Timeline of Strategic Aviation

Second World War

1941

10 JANUARY 1941

RAF BC launches six Bristol Blenheims, escorted by 72 Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires of 11 Group, against the ammunition dumps around Guînes, France.  This is the first CIRCUS operation of the war.  Conceived by the new CINC RAF FC, Air Mshl W. Sholto Douglas, CIRCUS seeks to take the controversial "Big Wing" concept on the offensive.  Distilled to their crudest form, the prewar theories of MRAF Lord Hugh M. Trenchard conceptualized air superiority as literally throwing enough aircraft against one's enemy that he is forced to take a defensive posture.  As such, Trenchard and other like-minded officers chaffed at the defensive-stance embraced throughout the Battle of Britain, and it is hoped that the RAF could now force the Luftwaffe to take-up the defensive.  The first steps toward this goal were RHUBARB (poor weather harassment flights) which began on 20 December 1940, and RODEO (massed fighter sweeps over the Continent) which began on 9 January 1941.  These operations accomplished little and were more-often-than-not simply ignored.  CIRCUS proves a bit more successful, using bombers (whose range was little better than the fighters) as bait to attract Luftwaffe interceptors.

Sholto-Douglas and CO 11 Group AVM Trafford Leigh-Mallory readily maintained the success of RODEO and CIRCUS in the years following, citing high victory-to-loss ratios as proof.  The problem was that these claims do not hold up to scrutiny, with the actual ratios being quite poor - just as many RAF leaders had expected.  The RAF was running into the exact same situation the Luftwaffe faced the previous year, the only real difference being that Britain's economy was up to the task of sustaining such a campaign.  In spite of its questionable effectiveness - and RAF BC's chaffing at its aircrew being used in such manners - CIRCUS, RODEO, and RHUBARB operations continue throughout the war, particularly gaining momentum after the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June.  Some relief is made on 13 October when converted Hawker Hurricane fighter-bombers take-up the bait role in CIRCUS flights.

The British Air Ministry issues a directive to RAF BC stating that “the sole primary aim of your bomber offensive, until further orders, should be the destruction of the German synthetic oil plants.”  A list of seventeen targets is given, noting that the destruction of nine would be enough to cause an 80% reduction in German oil production.  This order is prescient, if ill-timed.  RAF BC is by no means up to the task, lacking any real blind navigation aids and being primarily composed of obsolescent medium bombers.

RAF BC’s oil campaign is a paltry effort.  CINC BC Air Mshl Sir Richard E. C. Peirse intended to conduct regular operations against oil targets, pausing only whenever a full moon allowed for a massed urban attack – namely, Dusseldorf on 25 February and Cologne on 1 March and 3 March.  Unfortunately, photographic reconnaissance reveals, for both oil and urban attacks, abysmal accuracy.  As such, the vast majority of operations during this period are launched against coastal targets for the simple reason that they are easier to locate.  RAF BC’s oil offensive is brought to a hasty end following a 9 March 1941 directive prioritizing submarine pens, invasion barges, and the German battlecruisers recently anchored in Brest, France.

It is during this brief period that the Short Stirling and Handley Page Halifax fly their first operational sorties.  The Stirling enters combat on 10 February, with three aircraft bombing the oil tanks of Rotterdam, and the Halifax on 6 March, with six bombing Le Havre, France.  The Halifax’s start is inauspicious, suffering its first combat loss when one - "F for Freddy" (L9489, 35 Squadron) – is shot down by a friendly night fighter upon return.

He-111 1H -FT (3602, KG26), a pathfinder equipped with Y-Gerät, is shot down by AAA fire near Eastleigh, UK.  Despite the damage, the aircraft’s logbooks are successfully retrieved.  Theses notes contain a series of distances and headings to British cities which, mathematically reversed, correspond to Cassel, France – the location of the aircraft’s beam station.  The logs also give the location of the bomber’s airbase, Poix-du-Nord, and the operating frequencies of the Y-Gerät beam and aircraft's transponder.

