shoots down seven Japanese aircraft, five Yokosuka D4Y (Allied code name “Judy’” bombers in the morning and two Mitsubishi A6M Zero (‘Zeke’) fighters in the afternoon. Campbell will become the Navy’s all-time leading ace, with 34 victories.

June 19–20, 1944. “The Marianas Turkey Shoot”: In two days of fighting, the Japanese lose 476 aircraft. American losses are 130 planes.

June 22, 1944. The GI Bill is signed into law.

June 23, 1944. After dropping his bombs on the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, 2nd Lt. David R. Kingsley’s Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, which had been damaged in the raid, is attacked by three German Bf-109 pilots. The bombardier administers first aid to the wounded, and once the bailout bell rings, he helps his wounded crew mates put on their parachutes. However, the tail gunner’s harness can’t be located and Kingsley willingly gives up his harness. The B-17 continues to fly for several minutes on automatic pilot, then crashes and burns. For his gallant, heroic action in saving the life of the tail gunner and his own self sacrifice, Kingsley is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Read Valor: A Rather Special Award

July 2, 1944. Lt. Ralph “Kid” Hofer, who had recorded 15 victories in a period of seven months, is shot down and killed 300 miles south of Budapest, Hungary. He is believed to have been downed by Maj. Erich Hartmann, the leading ace of World War II. Hofer’s P-51 is one of seven US aircraft to be downed by Hartmann, who recorded 352 confirmed air-to-air victories, most of which came against Russian pilots.

July 3, 1944. The P-61 Black Widow, the only night fighter the US built during World War II, flies its first operational intercept mission in Europe.
Read “Night Fighters,” Air Force Magazine, January 1992.

July 5, 1944. The Northrop MX-324, the first US rocket-powered airplane, is flown for the first time by company pilot Harry Crosby at Harper Dry Lake, Calif.

July 6, 1944. A Northrop P-61 Black Widow crew records the type’s first victory, as lst Lt. Francis Eaton (pilot), 2nd Lt. James E. Ketchum (radar operator), and SSgt. Gary Anderson (gunner) intercept and shoot down a Japanese Betty bomber. The Black Widow is the AAF’s first purpose-designed night fighter.

July 9, 1944. During an effective attack against vital oil installations in Ploesti, Romania, 1st Lt. Donald D. Pucket’s Consolidated B-24 Liberator receives direct hits from anti aircraft fire just after “bombs away.” One crew member is instantly killed, six others are severely wounded, and the aircraft is badly damaged. After regaining control of the airplane and turning it over to his copilot, Pucket calms the crew, administers first aid, surveys the damage, and jettisons all guns and equipment but the airplane continues to lose altitude. He orders the crew to bail out, but three members are too badly wounded. After the other crew members jump, he refuses to abandon his airplane and is last seen fighting to regain control before crashing on a mountainside. Pucket is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Read Valor: Of Tradition and Valor

July 9, 1944. Part of wrecked and captured Fiesler Fi-103 “buzz bombs” are delivered to Wright Field, Ohio, for evaluation. Seventeen days later, Ford Motor Co. finishes building a copy of the Argus pulse jet motor, and by Oct., Republic is chosen to build copies of the bomb’s airframe. The US-built duplicates are called JB-1 “Loons.”

July 17, 1944. Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Le, France.

July 22, 1944. In the first all-fighter shuttle, Italy-based US P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs of Fifteenth Air Force attack Nazi airfields at Bacau and Zilistea, northeast of Ploesti, Romania. The planes land at Russian bases.

July 27, 1944. The executive committee of NACA discusses robots and their possibilities for military and other uses.

July 29, 1944. A Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber piloted by Capt. Howard R. Jarrell is damaged by flak during an attack on the Showa Steel Works at Ashan, Japan. Unable to make the flight back to the Marianas, Jarrell lands on the small Soviet airfield at Tarrichanka where he and the crew are interned. Two other B-29s fall into Soviet hands by the end of the year, and the Soviet government asks the Tupolev Design Bureau to copy the advanced American aircraft. The Tupolev-built copies are designated Tu-4, the Soviet Union’s first strategic bomber.

