List of air operations during the Battle of Europe
The list includes combined arms operations, defensive anti-aircraft warfare, and encompasses areas within the territorial waters of belligerent European states.
3 September: Flying officer Andrew McPherson is the first Royal Air Force pilot to cross the German coast after the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany.
Eighteen Handley Page Hampdens and nine Vickers Wellingtons are sent to attack the German warships moored at the Wilhelmshaven naval base.
[13] 15/16 May: In the first large-scale World War II strategic bombing[14]: 53 and the first attack on the German "backcountry", just 24 of 96 dispatched bombers found the Ruhr Area power stations and refineries.
[15] 19 May: French fighters strafed advanced columns of Operation Abendsegen[12]: 4 27 May 1940: Heinkels bombarded the Dunkirk perimeter followed by Stukas and Dorniers: opposition included the "first major encounter" by Spitfires of No.
2 June: Robert Stanford Tuck led a wing of Spitfires from RAF Martlesham Heath, the first "big formation" of the war, against eight Heinkel He IIIs and about 25 Messerschmitt Bf 109s over the Calais area.
[17]: 108 3 June: Operation Paula was Nazi Germany's "single attempt at strategic air warfare during the French campaign.
[2][specify] 26 June: The RAF Advanced Air Striking Force disbanded after beginning operations in France in May 24 July: Ferrying of Luftwaffe aircraft to the Channel Coast ended the first phase of the Battle of Britain[12]: 15 9 August: The Birmingham Blitz began and (along with Hull Blitz) became the basis for the RAF dehousing bombing policy in 1942.
8 July First use of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe; against Wilhelmshaven 8–9 August: The Red Army Air Force began a limited bombing offensive with a raid on Berlin.
[22] 15 August: Robert Stanford Tuck led the first air mission by fighters based in eastern England against enemy-occupied territories in a "Rhubarb" sweep of the Netherlands for ground targets by two Hawker Hurricanes .
[17]: 215–219 18 August: A 18 Squadron Blenheim dropped an artificial leg over France for captured Wing Commander Douglas Bader.
[24] 25/26 March: In the largest force (254 aircraft) sent to a single target to date, bombers of an Essen mission were drawn off by decoy fire from Rheinberg.
17 April: The Augsburg Raid is the first to attempt low-level daylight bombing for accuracy - in this case against the factory producing engines for U-boats.
A German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor reconnaissance-bomber is shot down by two US fighter pilots, flying a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, off the coast of Reykjavík, Iceland.
21 August: 12 B-17's are dispatched to bomb the shipyards in Rotterdam, Netherlands but is aborted due to an attack by Bf 109s and Fw 190s; 1 bomber is damaged; lack of proper coordination with the Spitfire escorts is a major factor in the failure of the mission.
[citation needed] 27 January: The first World War II US mission flown against the German homeland bombs Kriegsmarine submarine pens in Wilhelmshaven.
[27]: 107 5/6 March: The first raid of the Battle of the Ruhr[2] flew RAF Bomber Command's 100,000th sortie of World War II, with 160 acres destroyed and 53 Krupps buildings bombed at Essen.
17 May: Operation Chastise bouncing bombs breached the Möhne and Eder Dams 11/12 June: The first two Operation Pointblank raids included a successful mass trial of H2S radar on Münster 13 June: The heaviest fighter attacks to date against the Eighth Air Force claim 26 B-17s bombing Bremen and Kiel U-boat facilities.
18 August: The counterattack against Operation Hydra included the first operational use of Schräge Musik by German fighters[33] 25 August: The first use of a guided anti-ship missile in wartime occurs over the Bay of Biscay, as HMS Bideford and HMS Landguard are damaged by Luftwaffe-deployed Henschel Hs 293 rocket-boosted, MCLOS-guidance glide bombs.
27 August: The first mission against a "Heavy" Crossbow site bombed the Watten V-2 rocket bunker 9 September: The Luftwaffe's KG 100 bomber wing is involved with the world's first successful use of a precision-guided munition in modern military history, through their sinking of the Italian battleship Roma, using the Fritz X armored gravity-propulsion PGM munition.
3 November: A Wilhelmshaven raid is the first Eighth Air Force blind-bombing mission to completely destroy the aiming point, the Eighth's first 500-plane mission, and the first use by the US of H2X radar 18/19 November: The "Battle of Berlin" aerial campaign bombing began 22/23 November: The largest force sent to bomb Berlin to date (764 aircraft) conducted the most effective World War II raid on Berlin 2 December: 100 Ju-88s bombed the port of Bari, sinking 28 ships including the American cargo ship SS John Harvey which was secretly carrying mustard gas.
19/20 February: After 14.9% of Halifaxes that crossed the coast were lost on a raid to Leipzig, Handley Page Halifax Merlin engintober 1943 Second Raid on Schweinfurt 6 March: The first large scale US attack on Berlin (some 600 bombers) dropped 1600 tons of bombs - 160-170 of 800-900 fighters are shot down[27]: 113 24 April: The APS-15 "Mickey" radar was first used on a Ploiești mission.
26 July: The first aerial victory for a jet fighter in air combat history occurs as a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a of Erprobungskommando 262 mortally damages a de Havilland Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft of No.
[37] 28 July: The first operational use of rocket-powered point-defense interceptors occurs as Me 163Bs of I. Gruppe/JG 400 take off from Brandis to defend against a USAAF strategic bombing raid on the Merseburg/Leuna synthetic fuel production complex.
The OSS dropped two million Das Neue Deutschland (German: The New Germany) propaganda newspapers during this psychological warfare operation; which ended in February.
The bomber crews had intended to bomb the Haagse Bos district, where the Germans had installed V-2 launching facilities that had been used to attack English cities.
[49] 22 March: Two hundred L-4 Grasshopper spotter planes each carrying one armed infantryman (instead of an observer) cross the Rhine to form a bridgehead for the US 3rd Army near Oppenheim.
[52] 25 April: The last Eighth Air Force full-scale mission in the ETO hit the Škoda Works at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia (B-17s), while B-24s bombed rail complexes surrounding Hitler's Berchtesgaden.
[53] 3 May: Typhoons of 83 Group from the 2nd Tactical Air Force attack the passenger liners Cap Arcona, Thielbek, Athen, and Deutschland moored in the Bay of Lübeck (Baltic Sea).
Hundreds of concentration camp prisoners are killed on the sinking ships because intelligence they are on board is not passed on to the flight crews.
