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- This List of air operations during the Battle of Europe is a timeline of notable air campaigns, operations, battles or engagements in the European Theater of Operations of World War II from the Invasion of Poland to Victory in Europe Day. The list includes combined arms operations, defensive anti-aircraft warfare, and encompasses areas within the territorial waters of belligerent European states. Symbols German Luftwaffe German OKW V-2 forces Polish Air Force French Air Force United Kingdom Royal Air Force Italian Regia Aeronautica Soviet Union Red Army Air Force Finnish Air Force Royal Canadian Air Force Romanian Air Force Royal Hungarian Air Force United States Army Air Forces Royal Bulgarian Air Force September 1: The 4:40 am Bombing of Wieluń began World War II at the start of the Invasion of Poland and was the first World War II terror bombing September 4: F/O Andrew McPherson and crew were the first RAF members to fly into enemy airspace: targets were off-shore ships at Wilhelmshaven, September 4: The first RAF bombing attack of the war was made on German shipping at Brunsbuttel: two Wellingtons became the first aircraft shot down on the Western Front. February 16: The first regular operations with the American Boston bomber were conducted. March 8/9: The first city raid following the February 14 Area bombing directive bombed Essen. March 25/26: 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 March 28/29: The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II was the 1st major success for RAF Bomber Command against a German city. April 8/9: The largest force to date (272 aircraft) bomb Hamburg April 17: The Augsburg Raid is the first to attempt low-level daylight bombing for accuracy. April 23-29: The first period of the Baedeker Blitz bombs Exeter, Bath, Norwich, and York May 30: The first use of the bomber stream and the first British large scale operation, Operation Millennium, the first "Thousand Bomber" raid is sent against Cologne, Germany. June 2-5: In preparation for Operation Overlord, Operation Cover bombed transportation and airfield targets in Northern France and "coastal defenses, mainly located in the Pas de Calais coastal area, to deceive the enemy as to the sector to be invaded". June 11-12: First American daylight raid over European soil, against petroleum wells, in Ploesti Romania amongst objectives in Bulgaria the first stages of American Bombing offensive June 25/26: The third "Thousand bomber" raid bombs Bremen, a new record of RAF Bomber Command losses (48 of 1,067 aircraft) August 17: first American raid in western area Rouen/Sotteville marshalling yard. July 4: The first American bombing mission over enemy-occupied territory in Europe used 20 Boston bombers (plus 6 RAF-crewed Bostons) to attack the Alkmaar, Hammsted, and Valkenburg airfields -- only two reached the target area (two shot down, the others heavily damaged) August 15: 82nd Airborne is the first US airborne division. (the first combat jumps were 8 November 1942 by the 509th Parachute Battalion in the North Africa Operation Torch)... August 17: The 87th bomber Squadron, led by Ira Eaker of the VIII Bomber Command, conducted the first "heavy bomber" attack on the European continent. Bomber Command's 16 area bombardment raids of the Battle of Berlin (air) are unsuccessful at "substantially" reducing population and morale March-April:Bombing stops aircraft production at Cantiere Navale Triestino April 24: The APS-15 "Mickey" radar was first used on a Ploesti mission. began with a V-1 flying bomb striking Swanscombe. July 7: The first of 638 modified V-1 flying bombs that reached Britain (of about 1,200) were air-launched from Heinkel He 111s (403 were downed), but killed US Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair August 27: The RAF re-started daylight bombing of Germany with an attack on the Homberg Fischer-Tropsch plant. August 13 & 17: Le Havre (Mission 549) and La Pallice (Mission 559) were the targets for the first uses of the BAT guided bomb August 27: A Hamburg raid is the first major raid by Bomber Command to Germany in daylight since 12 August 1941. September 8: Operation Penguin began with the first operational V-2 rocket launches on Paris and London September 1944: The Soviets shot down Allied aircraft during the Airdrops in aid of the Warsaw Uprising January 1: Operation Bodenplatte supported the last major German offensive, Operation Nordwind, and resulted in the defeat of the Luftwaffe January & February: Fake mailbags of the OSS Morale Operations' Operation Cornflakes with two million Das Neue Deutschland propaganda newspapers were airdropped into the wreckage of bombed German mail trains, and the envelopes were forwarded by unwitting German authorities. February 13-15: The controversial Bombing of Dresden in World War II firestorm consumes the picturesque centre of the city. March 14: The first of 41 Grand Slam bombs used in the war is dropped on the Bielefeld viaduct February: To open Operation Veritable/Grenade, Operation Clarion began attacks on 200 targets with 20,000 bombers and escort fighters. March 17: V-2 rockets were fired at the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen March 18: Against Mission 894 attacking Berlin (1,329 bombers and 733 fighters), the Luftwaffe makes its most concentrated and successful attacks to date with Me 262s. March 22: 200 Piper L-4 Grasshoppers each carried one armed infantryman (instead of an observer) across the Rhine to establish a US 3rd Army bridgehead near Oppenheim. (light aviation became a major part of the Army Field Artillery fire detection center on June 4, 1942) March 24: Operation Varsity provided airborne support for Operation Plunder Daylight and night Red Army Air Force Bombing offensive from Stalingrad in Soviet Union to Germany Battle of Berlin April 25: 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 Berchtesgarden. April: "…at the end of April 1945, the order went out to the squadrons to stop offensive operations. Then the order went out to fill the bomb bays of our [US] bombers with food packages to be delivered to the starving population of the Netherlands. I…watched the crews happily taking off on their last mission of the War, not to kill people but to feed them. "(tbd) May 3: The RAF Second Tactical Air Force attacked 3 ships carrying concentration camp prisoners. May c. 7': The final European dogfight of WWII between an L-4 Grasshopper and a German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch forced the German aircrew to land and surrender.
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