Aug. 4, 1944. The first Aphrodite mission (a radio-controlled B-17 carrying 20,000 pounds of TNT) is flown against V-2 rocket sites in the Pas de Calais section of France.
Read Valor: Project Aphrodite

Aug. 9, 1944. Capt. Darrell R. Lindsey leads a formation of 30 Martin B-26 Marauders on a hazardous mission to destroy the L’Isle Adam railroad bridge, one of the few spans remaining over the Seine River in occupied France. Facing fierce resistance and violent ground fire, with his right wing enveloped in flames from the burning engine, he completes the bombing run, then orders the crew to bail out. He holds the swiftly descending airplane in a steady glide until the rest of the crew jumps to safety. He refuses the bombardier’s offer to lower the aircraft’s landing gear so that Lindsey might escape through the nose landing gear wheel well. The right fuel tank explodes, the airplane goes into a steep dive, and explodes on impact. Lindsey is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Read Valor: The Bridge at L’Isle Adam

Aug. 14, 1944. AAF Capt. Robin Olds records his first victory while flying with the 434th Fighter Squadron in the ETO. He would go on to tally 11 more victories by July 4, 1945. His next aerial victory would come on Jan. 2, 1967, during the Vietnam War, making him the only American ace to record victories in nonconsecutive wars.

Aug. 28, 1944. Eighth Force’s 78th Fighter Group claims the destruction of an Me-262, the first jet to be shot down in combat.

Sept. 1, 1944. Company pilot Robert Stanley makes the first flight of the Bell RP-63A Kingcobra, a highly unusual modification to the P-63 that allowed the aircraft to be used as a piloted target. These “Pinball” aircraft were heavily armored (even the cockpit glazing was extra thick), and gunnery students would fire “frangible” bullets made of lead and plastic at these aircraft in flight.

Sept. 8, 1944. The German V-2, the world’s first ballistic missile, is first used in combat. Two strike Paris; two more are launched against London.

Sept. 14, 1944. AAF officers Col. Floyd B. Wood, Maj. Harry Wexler, and Lt. Frank Reckord fly into a hurricane in a Douglas A-20 to gather scientific data.

Sept. 17, 1944. Operation Market Garden begins: 1,546 Allied aircraft and 478 gliders carry parachute and glider troops in an airborne assault between Eindhoven and Arnhem in the Netherlands in an effort to secure a Rhine crossing at Arnhem.

Sept. 20, 1944. The 10,000th Republic P-47 rolls off the assembly line at Farmingdale, N.Y., to much fanfare, including aviatrix Jackie Cochran, the head of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, dubbing the aircraft 10 Grand. Ten months later, the 15,000 P-47 would come off the assembly line.

Oct. 24, 1944. In one of the greatest feats of airmanship ever, Navy Cmdr. David McCampbell and his wingman, Lt. Roy Rushing, engage 80 Japanese aircraft during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Rushing shoots down six aircraft while McCampbell bags nine, the most victories ever recorded by an American pilot in a single engagement. Normally based on the USS Essex McCampbell instead recovers on the USS Langley with barely enough fuel remaining to taxi up the deck. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor.

Oct. 25, 1944. While flying escort to the first Japanese kamikaze (“Divine Wind”) suicide mission, Warrant Officer Hiroyhosi Nishizawa, Japan’s leading ace, records his 86th and 87th victories (both Grumman F6F Hellcats), the final aerial victories of his career. Led by Lt. Yukio Seki, three of the four kamikaze aircraft strike their target, the escort carrier USS St. Lô , and inflict heavy damage. The carrier later sinks.

Oct. 26, 1944. During a one airplane strike against a Japanese convoy in the South Pacific, Maj. Horace Carswell scores two direct hits on a tanker, but the Consolidated B-24 Liberator he was flying suffers severe damage. With only two engines operating, Carswell manages to nurse his aircraft to landfall. When a third engine fails, he orders the crew to bail out, but with his parachute damaged beyond use, he opts to try a crash landing to save an injured crew member. He crashes into a mountain during the attempt and is killed. He is later posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Carswell AFB (now Joint Reserve Base), Tex. is named in his honor.
Read Valor: China Bomber

Nov. 1, 1944. A Boeing F-13 (photoreconnaissance B-29) crew makes the first flight over Tokyo since the 1942 Doolittle Raid.

