1943 in aviation

March

• Consolidated Aircraft Corporation and Vultee Aircraft Inc. merge to form Consolidated Vultee Aircraft, soon unofficially, and later officially, known as Convair.^[35]
• The Aichi Clock and Electric Company Ltd. forms a separate firm, Aichi Aircraft Company, to take over its aircraft and aircraft engine business.^[36]
• March 1
  • Since January 14, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has launched major raids on Wilhelmshaven four times, Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg three times each, and Bremen, Düsseldorf, and Nuremberg once each, as well as on Milan and Turin.^[5]
  • RAF Coastal Command first deploys ASV Mark III radar.
• March 1–2 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies the last raid of its early 1943 campaign against German submarines and their bases in France. It has attacked Lorient nine times and Brest once since the start of the campaign on January 14, but found German submarine pens impervious to its bombs. The raids have caused much damage to the French cities and their residents.^[5]
• March 2–5 – In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft attack a convoy of eight Japanese cargo ships escorted by eight destroyers carrying troops from Rabaul, New Britain, to Lae, New Guinea, as it transits an unnamed body of water soon to be named the Bismarck Sea. For the loss of five aircraft, they sink all eight cargo ships and four of the destroyers, damage the other four destroyers, and shoot down 20 to 30 Japanese fighters attempting to provide air defense. About 3,000 Japanese troops are killed.^[37]
• March 5
  • Twelve German Heinkel He 111 bombers attack Convoy RA-53 during its voyage from Murmansk in the Soviet Union to Loch Ewe, Scotland, but cause no damage.^[38]
  • In the
    North Atlantic Ocean, the first U.S. Navy antisubmarine hunter-killer group begins combat operations, centered on the escort carrier USS Bogue and the aircraft of Composite Squadron 9 (VC-9) embarked aboard her.^[39]
• March 5–6 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command begins a bombing campaign against the Ruhr area of Germany with an Oboe-marked raid on Essen. Known as the Battle of the Ruhr, it will last until mid-July. The first raid destroys 53 buildings in the Krupp complex and destroys 160 acres (65 ha) of Essen.^[40]
• March 10
  • The U.S. Army Air Forces activate the Fourteenth Air Force^[41] in China.
  • The first combat mission of the U.S. Army Air Forces Republic P-47 Thunderbolt takes place, a fighter sweep by England-based 4th Fighter Group P-47s over France. They encounter no enemy aircraft.^[42]
• March 12–13 (overnight) – The second Royal Air Force Bomber Command raid on Essen during the Battle of the Ruhr is even more destructive than the first one of March 5–6.^[43]
• March 20 – During the evening, aircraft drop naval mines for the first time in the Pacific, when 42 U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps TBF Avengers from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, mine the harbor at Kahili, Bougainville, during a diversionary raid on Kahili Airfield by 18 U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses. The following evening, 40 Avengers carry out another mining operation at Kahili during a diversionary raid by 21 U.S. Army Air Forces bombers on the airfield.^[44]
• March 27
  • The British escort carrier HMS Dasher suffers a massive accidental internal explosion and sinks off the Isle of Arran^[45] in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379. There are 149 survivors.
  • The German Luftwaffe decides to discontinue development of the Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.^[46]
• March 28 – 57 Japanese
  transport and a Dutch merchant ship.^[47]
• March 31 – Since January 1, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has flown 12,760 sorties and lost 348 bombers, a 2.7 percent loss rate. German night fighters have shot down 201 of the bombers.[8]

April

• PBY Catalina flying boats which becomes known as the "Double Sunrise Route" because passengers and crew see two sunrises during the journey. Each flight can carry up to three passengers, who are advised that the flight can take as little as 24 hours or as long as 32 hours.^[48]
• April 1 – The
  F4U Corsairs, and P-38 Lightnings intercept them. The Japanese lose 18 Zeros in exchange for six American fighters.^[49]
• April 1–2 – U.S. Army Fifth Air Force bombers attack a Japanese convoy bound for Kavieng, sinking a merchant ship and damaging the heavy cruiser Aoba and a destroyer.^[47] Aoba is never again capable of steaming at maximum speed.
• April 8 – 177 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 67
  First Lieutenant James E. Swett shoots down seven Japanese aircraft, all Vals, during his flight.^[50]
• April 11 – 94 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 22 Aichi D3As and 72 Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes – attack Allied shipping at Oro Bay off New Guinea, sinking a merchant ship and damaging a merchant ship and a minesweeper. The 50 Allied fighters based at Dobodura, New Guinea, intercept the Japanese, shooting down six Japanese planes without loss to themselves.^[47]
• April 12 – The Japanese conduct their largest air raid in the
  Southwest Pacific thus far in World War II, with 174 planes – 131 fighters and 43 medium bombers – attacking Port Moresby, New Guinea. The raid causes little damage, and the 44 Allied fighters that intercept the Japanese shoot down five aircraft, all fighters, for the loss of two of their own.^[51]
• April 14
  • 188 Japanese planes from Rabaul raid Milne Bay, New Guinea, destroying one merchant ship and damaging others. Twenty-four Royal Australian Air Force Curtiss Kittyhawks intercept them, shooting down seven Japanese aircraft in exchange for three Kittyhawks.^[52]
  • antisubmarine patrols. Although no MAC-ship's aircraft ever sink a German submarine, no convoy containing a MAC-ship ever loses a ship, and none of the MAC ships are lost.^[53]
• April 15
  • Operation Flax, the systematic targeting by Allied fighter pilots of Luftwaffe transport aircraft bound for North Africa, is put into effect.
  • The first encounter of the U.S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolt with enemy fighters occurs, as 335th Fighter Squadron P-47Cs shoot down three German fighters in exchange for a loss of three P-47Cs.^[42]
  • During a single 12-hour period, the U.S. Army Air Forces' Eleventh Air Force flies 112 sorties against Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands, dropping 180,000 pounds (82,000 kg) of bombs on Kiska and 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) on Attu.^[54]
• April 16 – Believing they had sunk a
  transports and shot down 175 Allied aircraft, the Japanese end the I Operation air offensive. Actual Allied losses have been one destroyer, one tanker, one corvette, and two cargo ships sunk and about 25 planes shot down.^[55]
• April 18 – Precisely one year after the
  Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki – and three out of six Zero fighters escorting them. One P-38 is shot down.^[56]
• April 20 – Led personally by the commander of the
  Major General Willis H. Hale, 22 U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators from Funafuti bomb and photograph Nauru. Japanese aircraft follow them home and attack Funafuti early on April 21, destroying two B-24s and killing six men.^[57]
• April 21 – Since the second week of April, the U.S. Army Air Force's Eleventh Air Force has raided Kiska 83 times.^[58]
• April 23 – Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb
  Tarawa Atoll.^[57]
• April 26–27 (overnight) – The British employ
  curvature of the Earth, placing most German night fighter operations below its coverage.^[59]
• April 27 – Wing Commander Hugh Malcolm of the Royal Air Force is awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for his actions during the North African campaign.^[60]
• April 30 – In preparation for the upcoming American invasion of Attu, the U.S. Army Air Forces' Eleventh Air Force has flown 1,175 combat sorties against Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands during April, including a two-week period in which 60 aircraft per day attack Kiska.^[9]

