 |
| 20/01/1943 |
Daylight raid by the Luftwaffe
hits a school in London, killing 44 children and one teacher. |
| 27/01/1943 |
The USAAF makes its first raid on
Germany with a force of B-17’s and B-24’s hitting
Emden and Wilhelmshaven in daylight. |
| 29/01/1943 |
The Nazi party's 10th Anniversary
celebrations are disrupted by the RAF's first low-level daylight
Mosquito air attack on Berlin. |
| 31/01/1943 |
RAF Bomber Command makes first operational
use of H2S radar. |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
 |
| 03/03/1943 |
173 Londoners are killed
in panic crush at Bethnal Green tube station when a new AA
weapon noise is heard for the first time. |
| 05/03/1943 |
Bomber Command report the ‘first
effective attack on Essen’ due primarily to the use of
a new navigational aid ‘Oboe’. The ‘Battle
of the Ruhr’ begins. |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
 |
| 14/05/1943 |
The U.S. 8th Air Force
attacks Kiel with 125 aircraft. |
| 16/05/1943 |
Wing Commander Guy Gibson leads the ‘Dambusters’ night
attack by 19 aircraft against the Ruhr dams, during which ‘bouncing
bombs’ breach the Mohne and Eder Dams causing severe
flooding and loss of civilian life in the Ruhr valley below
them, but doing little damage to the industrial installations.
Gibson is later awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| 17/05/1943 |
The Luftwaffe carries out a night
raid involving 89 aircraft against Cardiff in Wales. |
| 23/05/1943 |
The heaviest RAF raid of war to date
is made against Dortmund, during which 2,000 tons of explosives
are dropped. |
| 24/05/1943 |
‘Bomber Harris’ congratulates
RAF Bomber Command for passing the 100,000 ton mark in raids
against Germany. |
| 28/05/1943 |
The U.S. 15th Air Force attacks Italian
oil refineries at Livorno. |
| 29/05/1943 |
The RAF launches a major raid (719
bombers) against Wuppertal, dropping 1,900 tons of bombs and
killing 2,450 civilians and claim that half of Wuppertal has
been ‘wiped off the map’. |
| 30/05/1943 |
20 children killed when bomb hits
Torquay church. |
| 31/05/1943 |
The U.S. 15th Air Force bombs German
and Italian airfields at Foggia, destroying many aircraft on
the ground. |
| |
 |
| 01/06/1943 |
The allied 2nd Tactical
Air Force is formed in UK. |
| 10/06/1943 |
A co-ordinated air offensive is begun,
with the US 8th Air Force, flying precision bombing missions
by day and RAF Bomber Command, flying area saturation missions
by night, against major German cities. |
| 11/06/1943 |
The US 8th Air Force raids the German
naval base at Wilhelmshaven (200 B-17s), while the RAF attacks
Münster and Düsseldorf. |
| 12/06/1943 |
The RAF launches a heavy raid on Bochum
in the Ruhr. The Luftwaffe carries out a night attack against
Plymouth. |
| 13/06/1943 |
Night fighter ace Wing Commander John
Cunningham, brings down his 16th victim over southern England. |
| 19/06/1943 |
RAF carries out a raid on the Schneider
armaments works at Le Creusot. |
| 20/06/1943 |
The RAF institutes ‘shuttle
bombing’ runs, with planes leaving England, bombing Germany,
reloading in North Africa, bombing Italy and the returning
to England begin, with 60 RAF bombers attacking the radar works
at Friedrichshafen. |
| 21/06/1943 |
The RAF launches a heavy raid on Krefeld
in the Ruhr, but lose 44 aircraft. |
| 24/06/1943 |
The RAF conducts a heavy raid on Elberfeld
in the Ruhr. |
| 28/06/1943 |
Cologne Cathedral is badly
damaged in a raid. |
| 30/06/1943 |
The British publish aircraft losses
incurred to date, with Axis losses of 18,031 aircraft and RAF
losses of 9,906 aircraft. |
| |
 |
| 02/07/1943 |
U.S. Fifteenth Air Force,
raids three airfields in southern Italy. |
| 03/07/1943 |
The RAF carries out a heavy night
raid on Cologne, causing considerable damage and killing hundreds
of civilians. |
| 09/07/1943 |
At least 12 die as a German hit and
run bomber hits East Grinstead cinema during an afternoon performance. |
| 18/07/1943 |
The Germans say Cologne is in a state
of chaos after allied raids. |
| 19/07/1943 |
USAAF planes bomb Rome for the first
time, with Basilica at San Lorenzo wrecked. |
| 24/07/1943 |
Operation 'Gomorrah' takes place when
746 RAF bombers drop 2,300 tons of bombs on Hamburg in 48 minutes,
during which only 12 aircraft are lost. This tonnage is as
much as Germans dropped in the five heaviest raids on London.
Fires are visible for 200 miles. This is the first operational
use of ‘Window’, (radar-jamming foil strips dropped
by aircraft). |
| 25/07/1943 |
German radio says that Hamburg is
still burning (8am), leaving 100,000 homeless. The USAAF bomb
the city again in daylight. The allies blitz Essen with 2,000
tons of bombs being dropped. |
| 28/07/1943 |
The second mass raid on Hamburg by
722 RAF bombers results in nine square miles of city being
set alight. |
| 29/07/1943 |
The mass evacuation of a million civilians
from Hamburg is ordered after the recent heavy bombings. |
| 30/07/1943 |
Hamburg is bombed for a third time. |
| |
 |
| 01/08/1943 |
The USAAF loses 54 B24s
out of 178 in a disastrous raid (the longest yet attempted)
on the Ploiesti oil fields in Romania while inflicting only
superficial damage. |
| 02/08/1943 |
The ninth attack on Hamburg in eight
days. More bombs have now been dropped on Hamburg than on London
during the whole of the Blitz. Estimated 50.000 killed, equal
to Britain’s entire civilian losses by bombing in the
war so far. |
| 06/08/1943 |
A partial evacuation of Berlin is
announced in order to avoid another Hamburg. |
| 12/08/1943 |
The Heaviest RAF attack so far on
northern Italy, with more than 1,000 tons dropped on Milan
in under 30 minutes. |
| 15/08/1943 |
Portsmouth has heaviest raid for two
years when its bombed by 91 German planes. |
| 17/08/1943 |
597 RAF bombers attack Peenemunde
on the Baltic coast, the birthplace of the ‘V’ weapons.