Nov. 2, 1944. Severely wounded when the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress he was navigating was hit with three antiaircraft shells, 2nd Lt. Robert E. Feymoyer refused an injection of morphine to keep his head clear so he could direct his aircraft out of danger. Unable to rise from the floor, he asked to be propped up to see his charts and instruments. He successfully directed the navigation of the B-17 for 2.5 hours, avoided enemy flak, and returned to England. Only when it arrived over the English Channel did he allow an injection. He died shortly after being removed from the aircraft once on the ground. He was later posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Read Valor: I Am the Captain of my Soul

Nov. 3, 1944. The Japanese start their Fu-Go balloon weapon offensive against the United States. These balloons are carried across the Pacific on the jet stream and release bomblets over the US.

Nov. 9, 1944. Only seconds from the target at the marshaling yards at Saarbrucken, Germany, and with three of their Boeing B-17’s engines on fire, fire raging in the cockpit, an inoperative interphone system, and with a wounded flight engineer and a radio operator whose arm had been severed below the elbow, 1st Lt. Donald J. Gott (pilot) and 2nd Lt. William E. Metzger Jr. (copilot) make the decision to hit the target and then try to fly to friendly territory in an attempt to save the radio operator’s life. Proceeding alone, the crippled bomber makes it to Allied held territory where most of the crew bails out safely. The flight crew then banks to land in an open field. At an altitude of 100 feet, the B-17 explodes, crashes, and explodes again. The three crewmen are killed instantly. For their loyalty to their crew and for making the ultimate sacrifice, Gott and Metzger are posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Read Valor: Valor at its Highest

Nov. 10, 1944. Thirty-six B-25s of Fifth Air Force attack a Japanese convoy near Ormoc Bay, Philippines, sinking three ships.

Nov. 24, 1944. The first XXI Bomber Command raid is made when 88 B-29s bomb Tokyo. Read The Twentieth Against Japan

Dec. 12, 1944. While a light rain falls, Gen. Douglas MacArthur presents the Medal of Honor to Maj. Richard I. “Dick” Bong in ceremonies at Tacloban, Philippines. While officially cited for shooting down eight enemy aircraft from Oct. 10 to Nov. 15, 1944, Gen. George Kenney had also submitted his MOH recommendation because he wanted to recognize Bong for being the leading American ace of all time. He had 36 (of what would eventually be 40) confirmed aerial victories at the time.
Read Valor: Top Gun

Dec. 15, 1944. Bound for France, famed band leader Army Maj. Glenn Miller and two others take off from England in a Noorduyn C-64 Norseman and are never heard from again. Several possible causes for the disappearance are formulated, but none is ever proven.

Dec. 15, 1944. President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the five-star ranks of General of the Army and Admiral of the Fleet.

Dec. 17, 1944. The 509th Composite Group, assembled to carry out atomic bomb operations, is established at Wendover, Utah.

Dec. 17,1944. AAF Maj. Richard I. Bong, America’s leading ace of all time, records his 40 and final aerial victory.

Dec. 21, 1944. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold becomes General of the Army—the first airman to hold five-star rank. Read Hap

Dec. 24, 1944. While leading a formation of Boeing B-17s over LPige, Belgium, Brig. Gen. Frederick W. Castle’s aircraft loses an engine and he relinquishes the formation lead. His aircraft is immediately attacked by German fighters, but he refuses to drop his bomb load (which would have allowed him to pick up speed) since he is over friendly troops. Castle also refuses to leave the B-17 until his crew bails out. After another German attack, the B-17 explodes and the aircraft plunges earthward, carrying Castle to his death. For his dedication to his crew, Castle is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. The now closed Castle AFB, Calif., was named for him.
Read Valor: The Quiet Hero

Dec. 25–26, 1944. AAF Maj. Thomas B. “Mickey” McGuire volunteers to lead a squadron of 15 airplanes as protection for heavy bombers attacking Mabalaent Airdrome. As the formation crosses Luzon, it is attacked by 20 Japanese fighters and McGuire shoots down three enemy airplanes. He receives the Medal of Honor not only for this mission but for his accomplishments as the second leading ace of all time. He has 38 aerial victories and is second only to Maj. Richard Bong’s 40 victories. The next month, McGuire is killed in action while leading four P-38s over an enemy-held airstrip on Los Negros Island.
Read Valor: Number Two, With Honor

