 |
| 02/01/1944 |
Hitler’s Chancellery is reported
75 per cent destroyed with many trapped in the shelters below
after a direct hit during an RAF raid on Berlin. Wing Commander
John Cunningham makes it 19-all with Wing Commander J. R. Braham
in night-fighter air-ace's ‘league’. |
| 06/01/1944 |
The allies announce that
jet-propelled aircraft will soon to be in production. The Air
Ministry says that Bomber Command dropped 157,000 tons of bombs
on Germany in 1943, while the Luftwaffe dropped only 2,400
tons on Britain. |
| 11/01/1944 |
660 heavy bombers of the U.S. 8th
Air Force carry out attacks against industrial targets at Braunschweig,
Magdeburg and Ascherleben. |
| 20/01/1944 |
The RAF makes its heaviest raid on
Berlin, with 700 bombers dropping more than 2,300 tons during
the 11th raid of the ‘Battle of Berlin’. |
| 21/01/1944 |
The largest Luftwaffe raid on Britain
for some time, with 90 planes being spotted over Southeast
England during the ‘Little Blitz’. The RAF sends
648 bombers to Magdeburg, but loses 55 for just 4 Luftwaffe
fighters. |
| 25/01/1944 |
Night-fighter ace, Major Prinz zu
SaynWittgenstein who claimed 83 victories is killed. |
| 27/01/1944 |
The thirteenth heavy raid on Berlin,
inflicts an estimated 6,000 dead. |
| 29/01/1944 |
The Luftwaffe bombs London, while
800 USAAF bombers drop 1,800 tons of bombs on Frankfurt am
Main and Ludwigshafen. The RAF hit Berlin for the 14th time. |
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08/02/1944
|
The RAF uses a massive
12,000b bomb ‘Tall-Boy’, in a raid on the Gnôme-et-Rhône
works in Limoges. |
| 15/02/1944 |
The heaviest raid ever on Berlin is
conducted, during which 2,500 tons of bombs are dropped. |
| 16/02/1944 |
The British Air Minister says that
bomber losses for 1943 were, 2,369 U.K. and 997 U.S. planes
down. |
| 18/02/1944 |
The Germans conduct their heaviest
night raid on London since 1941 as the Luftwaffe intensifies
the ‘Little Blitz’. |
| 19/02/1944 |
The RAF saturates Leipzig, dropping
2,300 tons of bombs, but lose 78 of 823 bombers. |
| 20/02/1944 |
‘Big Week’ starts with
the largest ever daylight raid of war by the USAAF on Germany
as 970 bombers carry out attacks against Hamburg, Leipzig and
Braunschweig. The RAF pound Stuttgart with 2,000-tons of bombs. |
| 24/02/1944 |
‘Big Week’ continues with
a co-ordinated RAF and USAAF attacks on the Schweinfurt ball-bearing
factory. |
| 26/02/1944 |
Bad weather ends ‘Big Week’,
during which 26 German aircraft production related factories
are hit putting German monthly production down by 20%. |
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01/03/1944
|
Wing Commander John Cunningham,
now on 20 ‘kills’, gets the 2nd bar to his DSO,
the first pilot to receive this triple honour. |
| 04/03/1944 |
The USAAF launch, but then cancel
the first daylight heavy bomber raid on Berlin. However 29
aircraft fail to receive the counter-order and bomb the capital. |
| 06/03/1944 |
Bomber Command begins a large-scale
offensive over northern France in preparation for D-Day. The
USAAF send 730 bombers and 796 fighters to Berlin, during which
69 bombers and 11 escorts are shot down. |
| 08/03/1944 |
The US 8th Air Force carries out another
heavy attack against Berlin. |
| 12/03/1944 |
The Swedes announce an investigation
of the ‘mysterious object which crashed out of the sky’ (a ‘flying
torpedo’ V1) from a German research station, 40 miles
away. |
| 15/03/1944 |
The heaviest RAF raid of war is made
against Stuttgart, with 3,000 tons dropped from 863 bombers,
for the loss of only 36 planes. |
| 24/03/1944 |
The Luftwaffe attacks London with
90 medium bombers (He-111s and Ju-88s), while the RAF bombs
Berlin with 810 heavy Lancaster bombers. The RAF lose 72 bombers
in this, the 16th and heaviest raid of war on Berlin. The ‘Battle
of Berlin’ is now over. |
| 30/03/1944 |
The RAF suffers its heaviest losses
in single raid when 96 bombers (600 aircrew) out of 795 are
shot down during a raid on Nuremberg. |
| 31/03/1944 |
RAF losses after 35 major attacks
on German cities since the 18th November 1943 are 1,047 aircraft
destroyed and 1,682 damaged. |
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| 01/04/1944 |
The USAAF accidentally
bombs Schaffhausen in Switzerland. The Swiss protest strongly.