Coincidentally, the dormant BBC transmitter at London's Alexandra Palace operates on the same wavelength, and as such, is quickly drafted into transmitting false returns to German bombers.  The timing was perfect, as British jamming of Y-Gerät, code-named DOMINO, is already in operation when the Luftwaffe formally replaces X-Gerät with Y-Gerät, launching its first major Y-Gerät-led operation on 4 February.  The recognition that this new technology had already been identified and jammed is a major blow to the morale of German aircrews.

It should be noted that Britain's discovery of Y-Gerät was no surprise.  The choice of WOUTAN as a title was inspirationally overt, coming from the one-eyed Norse god Odin.  As such, the British expected that at least one of WOUTAN's 'apparatuses' would operate on a single beam.  Likewise, while it did not suggest it in terms of blind-bombing, Y-Gerät closely mimicked the aerial navigation technique first warned about in the Oslo Report.

An RAF Supermarine Spitfire of the recently formed 1st Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (1PRU), piloted by Fg Off William K. Manifould, photographs FREYA radar installations near Auderville (modern-day La Hague), France.  This photograph confirms the existence of German early-warning radar.

The realization that the heavy cruiser Graf Spree was equipped with radar alerted Britain in late-1939 that Germany might have an early-warning system comparable to their own.   The Oslo Report seemed to confirm this but it took time to confirm the theory.  While ENIGMA intercepts revealed the existence of an early-warning system called FREYA on 5 July 1940, it was not until 29 July, when FREYA directed the sinking of the destroyer HMS Delight (H38), that its identity as a radar system was realized.  The order to photograph the Auderville installation this day was based on photographs of local KNICKEBEIN and WOUTAN transmitters, which revealed small turntable structures in the vicinity.

Armed with these photographs and the subsequent knowledge that the system operated on a 120 MC band (thanks to the listening efforts of Derrick Garrand of the TRE), British intelligence is now able to vector rough approximations of additional FREYA sites.  Likewise, the high bandwidth and FREYA’s lack of parabolic movement suggests that it may operate in tandem with another system.  ENIGMA intercepts reveal the name of this system to be WÜRZBURG.

The USAAC issues a call for very-heavy bomber designs, specifying they should have the range to bomb targets in Europe from bases in the United States - a contingency should Great Britain fall.  Two designs are given approval to enter the prototype stage: the Northrop XB-35 and Consolidated XB-36.  While the more traditional design, the XB-36 is astonishingly huge: 162 ft long with a 230 ft wingspan, the wingspar is 7 1/2 ft tall at its thickest point.  The large size of this aircraft is problematic, the weight requiring its six engines be mounted in a 'pusher' configuration and its wheels bogied in quads just so airbases can support the weight.  The XB-35, on the other hand, is based on Jack N. Northrop's successful experiments with the 'flying wings.'  Having proof-of-concept in the N-1M, the XB-35 is justified on the belief that removing the tail might reduce drag enough that long range need not be achieved by sacrificing scale (a la the XB-36). Being a relatively small company, Northrop receives far less support than its competitor, requiring significant alterations throughout testing. Progress on these two giants slows as other, more pressing needs, come forward, but neither is entirely cancelled, the same needs being put forth in order to bomb Japan from Hawaii, and later, the Soviet Union from the US mainland.

The British Air Ministry issues a directive to RAF BC to “direct the main effort of the bomber force, until further instructions, toward dislocating the German transportation system and to destroying the morale of the civil population as a whole and of the industrial workers in particular.”  While much has been written on this (and other) directive’s discussion of ‘morale,’ it must be remembered that the targeting of industries in pursuit of breaking morale was, in fact, prewar RAF doctrine.  It is for this reason that, since the previous May, while the aiming points varied, the objective remained largely the same.  RAF BC is instructed to concentrate its attacks on railway targets in the German Ruhr Valley, attacking cities on the Rhine River in moonlight and inland cities on darker nights.

These operations are to be joined by occasional daylight strikes against the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, still pinned down in the harbor of Brest, France.  Despite significant harassment, none of these warships are damaged beyond repair.