1945

Jan. 11, 1945. Capt. William A. Shomo sets the AAF all-time record of seven enemy air victories in a single engagement. Flying a North American P-51 Mustang with 2nd Lt. Paul M. Lipscomb as his wingman, Shomo takes off from Mindoro in the Philippines to check if Japanese airdromes in the northern part of Luzon are occupied. He sees an enemy bomber and 12 fighters flying approximately 2,500 feet above him and in the opposite direction, and, despite the 13:2 odds, orders an attack. He closes on the enemy formation and scores hits on the leading airplane of the third element, which explodes in midair. He then attacks the second element from the left side of the formation and shoots another fighter down in flames. When the enemy pilots form for counterattack, Shomo moves to the other side of the formation and hits a third fighter which explodes and falls. Diving below the bomber he puts a burst into its underside and it crashes and burns. Pulling up from this pass he encounters a fifth airplane firing head on and destroys it. He next dives upon the first element and shoots down the lead airplane; then, diving down to 300 feet in pursuit of another fighter he catches it with his initial burst and it crashes in flames. Meanwhile, Lipscomb shoots down three planes, while the three remaining fighters escape through a cloud bank. Shomo is promptly promoted to major and is later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Read Valor: Instant Ace

Jan. 20, 1945. Army Air Forces Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay succeeds Brig. Gen. Haywood “Possum” Hansell as commander of XXI Bomber Command in the Mariana Islands.

Feb. 3, 1945. A total of 959 B-17 crews carry out the largest raid to date against Berlin by American bombers.

Feb. 15, 1945. Podpolkovnik (Lt. Col.) Ivan Kozhedub, while on a lone reconnaissance patrol in a Lavochkin La-7, shoots down a German Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter in what the leading Soviet ace would call “a lucky shot.” This is the only German jet downed by a Soviet pilot during World War II.

Feb. 19, 1945. The Marine V Amphibious Corps, with air and sea support, lands on Iwo Jima. The capture of this small spit of volcanic rock has important considerations for the Army Air Forces, as the island’s three airfields will be used as emergency landing fields for Marianas-based B-29s and as a base for fighter operations. By March 26, the island will be secured, at a cost of more than 19,000 Japanese and 6,520 American lives.

Feb. 20, 1945. Secretary of War Henry Stimson approves plans to establish a rocket proving ground near White Sands, N.M.

Feb. 25, 1945. B-29 crews begin night incendiary raids on Japan; 334 aircraft drop 1,667 tons of firebombs and destroy 15 square miles of Tokyo.

March 9, 1945. In a change of tactics in order to double bomb loads, Twentieth Air Force sends more than 300 B-29s from the Marianas against Tokyo in a low-altitude, incendiary night raid, destroying about one-fourth of the city.

March 11, 1945. The greatest weight of bombs dropped in a USAAF strategic raid on a single target in Europe falls on Essen, Germany, as 1,079 bomber crews release 4,738 tons of bombs.

March 14, 1945. The first Grand Slam (22,000-pound) bomb is dropped from an Avro Lancaster flown by Royal Air Force Squadron Leader C.C. Calder. Two spans of the Bielefeld railway viaduct in Germany are destroyed.

March 18, 1945. Some 1,250 US bombers, escorted by 670 fighters, deal Berlin its heaviest daylight blow—3,000 tons of bombs on transportation and industrial areas.

March 18, 1945. Company test pilot LaVerne Brown makes the first flight of the Douglas XBT2D-1, the prototype of the A-1 Skyraider, at El Segundo, Calif. The Navy will put this aerial dump truck to great use as an attack aircraft in Korea and in Vietnam. The Air Force will also use the “Spad” (as USAF pilots called it) in Vietnam as an attack aircraft and to cover rescue missions.

March 27, 1945. B-29 crews begin night mining missions around Japan, eventually establishing a complete blockade.

April 9, 1945. The last B-17 rolls off the line at Boeing’s Seattle plant.

April 10, 1945. The last Luftwaffe wartime sortie over Britain is made by an Arado Ar-234B pilot on a reconnaissance mission out of Norway.

April 10, 1945. Thirty of 50 German Me-262 jet fighters are shot down by US bombers and their P-51 escorts. The German fighters shoot down 10 bombers—the largest loss of the war in a single mission covered by jets.