May

• Oberleutnant Rudolf Schoenert, piloting a Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter, uses Schräge Musik ("Jazz Music") – automatic cannon mounted to fire obliquely upward and forward – to shoot down an enemy bomber for the first time. Officially adopted by the Luftwaffe in June, Schräge Musik will become a devastating German anti-bomber weapon during the second half of 1943.^[61] (Also see the May 21 entry for its debut use by Japan.)
• The
  Brooklyn, New York.^[31]
• May 1–7 – The U.S. Army Air Forces' Eleventh Air Force drops 200,000 pounds (90,719 kg) of bombs on Japanese forces on Attu in the Aleutian Islands in support of the upcoming American invasion of the island.^[54]
• May 8
  • A 60-plane U.S. strike from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, sinks two Japanese destroyers and badly damages a third off Kolombangara.^[62]
  • Allied aircraft begin a bombing campaign against Pantelleria, the first of 5,285 sorties they will fly against the island before it is invaded on June 11.^[63]
• May 9 – A German night fighter crew defects to the United Kingdom, flying a Junkers Ju 88R-1 there, which is still in the UK in the 21st century. The defection gives British scientists and tacticians access to an FuG 202 Lichtenstein B/C UHF-band airborne interception radar for the first time,^[64] compromising the secrets of the early B/C UHF-band version of the radar.
• May 10 – British Overseas Airways Corporation introduces its first female flight attendant, Rosamond Gilmour, on a Bristol (Whitchurch)–Shannon feeder flight.
• May 11 – In
  Pacific Theater of Operations that an escort carrier engages in combat. The U.S. Navy concludes that bombers should be included in future escort carrier air wings to make them more effective in supporting amphibious operations.^[65][66]
• May 13
  • Twenty Japanese
    Paramushiro to attack American ships off Attu, but bad weather forces them to turn back without launching an attack.^[67]
  • The Venezuelan airline Avensa is founded. It will begin flights in December.
• May 15 – Luftwaffe ace Leutnant Horst Hannig is killed when his parachute fails to open after he bails out of his Focke-Wulf Fw 190 over France during combat with fighters of the Royal Air Force's No. 611 Squadron that are attacking Caen-Carpiquet Airdrome and Poix Airdrome. He is credited with 98 aerial victories.
• May 17–18 – Specially modified RAF
  Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe
  dams.
• May 19 – The
  war bonds
  .
• May 21 – In
  Commander Yasuna Kozono had conceived of the upward-firing cannon arrangement independently of the similar German Schräge Musik weapons fit.^[68]
• May 22
  • A U.S. Navy antisubmarine hunter-killer group scores a kill of an enemy submarine for the first time, when TBM Avengers of Composite Squadron 9 (VC-9) from the escort carrier USS Bogue sink the German submarine U-569 in the North Atlantic Ocean. Aircraft of U.S. hunter-killer groups will sink – or cooperate with surface warships in sinking – 31 more Kriegsmarine and two IJN submarines – likely both the German-built RO-501 of the IJN and I-52, on separate yanagi missions – in the Atlantic during World War II.^[69]
  • 19 Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" torpedo bombers based at Paramushiro make the only Japanese air strike of the Battle of Attu, attacking the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Phelps and gunboat USS Charleston off Attu. They lose two aircraft and score no hits.^[70]
• May 23 – An aircraft sinks an enemy submarine with air-to-surface rockets for the first time, as a Fairey Swordfish from the British escort carrier HMS Archer sinks the German submarine U-752 in the Atlantic.^[69]
• May 25–26 (overnight) – 759 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, Germany. Pathfinder aircraft fail to concentrate markers on the target, and the raid fails when the bombers spread their bombs widely throughout the countryside.^[71]
• May 29
  • A merchant aircraft carrier, or "MAC-ship," puts to sea with a convoy for the first time as MV Empire MacAlpine sets out from the United Kingdom with Convoy ONS 59 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She carries four Swordfish aircraft of No. 836 Squadron.^[53]
  • Japanese resistance on Attu ends.^[72]

June

• June 1
  • Allied aircraft begin a final period of heavy bombing of Pantelleria during the ten days prior to the scheduled invasion of the island, during which they will fly 3,647 sorties.^[63]
  • German
    Leslie Howard
    .
• June 2 – American former
  United States Naval Reserve fighter pilot, dies when he ditches his Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter after it develops a serious oil leak over the Gulf of Paria off Venezuela during a training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington
  . His body is never found.
• June 5 – In a battle over the Russell Islands between 81 Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters and 110 Allied aircraft, the Japanese lose 24 aircraft in exchange for seven U.S. fighters.^[73]
• June 6–9 – Allied aircraft drop an average of 600 tons (544,316 kg) of bombs per day on Pantelleria.^[63]
• June 10
  • In one of the heaviest and most concentrated air attacks thus far in World War II, Allied aircraft drop 1,571 tons (1,425,202 kg) of bombs on Pantelleria.^[63]
  • The
    Pointblank Directive modifies the priorities established by the February Casablanca directive, elevating attacks on German fighter strength to the highest priority for the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces.^[74]
• June 11 – Demoralized by heavy aerial bombing and naval surface bombardment, the Italian garrison on
  Axis aircraft since beginning operations against Pantelleria in May, losing 14 of their own.^[63]
• June 11–12 (overnight) – 783 British bombers attack
  Eagle Owl") night fighter makes its combat debut in the early morning hours of June 12 in an experimental flight piloted by Major Werner Streib. Streib shoots down five British bombers – a Lancaster and four Halifaxes – in a single sortie, but his He 219 is wrecked in a landing accident when he returns to base.^[75]
• June 12 – Another large dogfight between Japanese and Allied aircraft over the Russell Islands yields almost identical results to those of June 5.^[76]
• June 14 – The
  Southwest Pacific Theater
  during World War II.
• June 14–15 (overnight) – Accompanying a raid by 197 British Lancaster bombers against Oberhausen, Germany, five British Beaufighter night fighters make the first operational use of Serrate, a radar detector and homing device that allows them to home in on German night fighters employing the Lichtenstein airborne radar from up to 80 km (50 mi) away and intercept them. The Beaufighters do not intercept any German aircraft during the raid, however, and 17 British bombers are lost.^[77]
• June 16 – A raid by 94 Japanese aircraft – 24
  tank landing ship and shoot down six U.S. fighters, but almost all the Japanese aircraft are lost.^[76]
• June 20 – The
  Nakajima Ki-43 (Allied reporting name "Oscar") fighters, with the Ki-49s hitting Winnellie and the Ki-48s bombing Winnellie and Darwin. Forty-six Royal Australian Air Force Spitfire Mark V fighters intercept the Japanese. In the ensuring dogfights, the Japanese claim nine Spitfires shot down and six probables and the Australians claim to have shot down nine bombers and five fighters. The actual Japanese losses are one Ki-43 and one Ki-49 shot down and two Ki-48s and one Ki-49 making forced landings upon returning to base, while Australian losses total three losses and two pilots.^[78]
• June 21 – The first airbase designed for use by
  Shemya Army Airfield, opens on Shemya in the Aleutian Islands. However, B-29s instead attack Japan from bases in China and the Mariana Islands, and only one B-29 – on a non-combat flight – visits Shemya during World War II.^[79][80]
• June 21–22 (overnight) – 705 British bombers attack Krefeld, Germany, losing 44 of their number.^[81]
• June 22 – In order to better defend Sicily from Allied air attack, Italy and Germany agree to withdraw all of their bombers from Sicily and all but a few from Sardinia, concentrating instead on fighter operations in Sicily and southern Sardinia.^[82]
• June 28 – To increase the visibility of the national insignia on its military aircraft, the United States replaces the marking adopted in June 1942 with a new marking consisting of a white star centered in a blue circle flanked by white rectangles, with the entire insignia outlined in red . The new marking containing the red graphic elements will cause confusion with Japanese markings and will remain in use only until September 1943.^[83]
• June 28–29 (overnight) – 608 British bombers attack Cologne, Germany, losing 25 of their number. In Cologne, 4,377 people are killed – by far the highest number killed in any single Bomber Command raid so far – 10,000 injured, and 230,000 rendered homeless. In the next two raids, Cologne will incur another 1,000 killed and 120,000 made homeless.^[84]
• June 30
  • U.S. forces land on
    antiaircraft fire.^[85]
  • Royal Air Force Bomber Command has lost 3,448 aircraft – about 1,600 of them to German night fighters – and about 20,000 aircrewmen on night raids since the beginning of World War II. Since April 1, Bomber Command has lost 762 aircraft, 561 of them to German night fighters.^[86]
  • Since November 1, 1942, Italy has lost 2,190 military aircraft and suffered another 1,790 damaged.^[87]
  • Since June 1, the U.S. Army Air Forces'
    PV-1 Venturas have made additional night bombing attacks on the island.^[88]