The Americans offer reparations. |
| 05/04/1944 |
The RAF and USAAF conduct the first
of 24 round-the-clock raids on the Ploiesti oil refineries
in Romania. |
| 10/04/1944 |
The RAF drop a record 3,600 tons over
northern France. |
| 11/04/1944 |
An RAF Mosquito raid, hits the Gestapo
HQ in the Hague. |
| 22/04/1944 |
Bomber Command uses a ‘J’ bomb
(30lb liquid incendiary) for first time in a raid on Brunswick. |
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| 04/05/1944 |
The RAF carries out a
night raid against Budapest. |
| 07/05/1944 |
The US 8th Air Force launches a 1,500-bomber
raid against Berlin. |
| 09/05/1944 |
Allied air forces begin a campaign
of large scale raids against German airfields and rail communications
in France in preparation for D-Day. |
| 12/05/1944 |
800 bombers of the US 8th Air Force
carry out attacks against the synthetic fuel plants at Leuna-Merseburg,
Lützkendorf, Zeitz and Brüx. |
| 20/05/1944 |
A record 5,000 bombers raid 12 railway
targets and nine airfields in northern France and Belgium. |
| 28/05/1944 |
The US 8th Air Force attacks synthetic
fuel-producing plants at Leuna-Meseburg. |
| 29/05/1944 |
Using its maximum range, the US 8th
Air Force attacks aircraft production plants at Marienburg
and Posen in eastern Germany. |
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 |
| 02/06/1944 |
The first shuttle raid,
operation 'Frantic' is made by 130 B-17s of the US 15th Air
Force based at Tripoli. The raid attacks rail yards at Debrecen
in Hungary and then flies on to Soviet airfields at Poltava
in the Ukraine. |
| 04/06/1944 |
The RAF carries out heavy night raids
against German coastal batteries and fortifications in Normandy. |
| 09/06/1944 |
The RAF fly from French airfields
for first time since 1940. |
| 13/06/1944 |
The first V1 flying bomb is launched
against Britain during Operation 'Rumpelkammer' and hits Swanscombe
in Kent at 0418, causing shock and near panick among the civilian
population. |
| 15/06/1944 |
The RAF launches heavy attacks (600
bombers) against Le Havre and Boulogne. |
| 16/06/1944 |
The real flying bomb offensive on
Britain begins as 95 V1's cross the coast before 6am and a
total of 244 reaching England that day. The German press calls
it the ‘beginning of the day of vengeance’. |
| 19/06/1944 |
The Air Ministry release the first
official details of the V1's (range 150 miles, speed 300-350
mph, 2,000lb bomb) as AA gunners start calling them ‘Doodlebugs’. |
| 21/06/1944 |
The US 8th Air Force carries out raids
on Berlin and the synthetic fuel plants at Leuna-Merseburg,
which then continue on to Russia. |
| 22/06/1944 |
Allied planes drop 1,100 tons of bombs
on Cherbourg. |
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 |
| 06/07/1944 |
Churchill makes a statement
about the ‘Doodlebugs’ and say that 2,754 have
been launched, causing 2,752 dead and 8,000 injured so far. |
| 07/07/1944 |
50 heavy RAF bombers carry out a saturation
raid (2,300 tons) on the German defenses in and around Caen.
