Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"
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.
Miss Donna Mae II sustaining damage after the B-17 drifted under another B-17 dropping its bomb load. The plane would go down with all eleven crewmen.
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.