• The British Women's Auxiliary Air Force reaches a peak strength of 182,000.^[89]
• July 1 – Municipal authorities in Hamburg, Germany, have logged 137 air attacks on the city and the deaths of 1,387 people and injuries to 4,496 in air raids since the beginning of World War II.^[90]
• July 2 – An airstrike on American forces on Rendova Island by 24 Japanese bombers escorted by 48 fighters achieves complete surprise, killing 55 and wounding 77.^[91]
• July 2–3 (overnight) – The Allied
  Axis airfields in Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy in preparation for the upcoming invasion of Sicily. Italy claims to fly 650 fighter sorties and Germany 500 between July 1 and 9 in defending against the Allied bombing campaign, but almost all Axis airfields on Sicily are knocked out by the time of the invasion.^[92]
• July 3–4 (overnight) – 653 British bombers attack
  antiaircraft artillery both claim the same 12 bombers shot down over Cologne and officially each receive credit for six. The experiment's success will lead to the formation of Jagdgeschwader 300, which will specialize in Wilde Sau operations.^[93]
• July 4
  • Seventeen Japanese bombers escorted by 66 fighters raid Rendova, destroying and damaging several landing craft.^[94]
  • The
    chief of staff, Tadeusz Klimecki, and eight others die in the crash of a Liberator II just after takeoff from Gibraltar
    . Only the aircraft's pilot survives.
• July 6 – A strike by 39 U.S. aircraft destroys a Japanese destroyer beached on Kolombangara island after the Battle of Kula Gulf.^[95]
• July 7 – An Imperial Japanese Army Tachikawa Ki-77 takes off from Singapore with a crew of five and three passengers aboard, intending to make a non-stop flight to the German airfield at Sarabus (now Hvardiiske) in the Crimea. It disappears over the Indian Ocean during the flight.
• July 9–10 (overnight) – 160
  amphibious landings on the morning of July 10.^[96]
• July 10
  • Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber sinks the American destroyer USS Maddox with the loss of 212 lives.^[98] Floatplanes based on American light cruisers provide valuable spotting support for naval gunfire against targets ashore.^[99]
  • Six U.S. Army Air Forces
    transports, suffering one aircraft damaged before returning to Attu. On the same day a separate formation of eight B-25s on its own initiative attempts to bomb Paramushiro; they bomb an unidentified land mass through overcast without knowing if it is Japan, the Kuriles, the Kamchatka Peninsula, or an unidentified North Pacific island.^[100]
• July 11 – Axis aircraft make a second major bombing raid against ships off Sicily, sinking two ammunition ships.^[101]
• July 11–12 (overnight) – The U.S. Army Air Forces' 52nd Troop Carrier Wing flies United States Army paratroopers from North Africa for a parachute landing in Sicily. The 144 transport aircraft fly in darkness at low level over Allied ships offshore and Allied troops on the front line, arriving during an Axis bombing attack, and both the ships and troops ashore mistakenly open fire on them. Twenty-three of the aircraft are shot down, with the loss of 100 lives.^[102]
• July 12 – Germany and Italy mount all air opposition against Allied forces in Sicily from bases in Sardinia and mainland Italy from this date.^[92]
• July 12–13 (midnight) – An attack by the Allied
  Northwest African Air Force destroys the headquarters of the Italian Sixth Army at Enna, Sicily.^[103]
• July 13 – An Axis air attack destroys a Liberty ship off Sicily.^[104]
• July 13–14 (overnight)
  • Allied transport aircraft carrying paratroopers from North Africa to Sicily again fly low in darkness over Allied ships and ground forces, and again come under friendly fire. Several are shot down.^[105] In Operation Fustian, the British Army's 1st Parachute Brigade land in gliders and capture the Primosole bridge, but a German parachute battalion that previously had landed nearby drives the British off the bridge by the following evening.^[106]
  • Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies the last raid of its "
    Stettin, Turin, La Spezia, and the Škoda Works in Pilsen.^[107]
• July 14 – Axis
  Cape Spartivento, scoring no hits.^[97]
• July 16 – An Italian torpedo bomber damages the British aircraft carrier
  Cape Passero, forcing her to proceed to Gibraltar for repairs.^[108]
• July 17
  • 223 U.S. Air Solomons (AirSols) aircraft strike Bougainville Island, bombing Kahili Airfield and Tonolei harbor. They sink one Japanese destroyer.^[109]
  • Axis air attacks damage Allied shipping off Sicily.^[110]
• July 18
  • The U.S. Navy blimp K-74 is shot down by the German submarine U-134, becoming the only airship lost to enemy fire during World War II.
  • Six Eleventh Air Force B-24s make the first confirmed Allied strike against the Kurile Islands, damaging the Japanese base at Paramushiro and claiming a ship sunk without suffering any losses. It is the first time since the
    Japanese Empire.^[111]
• July 19 – Soviet Air Forces fighter pilot Yekaterina Budanova is shot down and killed in a dogfight with Messerschmitt Bf 109s over Luhansk Oblast. Although her victory total is unclear, she is commonly credited with 11 kills. She and Soviet pilot Lydia Litvyak are the only two female aces in history.
• July 20 – U.S. aircraft strike the escorts of a Japanese convoy in New Georgia Sound, sinking two destroyers and damaging the heavy cruiser Kumano.^[112]
• July 21 – Serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, American athlete and two-time Olympic champion Charley Paddock dies in the crash of a Navy plane near Sitka in the Territory of Alaska. All five other men on the aircraft also die.^[7]
• July 22
  • 46 U.S. bombers attack a Japanese convoy in
    seaplane carrier Nisshin.^[113]
  • An
    Dorval Airport, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Prestwick, Scotland, of 12 hours 26 minutes.^[114]
• July 23 – The
  RLM to create a wing design for its 8–277 bomber airframe concept, competing since February 1943 as its Amerikabomber aircraft design competition entry, to take either four Junkers Jumo 222 or six BMW 801 engines.^[116]
• July 24–25 (overnight) – 791 British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany, beginning
  Window", to foil German radar. About 1,500 people are killed, more than in all 137 previous air attacks on the city combined.^[117] Twelve British bombers are lost.^[118]
• July 25
  • U.S. Army Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchell bombers destroy two Japanese destroyers aground on a reef near Cape Gloucester, New Britain.^[119]
  • 100 U.S. Army Eighth Air Force bombers attack Hamburg.^[120]
• July 25–26 (overnight) – 705 British bombers attack Essen, Germany, causing considerable damage to the Krupp works.^[107] Twenty-six British aircraft do not return.^[118] German night fighter pilot Major Werner Streib shoots down four bombers in 74 minutes, and his final kill of the night is the 88th and last one credited to his ground controller, Oberleutnant Walter Knickmaier.^[121]
• July 26
  • 60 U.S. Eighth Air Force bombers strike Hamburg.^[120]
  • Over 100 German aircraft attack an Allied convoy off Cape Bon, Tunisia, but defending British fighters prevent them from inflicting any serious damage.^[122]
• July 27 – To win a bet with British pilots in training at his
  Hurricane Hunters" weather reconnaissance program.^[123]
• July 27–28 (overnight) – 787 British bombers attack Hamburg, with a loss of 17 aircraft. Atmospheric conditions create a self-propagating tornadic firestorm with winds of 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and flames reaching 1,000 feet (300 m) in altitude, resulting in one of the most destructive air raids in history. Air temperatures reach 1,500 °F (820 °C), causing asphalt in city streets to catch fire. At least 40,000 people die in the raid and 1,200,000 flee the city, which does not regain its previous industrial capacity for the rest of the war. The raid shocks Germany.^[124][125]
• July 28
  • Luftwaffe single-engine fighters use
    Henschel aircraft factories at Kassel and the AGO Flugzeugwerke plant, license-building new and rebuilding veteran Fw 190s in Oschersleben, Germany.^[126]
  • A Douglas DC-3 airliner operating as American Airlines Flight 63 crashes in Allen County, Kentucky, killing 20 of the 22 people on board.
• July 29–30 (overnight) – Another raid on Hamburg by 777 British bombers targets undamaged areas in the northern part of the city, killing about 1,000 more people.^[127] The British lose 28 aircraft.^[125]
• July 30–31 (overnight) – 273 British bombers attack Remscheid, Germany, losing 15 of their number.^[128]
• July 31
  • German aircraft attack U.S. Navy warships bombarding coastal artillery batteries near
    San Stéfano di Camastra, Sicily, but score no hits.^[129]
  • The U.S. Army Forces' Eleventh Air Force has carried out even more combat sorties against Japanese forces on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands in July than it had in June.^[88]

