The RAF hit Romania for the first time. On the same day, the Soviet Air Forces hit Galatz.
A large air raid was staged on Hollandia, Indonesia. The mission was successful with no losses, but the aircraft ran into a severe weather front on the return and 46 of the 170 aircraft in the raid went down. The day acquired the name "Black Sunday" as a result.
The attacking force was made up of B-24s, B-25s and A-20s, escorted by P-38s
The US 15th Air Force sent 500 sorties to Bucharest and Ploesti. The war had reached the point where the Western Allies air attacks were now directly assisting the Soviet offensive in the east.
The B-17 "Knock Out Dropper" flew its 75th mission, the first American bomber to reach that mark. It would have had multiple crews in reaching that goal.
The only example of the Northrup XP-56, the first one having been destroyed in a crash, was photographed in anticipation of its first flight the following day.
Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet (s/n 42-38353) on the ground at Muroc Army Air Field, California, March 22, 1944.
The weird aircraft was not a success.
Last prior edition:
The Gothaer Waggonfabrik (Gotha) aircraft plant was hit as part of the Big Week.
The plant had been targeted for February 22, but bad weather had prevented the raid from occurring. On this day, 239 B-24s raided the plant.
Typical for such things, the US Army Air Force regarded the raid as a huge success. In reality, however, the lead bombardier, who controlled the run ins via the Norden Bomb site, suffered from anoxia due to a faulty oxygen mask and mistook Eisenach as the primary target. Forty-three bombers accordingly followed his error. Thirty-four B-24s were shot down, twenty-nine were damaged. Three aircrewmen were killed, six wounded and 324 went missing. 169 bombers did get through, and the plant was heavily damaged.
The Messerschmidt plants at Regensburg and Augsburg were hit and heavily damaged as well. Production was disrupted, but as Albert Speer noted, the damage was to the frame plant which was quickly put back into production. Had the engine plant been hit, results would have been different.
It was the climax of The Big Week.
The U-761 was sunk by tow U.S. Navy PBY's assisted by two Royal Navy destroyers.
The Minekaze was sunk off of Formosa by the USS Pogy.
The Red Army took Shepetovka, Ukraine.
The U-545 was scuttled after being crippled west of the Hebrides by a Vickers Wellington. T he U-666 disappeared in the North Atlantic.
On the same day, American Airlines Flight 2 crashed into the Mississippi River. All twenty-four passengers and crew were killed. The cause of the crash was never determined.
A British Mosquito is shot down with its Oboe navigational aid intact, allowing the Germans to develop countermeasures.
The United States Army Air Force announced the production of the Bell P-59 Airacomet. The first US jet fighter aircraft, it would prove to be a disappointment and provided no real advantage over existing piston engined aircraft.
George C. Marshall was Time's Man Of The Year.
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The USS Turner suffered a series of internal explosions while in harbor off of the Ambrose Light in New York. 138 of the 256-man crew died during the incident. A Coast Guard Sikorsky HNS-1 flown by Lieutenant Commander Frank A. Erickson flew two cases of blood plasma, lashed to the helicopter's floats, from New York to Sandy Hook, saving many of the injured crewman, and providing the first incident of a helicopter used in that fashion.
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Gregory "Pappy" Boyington was shot down and became a Prisoner of War of the Japanese.
The first stainless steel airplane, the RB-1 Conestoga, made its first flight.
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Only twenty were made.
Argentine Col. Juan Perón agreed to direct the nation's Department of Labor.
Grumman F6Fs made their combat debut.
The fighter was a leap in Navy fighter technology, joining the Corsair as a new generation of flattop launched fighter aircraft. The plane would be responsible for approximately 2/3s of the Japanese aircraft shot down by the U.S. Navy during World War Two.
The carrier born first use was in a day-long raid on Marcus Island.
Radar equipped F6F's would remain in service until 1954, completing their service as night fighters.
On the same day, the 14th Air Force bombed Gia Lam, Co Bi, Ichang Airfiled, Stonecutters Island and the Yoyang rail yards. The 5th Air Force hit trages in Saint George Channel and the Dutch East Indes.
U.S. aviation insignia changed again, albeit slightly.
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Major Joseph Duckworth, together with Lt. Ralph O'Hair, of the U.S. Army Air Force flew an AT-6 into the eye of a hurricane, becoming the first people to do so on purpose.
Duckworth was an advocate for training on instruments. He had been an Army Air Corps flyer, originally starting in 1927, and recalled to service during World War Two.
The hurricane bore the name The Surprise Hurricane due to weather censoring during World War Two, which the storm would end due to killing 19 people and causing $17,000,000 in damage.
Croatia became a republic, for a time, after Prince Aimone, the Duke of Astsoria, who had been made king of Croatia by Mussolini, resigned, deciding that desertion was the better part of valor.
The Fascist Grand Council and the Fascist Party were abolished.
Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:
Today in World War II History—July 27, 1943: Flight nurse Lt. Ruth Gardiner (805th MAETS) is killed in a plane crash in Naknek, Alaska; the first US Army nurse to die in WWII.
She also notes the horrific Hamburg firestorm of the night of July 27, 1943, which resulted from the RAF's Operation Gomorrah bombing raid that evening.
This is a new memorial in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, dedicated to the crew of the "Casper Kid", a B-17F that went down in what would have been an incredibly remote lonely spot on February 25, 1943.
In recent years, there's been a dedicated effort in Central Wyoming to memorialize the crews who did in aviation accidents during the Second World War. This is the second such memorial I'm aware of (there may be more) which is dedicated to the crew of an airplane that was flying out of the Casper Air Base, which is now the Natrona County International Airport. Both accidents memorialized so far were winter accidents which resulted in the loss of an aircraft in remote country.
We don't tend to think of those lost in training accidents as war dead, but they were. And there are a lot of them.
The Germans completed the eradication of the Jewish population of Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) in Ukraine.
The "Battle of Bamber Bridge" occurred in the UK when white Military Police intervened in a pub which had stretched out drinking hours for black US troops and then attempted to cite one for improper uniform. Shots were ultimately fired and one of the soldiers was killed.
The Smith-Connoally Act was passed, which allowed the government to seize industries threated by strikes. It went into law over President Roosevelt's veto.
The men were undergoing training. A memorial service will be held for them today in Summerville.
Classified as a medium bomber, the Ventura is one of the numerous Allied warbirds that are now basically forgotten, in spite of having received widespread use. It was an adaptation of a civilian airliner.
Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:
Today in World War II History—June 25, 1943: 80 Years Ago—June 25, 1943: Bob Hope begins his first major USO tour; he will spend 11 weeks touring England, North Africa, and Sicily.
It was the first flight of the jet engined German bomber, the Arado Ar 234.
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The twin engined jet bomber was the first of its kind in the world, and would enter service in the fall of 1944, too late to be of consequence.