April 12, 1945. While flying in the lead Boeing B-29 (nicknamed City of Los Angeles) on a strike to Koriyama, Japan, SSgt. Henry Erwin launches a phosphorous smoke marker to aid in the assembly of the group over the rendezvous point. The marker explodes in the launch tube and is shot back into the aircraft. Disregarding his own safety, Erwin, blinded, picks up the burning marker and stumbles toward the cockpit. He runs into the hinged navigator’s table but puts the phosphorus marker under his arm and lifts the table. He makes it to the cockpit and drops the marker out the copilot’s window. Suffering third degree burns over most of his upper body and near death, Erwin’s Medal of Honor citation is prepared as soon as the crew lands. It is approved in only two days. Miraculously, Erwin, one of four AAF enlisted men to receive the Medal of Honor, survives his ordeal.
Read Valor: Red Erwin’s Personal Purgatory and A Brave Man at the Right Time

April 12, 1945. On the same day US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, the destroyer USS Mannert L. Abele is sunk near Okinawa by a Japanese pilot flying a rocket-powered Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka (Cherry Blossom) suicide attack aircraft. The Abele is the first ship ever to be sunk by a piloted bomb.

April 17, 1945. Flak Bait, a Martin B-26B Marauder, completes a record 200th bombing mission. The aircraft, which has now flown more missions over Europe than any other Allied aircraft in World War II, will go on to complete two more missions.

April 19, 1945. Podpolkovnik (Lt. Col.) Ivan Kozhedub, flying a Lavochkin La-7 fighter, shoots down two Focke-Wulf FW-190s near Berlin. Already the Soviet Union’s all-time leading ace, these two “kills” push his victory total to sixty-two. He made 520 combat sorties during the war. Later promoted, Marshal (General) Kozhedub was three times named Hero of the Soviet Union.

April 23, 1945. Flying Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateers, Navy crews from VPB-109 launch two Bat missiles against Japanese ships in Balikpapan Harbor, Borneo. This is the first known use of automatic homing missiles during World War II.

April 24–25, 1945. In three attacks over two days, lst Lt. Raymond L. Knight destroys 14 enemy aircraft on the ground at Ghedi and Bergamo airfields in Italy’s Po Valley. On each sortie, Knight comes in on the deck through anti-aircraft fire to reconnoiter the fields to locate German aircraft hidden under heavy camouflage. His Republic P-47 Thunderbolt sustains severe damage in the second attack. He returns the next morning to Bergamo and destroys his 14th aircraft. His aircraft is damaged again, but he refuses to bail out, and dies en route to base when he crashes in the Apennine Mountains. Knight is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Read Valor: The Path of Duty

May 8, 1945. Maj. Erich Hartmann, flying a Messerschmitt Me-109 in his last combat mission, records one final aerial “kill,” bringing his total to 352 aircraft, the most in history by any pilot in any country. He lands, and with his airfield under artillery fire by advancing Soviet troops, he orders the men of his squadron to destroy their aircraft and he leads them in the opposite direction to the American lines, where Jagdgeshwader 52 surrenders en masse. The Americans turn Hartmann over to the Russians and he is imprisoned in a Soviet gulag for 10 years. He retires from the re-formed German Air Force in 1973.

May 8, 1945. V-E Day. The war ends in Europe.

June 16, 1945. Company pilot Joseph Barton makes the first flight of the North American XP-82 Twin Mustang at Inglewood, Calif. The P-82, later redesignated F-82, was the last propeller-driven fighter acquired in quantity by the Army Air Forces. It looked like two P-51 fuselages married to one wing, but in reality, was a totally new design.

June 22, 1945. Okinawa is declared captured by US forces. The price paid to capture this island—16,000 men, 36 ships, and 800 aircraft—is a key consideration in the decision to use the atomic bombs on Japan.

June 26, 1945. B-29 crews begin nighttime raids on Japanese oil refineries.

June 27, 1945. Gen. Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz, commander of strategic forces in Europe, inspects a group of captured Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighters at Melun, Germany. The jets are flown by members of “Watson’s Whizzers,” the unofficial name of the US foreign technology evaluation group led by Col. Harold E. Watson and sent to Europe at the end of the war as part of Project Lusty.

July 8, 1945. The last of 40 captured German aircraft, including Arado Ar-234 and Messerschmitt Me-262 jets and unusual propeller-driven types such as the Dornier Do-335, arrive at Cherbourg, France. The aircraft were flown to France by members of “Watson’s Whizzers.” The aircraft were hoisted aboard the British aircraft carrier H.M.S. Reaper, which then delivered the aircraft to the United States.

July 16, 1945. The world’s first atomic bomb is successfully detonated at Trinity Site, a desert location near Alamagordo, N.M. The weapon (referred to as “the gadget”) is the prototype of the “Fat Man” plutonium bomb and has an explosive yield of 19 kilotons.