LTC Harold L. George, chairman of the Air War Plans Division (AWPD), oversees the completion of AWPD-1.  Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY) originally ordered a series of war requirement figures from the War Plans Division (WPD) based on the conclusions reached at ABC-1 (secret meetings between the US, UK, and Canada on how to manage an alliance should the US enter the war).  WPD figures were calculated using the theoretical framework of RAINBOW, a series of color-coded war plans developed throughout 1939-1940.  Lacking experience in military aviation and needing detailed figures, the WPD, chaired by BG Leonard T. Gerow, allowed the AWPD – an agency whose creation it opposed the previous June – to submit its own war plan.  George assembled a team composed of LTCs Kenneth N. Walker, Laurence S. Kuter, and MAJ Haywood S. Hansell, Jr (all ACTS alumni) to complete the document in an incredible eight days.  AWPD-1 is approved by CSA GEN George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson (R-NY) the following September.

At the time of the war's outbreak, the US implements war plan RAINBOW 5, following the recommendation of CNO ADM Harold R. Stark for a "Europe-first" strategy.  Stark's memorandum of 12 November 1940 was responsible for the ABC-1 conference and featured a set of recommendations for a possible US strategy should the nation enter the war.  The "Europe-first" strategy comes from Stark's recommendation "D for Dog."

Click here to read ADM Harold R. Stark's Plan "Dog" Memo. 

The WPD’s findings, AWPD-1 included, are eventually lumped into an executive “Victory Program."  A media fiasco erupts when an AAF officer leaks a copy to Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT), who promptly gives it to the Washington Times-Herald and Chicago Tribune.  The leading non-interventionist in Congress, Wheeler - who had already accused Roosevelt and the film industry of goading war - damns this program as proof of the administration's hawkish intentions.  While public criticism of the Victory Program disappears after the Japanese attack on 7 December, the articles had by then already found their way to GenObt Franz Halder, CS of the OKH.  As a result, German Führer Adolf Hitler issues Directive 39 on 12 December, using the program's published figures as a guideline of US war preparations, ordering a halt to the German offensive in the Soviet Union, an increase in Atlantic shipping attacks, and the massing of AAA around key industries.  These orders later prove costly for the Allies.  The German offensive against the Soviet Union resumes on the 16 December.

British PM the Rt. Hon. Winston L. Spencer-Churchill (CP) releases the Butt Report on RAF BC efficiency.  Prepared by David M. Bensusan-Butt, private secretary to Churchill’s scientific adviser, Lord Frederick A. Lindemann, the report is a damning indictment of RAF night operations.  The Butt Report demonstrates that, for example, only a third of all bombs dropped throughout June and July of 1941 landed within 5 mi of their targets and that nearly half of the bombs dropped in May landed in open country.  Knowing that the Butt Report only took into account bombers that found their targets and dropped their bombs, the actual figure of British bombers that struck within 5 mi of their targets is estimated to be around 5% of those launched on operational sorties.  The findings of the Butt Report has a cataclysmic effect on RAF BC, though not necessarily throughout its command (who doubted its conclusions) but throughout the British government.

The Butt Report was commissioned following the alarming success of German blind-bombing systems during the Battle of Britain.  Realizing that they lacked such aids, there was serious concern that RAF BC was wasting precious lives.  This was in fact true.  Knowing this, British development of blind-bombing systems now becomes an urgent priority.

Click here to read the Butt Report.