August

• The
  fighter enters combat.^[130]
• August 1
  • 48 German aircraft make a surprise attack on ships in the harbor at Palermo, Sicily, dropping 60 large bombs and sinking a cargo ship.^[131]
  • Flying a
    Lydia Litvak disappears during a dogfight with German Messerschmitt Bf 109s over the Soviet Union near Orel. Decades later, her body is found, and she is confirmed as having been shot down and killed.^[132] Along with Yekaterina Budanova one of only two female aces
    in history, she commonly is credited with 12 victories at the time of her death, although she sometimes is credited with 11 or 13.
  • Flying from
    B-24 Liberators attack the Ploieşti oil refineries in Romania
    .
  • During an
    St. Louis, Missouri, with several thousand people looking on, the first public demonstration of the St. Louis-built Waco CG-4 troop-carrying glider, ends in tragedy when the glider – Waco CG-4A-RO 42-78839, built by Robertson Aircraft Corporation – loses its right wing immediately after being released over the airfield by the tow airplane. The glider, carrying two United States Army Air Forces crewmen, St. Louis mayor William D. Becker, Robertson Aircraft and Lambert Field co-founder Major William B. Robertson, and six other passengers – crashes, killing everyone on board.^[133] The accident is attributed to the failure of a defective wing strut fitting.^[134]
• August 2
  • A U.S. Army Air Forces
    Whenuapai Aerodrome at Auckland, New Zealand
    , killing 16 of the 30 people on board.
  • A U.S. Army Air Forces
    Burma-India border, killing its flight officer. Everyone else on board parachutes to safety, several suffering injuries in the process, and spend 22 days on the ground before being recovered.^[135]
• August 2–3 (overnight) – The final raid of the Battle of Hamburg, by 740 British bombers, fails when the bombers encounter thunderstorms over northern Germany and scatter their bombs widely over an area 100 miles (160 km) across. Thirty British aircraft do not return. Despite the enormous damage it has inflicted, Operation Gomorrah has failed to completely destroy Hamburg.^[136][137]
• August 4
  • German aircraft again attack the harbor at Palermo, damaging the American destroyer USS Shubrick.^[138]
  • The U.S. Army Air Forces' Eleventh Air Force flies 135 sorties against Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, dropping 304,000 pounds (138,000 kg) of bombs.^[139]
• August 5 – The
  Air Transport Command, are merged to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots
  (WASP).
• August 6
  • The German submarine U-177 uses a manned, towed Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 autogyro kite to spot the Greek steamer Efthalia Mari, which U-177 then intercepts and sinks. It is the only occasion on which a submarine's use of an Fa 330 results in a sinking.^[140]
  • A third German air raid on Palermo is driven off by Allied night fighters with only a few bombs dropped on the harbor.^[138]
• August 7–8 (overnight) – 197 British
  Master Bomber" – an experienced officer who circles over a bombing target throughout an attack to direct bombing crews by radio and improve their accuracy.^[137][141]
• August 8 – Axis bombers attack the American light cruiser USS Philadelphia off Sant'Agata di Militello, Sicily, scoring no hits.^[129]
• August 8–17 – Allied aircraft of the
  antiaircraft fire and succeed in sinking only a few vessels, never endangering the success of the Axis evacuation.^[142]
• August 9–10 (overnight) – 457 British bombers attack Mannheim, Germany, and scatter their bombs due to cloud cover. Nine do not return.^[137]
• August 10 – Reinforced by 250 Imperial Japanese Army aircraft from Rabaul, Japanese air forces in New Guinea are ordered to conduct an air offensive against Allied airfields on New Guinea and Allied convoys along the Papuan coast.^[143]
• August 10 – Official backing for the trio of
  Heinkel He 177B "separately"-four-engined strategic bomber prototypes, numbered V101 through V103 comes from Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, ordering Arado Flugzeugwerke, already the sole subcontractor for the He 177A, to start work towards production of the new B-series airframes.^[144]
• August 10–11 (overnight) – 653 British bombers strike Nuremberg, Germany, damaging the central and southern parts of the city and starting a large fire. Sixteen bombers are lost.^[137]
• August 11
  • Eight German
    A-36 bombers mistakenly attack the American positions, destroying the command post and four artillery pieces.^[145]
  • Nine U.S. Army Air Forces
    Paramushiro, causing noteworthy damage. Japanese fighters shoot down one B-24 and damage the other eight; the B-24s shoot down 13 Japanese fighters. The Eleventh Air Force decides not to raid the Kuriles again without fighter escort of its bombers.^[146]
• August 12–13 (overnight) – 504 British bombers bomb Milan and 152 strike
  No. 218 Squadron Short Stirling, assists his surviving crew in getting the plane home before dying; he later receives a posthumous Victoria Cross.^[137]
• August 13 – The U.S. Army Air Forces make their first bombing raid on Austria.
• August 14 – Japanese aircraft raid the Allied air base at Marilinan, New Guinea.^[147]
• August 14–15 (overnight) – 140 British Lancasters bomb Milan. One does not return.^[137]
• August 15
  • U.S. forces land on Vella Lavella. The Japanese respond with air raids of 54, 59, and eight planes during the day, but do little damage, and U.S. Marine Corps F4U Corsair fighters strafe Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island. The Japanese claim to have lost 17 planes, but U.S. forces claim 44 shot down.^[148]
  • In
    leaflets for three weeks before the invasion, mostly against an uninhabited island.^[65] Since June 1, the Eleventh Air Force has made 1,454 sorties against Kiska, dropping 1,255 tonnes (1,255,000 kg) of bombs.^[149]