376 B-17's and B-24's of the US 8th Air Force carry out double
raids against the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt and the
Messerschmitt fighter works at Regensburg, losing 80 aircraft
in the process. |
| 18/08/1943 |
570 RAF bombers attack the V-1 and
V-2 missile development facility at Peenemunde, to catastrophic
effect. |
| 19/08/1943 |
Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, Colonel
General Jesehonnek shoots himself. |
| 23/08/1943 |
The heaviest raid to date on Berlin,
when 727 RAF bombers drop more than 1,700 tons of bombs on
the City. |
| 24/08/1943 |
A blanket of smoke covers Berlin to
a height of 20,000ft. The first estimates put German dead at
5,860 after last night’s raid. |
| 25/08/1943 |
140 Allied fighters and 136 bombers
strafe and bomb the airfield at Foggia, as part of the preparations
for the invasion of the Italian mainland. Many axis aircraft
are destroyed in these raids. |
| 30/08/1943 |
An air battle between 44 USAAF P-38s
and 75 Luftwaffe fighters commences above Italy. The the P-38s
were escorting a large formation of B-26s on their way to bomb
marshalling yards at Aversa. The Americans lose 13 aircraft
and shoot down 9 Axis aircraft, thus allowing the B-26s to
make an unmolested bombing run to their target, where they
cause extreme damage without loss. |
| 31/08/1943 |
The RAF again pound Berlin
(over 600 bombers) with more than 1,000 tons dropped, killing
about 5,000 civilian's. |
| |
 |
| 07/09/1943 |
The RAF bomb V1 (flying
bomb) launch sites on the North French coastline. |
| 16/09/1943 |
The Dambuster squadron makes a disastrous
first use of 12,000lb ‘Tall Boy’ bombs with a raid
on the Dortmund-Ems canal. |
| 19/09/1943 |
British Air Ministry says that Hamburg
now lies in absolute ruins and is ‘probably the most
complete blotting out of a city that ever happened.’ |
| |
 |
| 02/10/1943 |
The RAF launches a very heavy air
raid on Munich, which lasts 25 minutes. |
| 07/10/1943 |
The RAF bombs Stuttgart
making use of the Airborne 'Cigar' jamming device, killing
1,700 and making 18,000 homeless. |
| 14/10/1943 |
The US 8th Air Force delivers a heavy
attack against the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt. However,
of the original force of 291 B-17's, 198 are either shot down
or damaged beyond repair, while the Luftwaffe has lost only
about 40 fighter planes. |
| 22/10/1943 |
Operation 'Corona' (the jamming of
German night-fighter communications) begins during an RAF raid
on Kassel. |
| 26/10/1943 |
The RAF launches a heavy night raid
against Stuttgart, while the US 8th Air Force, in its greatest
effort to date, delivers a devastating daylight attack on Bremen. |
| |
 |
| 03/11/1943 |
The USAAF launch a 400-bomber
daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven with 600-fighter escort. At
night the RAF drop over 2,000 tons of bombs on Düsseldorf
in 27 minutes. |
| 18/11/1943 |
The RAF begin the ‘battle of
Berlin’ with 700 tons dropped. Other areas also pounded
in the biggest RAF operation so far. |
| 22/11/1943 |
The RAF give Berlin the worst pounding
so far, with more than 2,300 tons of bombs dropped in less
than 30 minutes for the loss of just 26 planes. |
| 23/11/1943 |
Berlin hit again by the RAF, making
it the worst bombed city in Germany with 12,000 tons dropped
on it this year alone. |
| 24/11/1943 |
Berlin reported as a ‘sea of
flames’ this morning with casualty estimates put at between
8-10,000 killed. |
| 26/11/1943 |
The largest USAAF raid so far on Bremen.
A fifth consecutive night raid on Berlin by RAF. |
| |
 |
| 02/12/1943 |
Allied bombers resume
the 'battle of Berlin' dropping 1,500 tons, but losing 41 aircraft.
A Luftwaffe raid against the Allied naval base at Bari in Italy,
hits an ammunition ship which explodes, sinking 17 other ships. |
| 03/12/1943 |
The RAF conduct a heavy attack against
Leipzig killing 1,500 and making 40,000 homeless. |
| 08/12/1943 |
Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz becomes
the chief of U.S. strategic air forces in Europe. |
| 11/12/1943 |
A heavy USAAF raid on Emden kills
1,000 and makes 12,000 homeless. |
| 16/12/1943 |
A further blitz of Berlin brings the
allied total to 18,500 tons of explosive dropped on the city. |
| 20/12/1943 |
The heaviest raid of war on Frankfurt
with more than 2,000 tons dropped by RAF. Mosquito raiders
follow half an hour later to hamper the fire fighters efforts. |
| 29/12/1943 |
The Eighth 2,000-ton air
raid is flown against Berlin by the RAF on the third anniversary
of the fire bombing of London. |