1,129 USAAF bombers attack aircraft factories and oil plants
in the Leipzig area. |
| 13/07/1944 |
A Junkers 88, equipped with secret
SN-2 radar, lands by mistake on an RAF airfield in Suffolk. |
| 18/07/1944 |
4,500 Allied aircraft pound the German
positions with 7,000 tons of bombs. |
| 25/07/1944 |
2,500 USAAF aircraft drop 4,150 tons
of bombs on German and American positions near St. Lo, which
kill 601 Americans. |
| 29/07/1944 |
The last of a series of RAF bombing
raids on Stuttgart that kill 900 and leave 100,000 homeless
takes place. |
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| 02/08/1944 |
Churchill makes a statement
to the House of Commons and says after seven weeks of non-stop
V1 attacks, 5,340 having being launched, that 4,735 have been
killed, 14,000 injured and 17,000 houses completely destroyed. |
| 04/08/1944 |
An RAF Gloster Meteor
pilot T. D. Dean becomes the first pilot to destroy a V-1 flying
bomb, when he tips the pilotless craft's wing, sending it off
course. |
| 06/08/1944 |
The German Rahmel aircraft factory
near Gdynia in Poland, is attacked by allied bombers. |
| 07/08/1944 |
Allied air patrols over Paris prevent
Axis fighters from reaching Mortain. |
| 08/08/1944 |
3,462 tons of bombs are dropped on
the German lines South of Caen by 1,020 RAF planes. |
| 18/08/1944 |
Allied air forces fly 3,057 sorties
against the Falaise pocket. |
| 23/08/1944 |
A Liberator bomber crashes in a storm
on a school near Preston in England, killing 38 children and
22 adults. |
| 27/08/1944 |
The RAF pounds the Ruhr oil refineries,
their first large-scale daylight action over Germany. More
than 1,000 U.S. B-17s and B-24s attack airdromes at Anklam,
Grossenbrode, Neubrandenburg and Parow, Luftwaffe experimental
facilities at Peenemunde and Rechlin, aircraft components factories
at Lubeck, Rostock, Schwerin, and Wismar, an oil-industry target
at Politz and several targets of opportunity in Germany. 18
heavy bombers are lost. |
| |
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| 02/09/1944 |
The launching of V1's
from France ceases. |
| 06/09/1944 |
Victory in the ‘Battle of London’ is
proclaimed after 80 days of V1 bombardment with over 8,000
flying-bombs launched, with approximately 2,300 reaching London. |
| 08/09/1944 |
The first V2 rockets hit London and
Paris from mobile bases in Holland. |
| 15/09/1944 |
The Germans start a new flying bomb
campaign, launching them from aircraft over Holland. |
| 16/09/1944 |
The Germans start a new flying bomb
campaign, launching them from aircraft over Holland. |
| 23/09/1944 |
An RAF precision bombing raid using
12,000lb bombs, breach the crucial Dortmund-Ems Canal. |
| 27/09/1944 |
It is announced that the first British
jet fighter, the ‘Gloster Meteor’ was successfully
used in action on the 4th August. |
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 |
| 11/10/1944 |
The RAF complete the flooding
of Walcheren with a 102-bomber raid near Veet. |
| 15/10/1944 |
The largest number of sorties on single
night is made by the RAF, with 1,576 in all. |
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| 16/11/1944 |
5,689 tons of bombs, a record for
one day are dropped by the RAF on the German frontline to the
East of Aachen. |
| 21/11/1944 |
The US 8th Air Force launches heavy
attacks against Hamburg and the synthetic fuel producing plants
of Leuna at Merseburg. |
| 22/11/1944 |
The RAF make a second
breach in the Dortmund-Ems Canal. |
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