Aug. 6, 1945. The “Little Boy” (uranium) atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, from the B-29 Enola Gay, commanded by AAF Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr.
Read The Decision That Launched the Enola Gay

Aug. 6, 1945. AAF Maj. Richard I. Bong, America’s all-time leading ace, is killed in a P-80 accident. He had 40 confirmed victories.

Aug. 9, 1945. The “Fat Man” atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, from the B-29 Bockscar, commanded by AAF Maj. Charles W. Sweeney.

Aug. 12, 1945. A Douglas C-47 Skytrain piloted by AAF Lt. Col. Robert G. Denson carries former Nazi party officials from Sandweiler Airport near the Luxembourg border to Furth Industrieshafen Airport near Nuremberg to stand trial as war criminals. Among the passengers: Reichsmarshal Herman Goering, Gen. Alfred Jodl, and Adm. Karl Donitz.

Aug. 15, 1945. Navy Lt. Cmdr. T.H. Reidy, commander of VBF 83 and flying a Vought F4U Corsair, records the last confirmed US air-to-air victory of World War II while hostilities are still officially declared, as he shoots down a Nakajima C6N1 Saiun reconnaissance aircraft at 5:40 a.m. local time over Tokyo. Five minutes later, the war officially ends.

Aug. 18, 1945. In the last combat action of any kind against the Japanese in World War II, a pair of Consolidated B-32 Dominators on a reconnaissance flight over Tokyo are attacked by 14 Zeros and Tojos. One US crew member is killed and two are wounded during the attack. B-32 gunners claim two victories and two more probables during the engagement. Both B-32s (one nicknamed Hobo Queen II; the other unnamed) are flown safely back to Okinawa.

Sept. 2, 1945. V-J Day. On board USS Missouri (BB-63), in Tokyo Bay, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of Staff Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu sign instruments of surrender. (NOTE: Alternatively, V-J Day is regarded by some to be Aug. 15, the date upon which Emperor Hirohito broadcast his radio message, the Imperial Rescript of Surrender, touching off the celebrations normally associated with V-J Day in allied nations.)

Sept. 2, 1945. After the Japanese sign the instruments of surrender ending World War II, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster crew makes a record run of 31 hours and 25 minutes between Tokyo and Washington, D.C. (with en route stops) to deliver films of the event to the United States. Because of the International Date Line, the trip begins and ends on the same day.

Sept. 20, 1945. At Church Broughton, England, company test pilot Eric Greenwood makes the first flight of an aircraft powered by turboprop engines. A Gloster Meteor F.1 pure jet powered fighter modified to accommodate two Rolls Royce Trent turboprops serves as the test bed.

Oct. 13, 1945. The Army Air Forces Fair begins at Wright Field, Ohio. Designed to display technological advances in aviation made during the war, to show off captured German and Japanese weapons, and to present the AAF story to the American people, the fair draws 500,000 people the first two days and is extended for a week. More than 1,000,000 people from the US and 26 foreign countries will eventually see the more than $150 million worth of equipment on display.

Nov. 6, 1945. The first landing of a jet-powered aircraft on a carrier is made by Ens. Jake C. West in the Ryan FR-1 Fireball, a fighter propelled by both a turbojet and a reciprocating engine. The landing on USS Wake Island (CVE-65) is inadvertent; the plane’s piston engine fails, and West comes in powered only by the turbojet.

Nov. 7, 1945. Royal Air Force Group Capt. Hugh Wilson sets the first post-war recognized absolute speed record and breaks the 600 mph barrier at the same time, as he flies a Gloster Meteor F.4 to a speed of 606.26 mph at Herne Bay, England. This also marked the first time the absolute speed record is held by a jet powered aircraft. The flight broke the previous record, set in 1939, by 137 mph.

1946

Feb. 4, 1946. The Air Force Association is incorporated.

Feb. 9, 1946. Gen. Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz is designated Commanding General, Army Air Forces, succeeding Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold.
Read Spaatz

Feb. 15, 1946. Thirty-five movie stars, studio executives, and reporters board a Lockheed Constellation piloted by Howard Hughes for the inauguration of TWA daily nonstop service between Los Angeles and New York City. Among the stars are Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, and Edward G. Robinson.

Feb. 28, 1946. Maj. William Lien makes the first flight of the Republic XP-84 at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif. The Thunderjet is the AAF’s first post-war fighter and will be used extensively for ground attack missions in the Korean War. Later designated F-84, the Thunderjet is the first fighter to carry a tactical nuclear weapon.