  • The landings on Kiska end the 439-day-long Aleutian Islands campaign, during which the Eleventh Air Force has flown 3,609 combat sorties, dropped 3,500 tonnes (3,500,000 kg) of bombs, lost 40 aircraft in combat and 174 to other causes, and suffered 192 aircraft damaged. U.S. Navy patrol aircraft have flown 704 combat sorties, dropped 590,000 pounds (270,000 kg) of bombs, and lost 16 planes in combat and 35 due to other causes. Including transport aircraft, the Allies lost 471 aircraft during the campaign to all causes, while the Japanese lost 69 aircraft in combat and about 200 to other causes.^[65]
• August 15–16 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command makes its last raid on Italy, with 199 Lancasters attacking Milan and 154 striking Turin. Eleven bombers are lost, most of them shot down by German fighters waiting for them as they make their return flight across France.^[137]
• August 17
  • 164 U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft of the Fifth Air Force attack Japanese airfields at Wewak, New Guinea, destroying 70 planes while the Japanese are servicing them for another raid on Marilinan.^[147]
  • 60 U.S. Army Air Forces bombers are lost in
    raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt
    .
  • The last Axis forces evacuate Sicily, bringing the Sicily campaign to an end. The U.S. Army Air Forces have lost 28 killed, 41 wounded, and 88 missing during the campaign.^[150]
  • The Germans make the first operational use of any type of rocket-boosted
    MCLOS radio-guidance Henschel Hs 293 anti-ship missile
    .
• August 17–18 – The German Luftwaffe makes two 80-plane raids by Junkers Ju 88s against Bizerte, Tunisia, where Allied ships are assembling for the invasion of mainland Italy. They sink an infantry landing craft, damage three other vessels, destroy oil installations, kill 22 men, and wound 215.^[151]
• August 17–18 (overnight) – 596 Royal Air Force bombers attack the German ballistic missile research station at Peenemünde for the first time in a raid especially designed to kill as many German scientists and other workers as possible before they can reach air raid shelters. They kill nearly 200 people in the accommodations area, but also mistakenly bomb a nearby prison camp for foreign slave workers, killing 500 to 600 there. For the first time, the British bombers fly a route intended to trick German night fighter forces into deploying to defend the wrong target. Also for the first time, the British employ the new Spotfire 250 lb (110 kg) target indicator. Forty British bombers (6.7 percent) fail to return. The raid sets the German ballistic missile program back at least two, and perhaps more than six, months.^[152]
• August 19 – Generaloberst Hans Jeschonnek, the Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe, commits suicide.
• August 22–23 (overnight) – Bomber Command sends 462 aircraft to attack the IG Farben factory at Leverkusen, Germany. Due to thick cloud cover and a partial failure of the Oboe navigation system, heir bombs scatter widely, striking 12 other towns in addition to Leverkusen. Five bombers do not return.^[137]
• August 23 – About 20 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers attack the harbor at Palermo, Sicily, damaging several ships.^[153]
• August 23–24 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command resumes the bombing of Berlin with a raid by 727 bombers. Poor target marking, poor timing by bombers, and the difficulty
  H2S navigation radar has in identifying landmarks in Berlin lead to wide scattering of bombs, although the Germans suffer nearly 900 casualties on the ground. For the first time, the Germans employ new Zahme Sau ("Tame Boar") tactics – the use of ground-based guidance to direct night fighters into the British bomber stream, after which the night fighters operate independently against targets they find – and the British lose 56 bombers, the highest number so far in a single night and 7.9 percent of the participating aircraft.^[137][154]
• August 25 – A Luftwaffe aircraft, a
  patrol vessel HMS Landguard
  with a near miss.
• August 27 – Just two days after the strike attempt on HMS Bideford, guided missiles sink a ship for the first time, when a squadron of eighteen KG 100
  antisubmarine patrols in the Bay of Biscay by surface ships.^[157]
• August 27–28 (overnight) – 674 British bombers attack Nuremberg, suffering the loss of 33 aircraft. Despite clear skies, it is very dark and many aircraft have trouble with their H2S radar sets and with hearing the directions of the Master Bomber, and results are unsatisfactory.[137]
• August 30 – A
  Ceylon to Perth, Australia, completes the longest non-stop scheduled airline flight in history. From mooring buoy to mooring buoy, the flight takes 31 hours 51 minutes.^[158]
• August 30–31 (overnight)
  • RAF Bomber Command dispatches 660 bombers to attack Mönchengladbach and Rheydt, Germany. Good visibility and successful marking by Pathfinder aircraft leads to a successful raid.^[137]
  • Bomber Command begins a series of small night raids against German ammunition dumps in forests in northern France.^[137]
• August 31 – Serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, American professional football player Len Supulski dies along with seven other men in the crash of a B-17 Flying Fortress near Kearny, Nebraska, during a training flight.
• August 31 – September 1 (overnight) – RAF Bomber Command sends 622 bombers to attack Berlin. For the first time, the Luftwaffe employs illuminator aircraft – Junkers Ju 88s dropping flares – to provide light for attacking "Wild Boar" daylight fighters. Cloud cover, H2S problems, and stiff German resistance cause Pathfinder aircraft to drop their markers well south of the target area and lead the bombers to scatter their bombs as much as 30 miles (48 km) back along the approach route to Berlin, suggesting that Bomber Command crews are turning back early in the face of increasing losses. Forty-seven bombers do not return; although this is only 1.6 percent of the overall force, the loss rate among Handley Page Halifaxes is 11.4 percent and that among Short Stirlings is 16 percent. German fighters have shot down two-thirds of the lost bombers. Despite the raid's failure, it prompts Gauleiter of Berlin Joseph Goebbels to order all children and all adults not engaged in war work to be evacuated from Berlin to the countryside and to towns in eastern Germany where air raids are not expected.^[159][160]