The first flight of the Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress takes place.  While the bomber’s design changed little in the years since its 1935 introduction, the realities of war - i.e., RAF BC operations 1939-1940 - forced Boeing to come to terms with the B-17’s limited armament.  The E model rectified these issues, so much so that it is almost a new design.  The bomber now bristles with eleven Browning AN-M2 .50 caliber MGs in electrically powered turrets above and below, in window positions in the waist and radio room, and in a radically successful tail position still seen on present-day Russian bombers.  Likewise, the bomber now sports a large, reshaped tail originally designed for the Boeing 307 Stratoliner.  The B-17E, along with its subsequent variants, comes to epitomize the US air effort in WWII and remains one of the most recognized aircraft of the war.  Some 12,731 B-17s are built, with Boeing also subcontracting B-17s from Douglas and Vega Aircraft (the latter a subsidiary of Lockheed).  Of all B-17s produced, only 133 are made prior to the introduction of the B-17E model, with the B-17 staying in service until 6 August 1959.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress has proved to be one of the most popular heavy bombers for museum display and restoration.  Of these survivors, only one, B-17D Swoose (40-3097, 11BG), is an example of a Interwar "shark-tail" design; this bomber is currently undergoing restoration at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, OH. Sadly, no B-17 restoration has come close to accurately representing the aircraft's wartime appearance, though there are efforts currently seeking to resolve this issue.  Perhaps the most complete flying example is Sentimental Journey (B-17G 44-83514) out of Mesa, Arizona.  While rather sparse by wartime standards, Sentimental Journey is more accurate than most airworthy examples.

RAF BC conducts its last raid using US Lend-Lease Boeing B-17s with 90 Squadron.  Under the designation Fortress I, 39 B-17Cs and B-17Ds were ushered into combat over Europe despite the fact that Boeing was already in the process of redesigning the bomber.  The British had not launched operations averaging 30,000 ft before, and issues with freezing equipment and contrail visibility (worsened by European weather) resulted in the bomber's unpopularity - in fact, this day's sortie is abandoned because the aircraft's contrails are visible.   As such, no RAF B-17 operation is launched in any significant scale.  By the time of this last sortie, a single bomber launched against Essen, eight B-17s were lost (four to enemy action) in 16 operations.  On 6 December 1941, CINC RAF BC Air Mshl Sir Richard E. C. Peirse declares the B-17 and its daylight bombardment function unsuitable.  Even though CG USAAF LTG Henry H. Arnold fumed over how the British refused to follow American instruction, the truth was that the RAF had long ago made up its mind to favor night bombardment.  The failure of these early B-17s sees the remaining bombers set aside for duties with Coastal Command and the occasional special operation.

Generál-Lejtenánt Aviácii Pavel V. Rychagov is executed near Kuybyshev, Russia (modern-day Samara), along with his wife, CINC VVS predecessors Yakov V. Smushkevich and Aleksandr D. Loktionov, and 18 other Soviet military officers.  Rychagov’s death is the direct result of a conversation where, in a drunken stupor, he referred to Soviet aircraft as “flying coffins” in Premier Joseph V. J. Stalin’s presence.  He is arrested for this comment along with a large number of Soviet air officers by NKVD chief Lavrentiy P. Beria on charges of incompetence, their trials citing the poor showing of Soviet airpower against the Luftwaffe in the previous months.  One incident, poorly documented but heavily referenced, includes a Ju-52 that supposedly landed in Moscow undetected by Soviet authorities.  This massed execution is one of many during Operation BARBAROSSA, the largest killing nearly 300 officers on 16 October 1942, with another 48 killed on 23 February 1942 after Beria secures the right to execute subjects without a trial.

RAF BC launches 42 Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys, 154 Vickers Wellingtons, 61 Handle Page Hampdens, 19 Short Stirlings, 14 Avro Manchesters, and nine Handley Page Halifaxes against Berlin, Cologne, and Mannheim, Germany.  This is the largest RAF BC operation of the war thus far.  Stung by the findings of the Butt Report and held back by long periods of bad weather, CINC RAF BC Air Mshl Sir Richard E. C. Peirse had since pushed for a major effort against the German capital.  Peirse persists in launching this strike despite poor weather reports and a formal objection by CO 5 Group AVM Jack C. Slessor which allows 5 Group to abstain.  The failure of this night, combined with the findings of the Butt Report, has a marked impact on not only Peirse's career, but on RAF BC as a whole.  (16 killed)

The raid is a disaster, the loss rate more than doubling the previous high.  The overwhelming majority of bombers lost this night suffered from icing and fuel exhaustion.  Worse, the pitiful numbers that actually reached their targets caused little real damage, with the Mannheim force hitting nothing at all.  British PM the Rt. Hon. Winston L. Spencer-Churchill (CP) personally orders Peirse to limit RAF BC operations the following day, ostensibly to allow for greater numbers of four-engine bombers and navigational aids.  In reality, CAS Air Chf Mshl Sir Charles F. A. Portal had decided to relieve Peirse, later doing so after showing Churchill the specifics on this night's operation.  Peirse is relieved on 8 January 1942.

