Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, April 17, 1945. Flak Bait.: The B-26 Marauder Flak Bait, which completed 200 missions on this day. Winston Churchill eulogized the late Franklin Roosevelt in Parliame...
A very late war German fighter, only 120 were made.
Gertrude Tompkins Silver and the P-51D she was flying disappeared in a delivery flight from Los Angeles to Newark, NJ.
The jet fighter the Gloster Meteor entered active service with No. 616 Squadron RAF. It would be the only jet aircraft to see active service during the war for the Allies.
I heard them flying over downtown and looked up and saw them flying, but didn't notice the Japanese markings. After realizing what they were, I went out the next day and to see if they were still there, and they were.
These are the SNJ's that were altered and remodeled to closely resemble Japanese Navy A6M's (Zeroes) and Nakajima B5N's (Kates) for the 1970s movie Tora! Tora! Tora!. The resemblance to the Japanese aircraft is truly remarkable.
In this instance, these aircraft were on their way to an airshow in Salt Lake City.
B-24J 42-100023 piloted by 2nd. Lt. Richard Zorn of Connecticut crashed on top of Casper Mountain, south of Casper, Wyoming, at about midnight, killing all on board.
The first V-1 rockets were launched on London.
V-1s are, basically, a pulse jet drone, and therefore heralded an advance in weaponry which we're only now seeing the full application of in combat. One of a variety of late war German "Wunderwaffe", they were primitive in their category and while they affected terror, they stood no chance of being war altering. The same can not be said of the V-2, which was a ballistic missile and truly revolutionary.
Armed drones would be revolutionary, but it would not really be until the advent of cruise missiles that they'd become effective. With advances in targeting, they're now a massive dangerous weapon which has been one of the things which has allowed Ukraine to disproportionately take on Russia in the ongoing Russo Ukrainian War.
The wounded German beast must be pursued and finished off in its lair.
Stalin, May 1, 1944.
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 first large scale daylight bombing raid on Berlin occured. The raid, remembered as Black Monday, involved 814 bombers and 944 fighters from bases in southern England. 69 bombers were lost.
P-51 pilot Donald Blakeslee would fly the first such aircraft over the city. An early American fighter pilot, he first joined the RCAF in 1941, he served in the USAF until 1965 and passed away in 2008 at age 80.
For those watching Masters of the Air, it is depicted in Episode 7.
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.