September

• Lieutenant Commander Frank A. Erickson completes training as the Coast Guard's first helicopter pilot and is designated Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot No. 1. He also becomes the first Coast Guard helicopter instructor.^[161]
• September 1
  • Due to the vast distances involved, land-based American aircraft have flown only 102 combat sorties in the
    Central Pacific Area since January 1.^[162]
  • U.S. Navy aircraft from the carriers
    Marcus Island, destroying several Japanese Mitsubishi G4M (Allied reporting name "Betty") bombers on the ground in exchange for the loss of four American aircraft.^[163]
  • U.S. Army Air Forces Fifth Air Force aircraft conduct a major raid against the Japanese airfield at Madang, New Guinea.^[164]
  • The U.S. Army Air Forces disband the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, although some Army antisubmarine squadrons will operate until November.^[165]
  • The Civil Air Patrol is relieved of maritime patrol duties off the coast of the United States.^[166]
  • The U.S. Navy PBY-5A Catalina 41-2459 is retired from patrol service over the Atlantic Ocean after serving in Patrol Squadrons 73 (VP-73) and 84 (VP-84) and is relegated to transport service for the remainder of World War II. Sinking three German submarines and damaging another badly enough for British forces to sink it later, 41-2459 finishes the war as the most successful submarine-killing Catalina of World War II.^[167]
• September 1–11 – The aircraft carriers
  PV-1 Venturas cover the unopposed American landing on Baker Island. On three occasions, F6F Hellcats from the carriers shoot down an approaching Japanese Kawanishi H8K (Allied reporting name "Emily") flying boat. A U.S. Army Air Forces fighter squadron arrives on Baker Island on September 11.^[168]
• September 2 – U.S. Army Fifth Air Force aircraft attack the airfield and harbor at Wewak, New Guinea, sinking two Japanese merchant ships.^[164]
• September 3–4 (overnight) – 316 British Lancasters attack Berlin while four de Havilland Mosquitos drop "spoof" flares to draw German night fighters away from them, but 22 Lancasters (almost 7 percent) nonetheless are lost. The raid hits residential areas and several factories and knocks out major water and electricity plants and one of the city's largest breweries.^[169]
• September 4
  • Finding the red in the national insignia adopted in June 1943 for its military aircraft could cause confusion with Japanese markings during combat, the United States adopts a new marking consisting of a white star centered in a blue circle flanked by white rectangles, with the entire insignia outlined in blue . The new marking will remain in use until January 1947.^[170]
  • Allied forces land at
    tank landing ships.^[171]
• September 5 – In the first
  503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment parachute onto the Japanese airfield at Nadzab, New Guinea, capturing it easily. An airlift of several thousand more Allied troops to the airfield occurs over the next few days.^[173]
• September 5–6 (overnight) – 605 British bombers make a very successful attack on Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, Germany, but lose 34 (5.6 percent) of their number.^[169]
• September 6–7 (overnight)
  • 180 Axis aircraft attack an Allied convoy anchored in the harbor at Bizerte, Tunisia, but a smoke screen prevents them from scoring any hits.^[174]
  • 404 British bombers attack Munich, but scatter their bombs due to cloud cover. Sixteen bombers (4 percent) do not return.^[169]
• September 8
  • German aircraft attack Allied convoys south of Sicily, sinking a
    tank landing craft and damaging other ships.^[175]
  • 131 U.S. Army Air Forces
    Field Marshal Albert Kesselring at Frascati, Italy
    , killing 485 civilians.
  • Italy's surrender to the Allies
    is proclaimed.
• September 8–9 (overnight) – American aircraft participate in a Bomber Command night raid for the first time, when five U.S. Army Air Forces
  Boulogne, France. The gun position is not damaged. All bombers return safely.^[169]
• September 9
  • In Operations
    111th Fighter Squadron join the more vulnerable U.S. Navy floatplanes of American light cruisers in spotting fire for naval gunfire against German forces ashore.^[177] The German Luftwaffe puts up only minor opposition to the landings, with only four air raid alerts occurring during the day.^[178]
  • Within weeks of the rocket-boosted Henschel Hs 293's pioneering deployment, Luftwaffe Dornier Do 217 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 100 sink the Italian battleship Roma west of Corsica with two Fritz X radio-controlled glide bombs—the first documented successful use of a "free-fall", unpowered PGM ordnance device in military aviation history—as she steams to surrender to the Allies; 1,253 of the 1,849 aboard are lost.
• September 10–12 – Allied forces detect only 158 German Luftwaffe sorties against the Salerno beachhead. Allied fighters break up most of the German attacks before they reach the beachhead.^[179]
• September 11
  • French fighter ace Pierre Le Gloan (18 victories) dies in a crash.
  • A Luftwaffe Dornier Do 217 bomber badly damages the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Savannah with a Fritz X off Salerno, Italy, knocking her out of service for a year.
  • The U.S. Army Air Forces'