March 8, 1946. The Bell Model 47 becomes the first rotary wing aircraft to receive Civil Aeronautic Agency certification. The Model 47 would be used by the military as the UH-13.

March 12, 1946. The Army Air Forces School is redesignated as Air University with headquarters at Maxwell Field, Ala.

March 21, 1946. Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command, and Air Defense Command are activated.

April 24, 1946. The two prototypes competing to be the Soviet Union’s first jet aircraft are brought to Chkalovskaya flight test center outside of Moscow. The heads of the two design bureaus, “Artyom” Mikoyan and Alexander Yakovlev, meet in the center of the field for a coin toss. Mikoyan wins and test pilot Aleksey Grinchik makes the first flight of the I-300 (the prototype of the MiG-9, which will later carry the NATO reporting name ‘Fargo’). Test pilot M.I. Ivanov then flies the Yak-15 (‘Feather’) for the first time. Both aircraft later go into production.

May 4–16, 1946. Five separate recognized class records for altitude with payload in piston engined aircraft are set by five different AAF crews flying Boeing B-29A Superfortresses at Harmon Field, Guam. Col. J.B. Warren also sets a separate record for greatest load carried to 2,000 meters.

May 8, 1946. Memphis, Tenn., Mayor Walter Chandler buys the Memphis Belle, the historic Boeing B-17F whose crew was the first to complete 25 missions in Europe, from the Reconstruction Finance Corp. for $350. When delivered in 1942, this Flying Fortress had cost the government $314,109. An anonymous donor later sends Chandler a check to cover the cost so no tax dollars would have to be spent.

June 17, 1946. First AAF Scientific Advisory Board meets, chaired by Theodore von Karman. Read Von Karman's Way

June 21 and 28, 1946. Six separate recognized class records for speed over a closed course (5,000 kilometers) with payload in piston engined aircraft are set by two different AAF crews flying Boeing B-29As at Dayton.

June 26, 1946. “Knot” and “nautical mile” are adopted by the Army Air Forces and the Navy as standard aeronautical units of speed and distance.

July 1, 1946. Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll, begins as a Boeing B-29, nicknamed Dave’s Dream, and piloted by Maj. Woodrow “Woody” Swancutt drops a 23 kiloton yield nuclear weapon over a cluster of 70 target ships of various types anchored in the Bikini lagoon. This Able Test is designed to measure the effect of an atomic airburst on ships and unmanned drone aircraft. The bomb, a duplicate of the Fat Man (plutonium) bomb that had been dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, missed its intended target, the former battleship USS Nevada (BB-36) by several thousand yards. However, it destroyed or heavily damaged ships anchored within a half mile of the zero point.

July 21, 1946. Lt. Cmdr. James Davidson makes the first successful takeoff and landing of a jet-powered aircraft from an aircraft carrier. He is flying a McDonnell FH-1 Phantom from USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42).

July 1946. Air Force Magazine becomes the official journal of the Air Force Association.

Aug. 2, 1946. The National Air Museum is established under the Smithsonian Institution.

Aug. 8, 1946. Almost five years after the prototype was ordered, company test pilots Beryl A. Erickson and G.S. “Gus” Green and a crew of seven make the first flight of the mammoth Convair XB-36 prototype at Fort Worth, Tex.

Aug. 17, 1946. AAF 1st Sgt. Lawrence Lambert ejected at 28 knots and 7,800 feet altitude over Osborn, Ohio, from a P-61, dubbed “Jack in the Box,” that had taken off from Patterson Field, Ohio.

Aug. 24, 1946. At an air show in Denver, Colo., the US Navy’s four-month old flight demonstration team performs for the first time in its new aircraft, the Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat, and with its new official name: Blue Angels.

Aug. 31, 1946. Famed Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz wins the first post-war Bendix Trophy transcontinental race from Los Angeles to Cleveland, Ohio, in a North American P-51 Mustang with an average speed of 435.501 mph. Total flying time is four hours, 42 minutes. Col. Leon Gray wins the first Bendix Trophy Jet Division race, flying a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star over the same course with an average speed of 494.779 mph. Total flying time is four hours, eight minutes.

Dec. 8, 1946. Company pilot Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin makes the first powered flight of the Bell XS-1 supersonic research aircraft (later redesignated X-1). He reaches Mach .75 and an altitude of 35,000 feet after being released from a Boeing B-29 mother ship.