    Shumushu. During a 50-minute dogfight with 60 Japanese fighters, three of the bombers are shot down and seven so badly damaged that they crashland in the neutral Soviet Union, where they are interned. Suffering its worst losses in any single mission, the Eleventh Air Force loses half its long-range striking power during the raid, and attempts no further bombing raids against the Kuriles during 1943.^[180]
• September 12
  • In a
    Pratica di Mare, near Rome. Mussolini then embarks in a Heinkel He 111 and flies on to Vienna
    .
  • The British escort carriers Attacker, Battler, Hunter, and Stalker fly off 26 Supermarine Seafires to operate from Paestum airfield in the Salerno beachhead, then withdraw to Palermo, Sicily, to refuel.^[181]
• September 13 – Off Salerno, the American
  C-53 Skytroopers flying from Sicily drop 600 paratroopers of the United States Army's 82nd Airborne Division behind Allied lines in the Salerno beachhead.^[183]
• September 14 – The Allied
  Northwest African Air Force conducts large strikes against German ground forces around the Salerno beachhead.^[184] Off Salerno, an American Liberty ship becomes a total loss after a German guided bomb hits her.^[185]
• September 14–15 (overnight) – U.S. Army Air Forces transport aircraft drop 1,900 more U.S. Army paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division into the Salerno beachhead.^[183]
• September 15 – A German guided bomb strikes another American Liberty ship off Salerno, and she becomes a total loss.^[185]
• September 15–16 (overnight)
  • 369 British bombers and five U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses make a very successful attack on the Dunlop Rubber factory at Montluçon, France, hitting every building and starting a large fire. Three British bombers are lost.^[169]
  • Eight Lancasters of
    Dortmund-Ems Canal near Ladbergen, Germany. Five Lancasters are lost, and the Royal Air Force discontinues low-level raids by heavy bombers for the remainder of World War II.^[169]
• September 16 – The British battleship HMS Warspite is badly damaged by two hits and two near misses by German guided bombs off Salerno.^[186] She is out of service until mid-1944.
• September 16–17 – 340 British bombers and five U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses attack the railway yards at Modane, France, in an attempt to cut rail communications between France and Italy. The raid is unsuccessful due to inaccurate bombing, and three British bombers are lost.^[169]
• September 18–19 – U.S. Navy aircraft from the carriers
  landing beaches on the island of Betio. Four American aircraft are lost.^[163]
• September 20–21 (overnight) – To disrupt the German evacuation of
  Northwest African Air Force Wellington, Mitchell, and Liberator bombers begin strikes against airfields, shipping, and port facilities at Bastia, Corsica, and Leghorn and Pisa, Italy.^[187]
• September 21 –
  John William Ditter, a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District, dies along with another man in the fiery crash of a U.S. Navy plane in heavy rain near Columbia, Pennsylvania.^[7]
• September 21–22 (overnight) – A Northwest African Air Force raid on Bastia damages the port enough to slow the German evacuation of Corsica.[188]
• September 22 – Allied forces land at Finschhafen, New Guinea. A raid by 41 Rabaul-based Japanese aircraft inflicts no damage on the Allied ships involved, demonstrating that Allied fears that their ships could not operate survivably in the Solomon Sea and Bismarck Sea are no longer warranted.^[189]
• September 22–24 – Ernst Jachmann flies his single-seat glider for 55 hours 51 minutes in a thermal.
• September 22–23 (overnight) – 711 British bombers and 5 U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses make the first raid on Hanover, Germany, in two years, bombing mostly its south and southeastern portions in the first of a series of four heavy raids on the city. It is the first night raid on Germany by American bombers. Twenty-six British aircraft (3.7 percent of the force) are lost.^[169]
• September 23–24 (overnight) – 628 British bombers and 5 U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses strike Mannheim, Germany, in a successful raid that also damages part of neighboring Ludwigshafen. Thirty-two British aircraft (5.1 percent of the force) are lost. A diversionary raid by 29 other British bombers on nearby Darmstadt causes significant damage there.^[169]
• September 25–26 – Allied aircraft attack airfields on Corsica and ferry traffic between Corsica and Italy, and shoot down four German transport aircraft.^[188]
• September 27 – The U.S. Navy formally terminates its amphibious glider program, having concluded that gliders are impractical for the landing of United States Marine Corps forces on beachheads.^[190]
• September 27–28 (overnight) – 678 British bombers and 5 U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses strike Hanover, Germany, mostly hitting open countryside and villages north of the city. Thirty-eight British aircraft (5.6 percent of the force) and one B-17 are lost. A diversionary raid by 27 other British bombers on Braunschweig kills 218 people and loses one Lancaster.^[169] German night fighter ace Hauptmann Hans-Dieter Frank dies in a collision with another night fighter over Hanover late on the 27th; his score stands at 55 kills at his death.^[191]
• September 29–30 (overnight) – 352 British bombers attack Bochum, Germany, in an accurate and successful raid. Nine British aircraft (2.6 percent of the force) are lost.^[169]

October

December

• The Venezuelan airline Avensa makes its first flights.
• Early in the month, the U.S. Navy ceases testing of amphibious gliders. It had formally terminated the amphibious glider program in September.^[190]
• The United States Army Air Forces request that the Douglas Aircraft Company submit a proposal for a Mach 1-capable research aircraft.^[231]
• December 1 – The United States reopens the former Japanese airfield on
  Tarawa Atoll as Hawkins Field for use by fighters. In mid-December, it will begin to handle heavy bombers as well.^[232]
• December 2 – A night raid by 105 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers surprise the brilliantly lit Italian port of Bari while it is crowded with about 30 Allied ships, meeting little opposition. A sheet of flame from a burning tanker spreads over the harbor; 16 ships carrying 38,000 tonnes (38,000,000 kg) of cargo are destroyed, eight are damaged, and a quantity of mustard gas is released from the cargo of one stricken ship; at least 125 American personnel alone are killed; and the port does not return to full operations for three weeks. It is the most destructive single air raid against shipping since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.^[233]
• December 2–3 (overnight) – 458 British bombers attack Berlin, scattering their bombs widely across the southern part of the city and the countryside beyond due to adverse winds but nonetheless causing some damage to factories and destroying 136 buildings. German night fighters intercept the raid and the British lose 40 bombers (8.7 percent of the force).^[234]
• December 3–4 (overnight)
  • Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft attack U.S. ships approaching Bougainville Island.^[235]
  • 527 British bombers raid Leipzig, Germany, with the American broadcast journalist
    Frankfurt-am-Main, where many are shot down. Twenty-four bombers do not return, a 4.6 percent loss rate.^[234]
• December 4
  • U.S. Navy carrier aircraft strike
    Wotje later in the day. Japanese aircraft attack the retiring carrier force during the afternoon and overnight, damaging Lexington with a torpedo in exchange for the loss of 29 Japanese planes.^[236]
  • The U.S. Navy submarine
    Hachijōjima with the loss of over 1,243 lives, including 20 American prisoners of war.^[237]
• December 5 – The only major Japanese air operation involving aircraft of both the
  Calcutta, India. Defending Royal Air Force Spitfire Vc and Hurricane Mark IIC fighters shoot down one Ki-21 and damage another, while Japanese aircraft shoot down three Hurricanes, killing two Hurricane pilots.^[78]
• December 8 – Aircraft from the U.S. Navy carriers USS Bunker Hill and USS Monterey strike Nauru in cooperation with a bombardment by surface warships; eight or ten of the 12 Japanese planes on the island are destroyed.^[238]
• December 10 – The Allied airstrip at Cape Torokina on Bougainville officially opens.^[224]
• December 13 – Since November 14, the Japanese have lost 122 aircraft based in the Marshall Islands.^[205]
• December 14 – Aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Forces′ Fifth Air Force attack Japanese forces at Arawe with 433 tons (393 metric tons) of bombs.^[239]
• December 15 – Fifth Air Force aircraft cover U.S. Army landings at Arawe. A strike on the landing forces by 64 Japanese naval aircraft is unsuccessful.^[240]
• December 16–17 – Almost continuous unopposed Japanese air attacks on the landing force at Arawe damage and destroy various U.S. landing craft and small craft.^[241]
• December 16–17 (overnight)
  • 493 British bombers attack Berlin. German night fighters intercept them continuously from the coast of the Netherlands all the way to the target, and 25 Lancasters (5.2 percent of the force) are shot down; the raid sees the first use of the British Serrate radar homing system, which four British night fighters use to attack German night fighters along the bombers' route, and they damage one Messerschmitt Bf 110. Most of the bombs fall on the city; the damage to railroads combines with people using trains to escape the bombing to delay supplies to German forces on the Eastern Front, and damage inflicted by this attack combines with that of earlier attacks to leave one-quarter of Berlin's housing destroyed. An additional 29 Lancasters crash upon returning to England due to low cloud cover at their bases.^[234]
  • RAF Bomber Command sends 47 bombers against two V-1 flying bomb launch sites near Abbeville, France. One raid fails, but the other, by No. 617 Squadron Lancasters employing 12,000-pound (5,400 kg) Tallboy bombs, damages its target.^[234]
• December 15–25 – Japanese aircraft at Rabaul bomb U.S. forces on Bougainville nightly, killing 38 and wounding 136.^[224]
• December 17 – For the first time, the Cape Torokina airstrip on Bougainville is used to stage the first Air Solomons (AirSols) raid on Rabaul.^[224]
• December 20–21 (overnight) – 650 British bombers raid Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. German night fighters intercept them successfully and 41 British aircraft (6.3 percent) are lost. Despite the scattering of bombs due to cloud cover – which even leads to the city of Mainz being hit by mistake – the raid inflicts significant damage on Frankfurt-am-Main. A diversionary raid on Mannheim mostly misses the city but suffers no losses.^[234]
• December 21 – Rabaul-based Japanese aircraft make three
  dive-bombing attacks on U.S. forces unloading at Arawe.^[242]
• December 21–30 –
  Jaluit.^[243]
• December 23 – American aircraft based at Tarawa strike Nauru.[244]
• December 23–24 – 379 British bombers raid Berlin, losing 16 (4.2 percent) of their number. They scatter their bombs widely due to cloud cover.^[234]
• December 23–25 – Air Solomons (AirSols) aircraft strike Rabaul heavily, U.S. Navy carrier aircraft strike Kavieng on New Ireland, and Fifth Air Force aircraft attack Japanese positions at Cape Gloucester and Cape Hoskins on New Britain.^[245]
• December 26 – 70 to 80 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft attack U.S. ships supporting the day's U.S. landing at Cape Gloucester, sinking a destroyer and damaging two others. Minor raids follow on the next two days.^[246]
• December 26–27 – Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft raid U.S. forces off Arawe.^[247]
• December 28 – American aircraft based at Tarawa strike Nauru.^[244]
• December 29–30 (overnight) – 712 British bombers strike Berlin with the loss of 20 aircraft (2.8 percent of the force). Cloud cover makes them scatter their bombs, with many missing the city.^[234]
• December 31
  • Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft raid U.S. forces off Arawe, losing four aircraft.^[247]
  • Since mid-December, when they began staging through Tarawa Atoll, U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators have dropped 601 tonnes (601,000 kg) of bombs on the Marshall Islands.^[232]
  • Since June 1, there have been 135 major aircraft accidents on the "Hump" route between India and China. The accidents have taken 168 lives.^[135]
  • The U.S. Army officially activates the 555th Parachute Infantry Company, the first
    forest fires in the Pacific Northwest
    .

• Avro Lancastrian
• Fairchild XAT-14, prototype of the Fairchild AT-21 Gunner

January

• January 3 – Allied Aviation XLRA-1^[190]
• January 9 – Lockheed Constellation prototype NX67900
• January 15 – Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose^[248]

February

• Goodyear FG-1 Corsair^[249]
• Tachikawa Ki-70 (Allied reporting name "Clara")^[250]
• February 4 – Bristol Buckingham

March

• March 5 – Gloster Meteor prototype DG206
• March 11 – Savoia-Marchetti SM.91
• March 24 – Bristol XLRQ-1^[190]

April

• Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate ("Gale"), Allied reporting name "Frank"^[251]
• April 8 – Douglas BTD Destroyer^[252]
• April 22 – Brewster XA-32^[253]

May

• May 8 – Savoia-Marchetti SM.95
• May 10 – Ilyushin Il-8
• May 15 – Nakajima C6N Saiun ("Painted Cloud"), Allied reporting name "Myrt"^[254]

June

• June 15 – Arado Ar 234V1 GK+IV
• June 26 – Bell Model 30 single-rotor helicopter^[255]

July

• July 1 –
  Focke-Wulf Ta 154
• July 19 – Curtiss-Wright Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender^[256]
• July 21 – Curtiss XP-62^[257]
• July 22 – Miles M.39B Libellula

August

• Yokosuka P1Y Ginga ("Milky Way"), Allied reporting name "Frances"^[258]
• August 7 – Ilyushin Il-6
• August 18 – Junkers Ju 352

September

• Curtiss XF14C-2^[259]
• Kawasaki Ki-96^[260]
• antisubmarine warfare^[262]
• September 6 – Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet^[263]
• September 8 – Dornier Do 317
• September 20 – De Havilland Vampire prototype LZ548
• September 22 – DFS 228
• September 30 – Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet

October

• Savoia-Marchetti SM.92
• October 20 – Junkers Ju 390
• October 23 – Vickers Windsor
• October 26 – Dornier Do 335V1 CP+UA

November

• Aichi M6A Seiran ("Mountain Haze")^[264]
• November 17 –
  P-75 Eagle

December

• Kawasaki Ki-64^[265]
• December 2 – Grumman XF7F-1, prototype of the Grumman F7F Tigercat^[266]
• December 20 –
  DB 603 "individual" engines.^[267]
• December 22 – Junkers Ju 388
• December 31 – Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai ("Violet Lightning Modified"), Allied reporting name "George"^[268]

Entered service

• Fairchild AT-21 Gunner with the United States Army Air Forces

January

• Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle with No. 295 Squadron RAF
• Junkers Ju 252 with the German Luftwaffe
• January 10 – Fairey Barracuda with No. 827 Squadron FAA

February

• Imperial Japanese Army Air Force 23rd Independent Squadron^[269]

• Bell P-63 Kingcobra^[270][271]

Retirements

• Westland Wallace by the Royal Air Force

August

• Vichy French
  Navy

December

• Northrop N-3PB by the Royal Air Force's No. 330 (Norwegian) Squadron^[272]
• Westland Whirlwind by No. 263 Squadron, Royal Air Force

References