RAF BC will not strike Berlin again for another one year, two months, and nine days.

The Japanese First Fleet (Kidō Butai or Mobile Force), under the command of Chūshō Chūichi Nagumo, attacks US naval and air bases on the island of Oahu, HI with airstrikes launched from six aircraft carriers.  This is the first of several campaigns launched this day, all part of a general offensive against the US and Great Britain.  These include: the invasion of the Philippines (a US protectorate) by the Japanese Fourteenth Army (Chūjō Masaharu Homma), the invasion of Guam and Wake Island by the Japanese Fourth Fleet (Chūshō Shigeyoshi Inoue), the siege of Hong Kong (a British colony) by the Japanese Twenty Third Army (Chūjō Takashi Sakai), and the invasion of British Malaya and Singapore by the Japanese Twenty-Fifth Army (Chūjō Tomoyuki Yamashita).  Great Britain and the US declare war on the Japanese empire the following day.  On December 11, Italy and Germany honor their commitments to Japan and declare war on the US.  Despite a strong resistance on the Bataan peninsula of the Philippines, US and British forces in the aforementioned invasions eventually surrender to the Japanese.  The fall of Singapore (15 February 1942) and the Philippines (8 May 1942) are particularly significant, being the greatest defeats in British and American history, respectively.  However, it is the treatment of Allied POWs that proves most horrendous, with American POWs, for example, suffering a 38% mortality rate under the Japanese, compared to the 1% mortality rate under Nazi Germany.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, a flight of twelve Boeing B-17s from San Rafael, CA attempt to land at Hickam Field.  One of the bombers, 40-2074, is attacked by Japanese fighters and incendiary ammunition ignites the bomber's flare complement.  The aircraft breaks in half when the pilot, CPT Raymond T. Swenson, attempts to land the still-burning bomber.  The crew is strafed upon abandoning the wreckage.  40-2074 is believed to be the first American military aircraft shot down in the Second World War.  A civilian aircraft precedes 40-2074's loss when a civilian Piper Cub, rented by off-duty SGTs Henry C. Blackwell, Warren D. Rasmussen, and CPL Clyde C. Brown, is shot down during a pleasure flight that morning.

The failure of the USAAF garrison in the Philippines to respond to Japanese attacks, despite having a 9 hr warning from Pearl Harbor, generates significant controversy around CG FEAF MG Lewis H. Brereton and CG USAFFE GEN Douglas MacArthur.  Despite having approval from Washington, DC to launch a preliminary strike against Formosa (occupied-Taiwan), Brereton had to wait 5 hrs for the order to be authorized by MacArthur.  During this time, a standing order from CG USAAF LTG Henry H. Arnold demanded that US aircraft be airborne in case of an attack.  When MacArthur's order finally came, US bombers were still on the ground refueling when the Japanese attacked.  MacArthur later disavows all knowledge of an attack on Formosa, shifting blame between Brereton and MacArthur’s CS, BG Richard K Sutherland.  Regardless, all surviving US aircraft (14 Boeing B-17s) are evacuated by 20 December 1941, with MacArthur and his cabal of senior officers abandoning the Philippines on 12 March 1942; he is awarded the Medal of Honor for this on 1 April 1942.

The IJAAS launches 59 G3M Nells and 26 G4M Bettys against the RN battlecruiser HMS Repulse and battleship HMS Prince of Wales, sinking the warships near Kuantan, Malaysia (835 dead, 1,653 survivors).  The attack, a reconnaissance-in-force of land-based medium bombers against capital ships at sea, forces former critics of BG Billy Mitchell and MG Frank M. Andrews to acknowledge their claims that military aviation made battleships obsolete.  The Japanese lose four aircraft in this attack, finding particular success with air-dropped torpedoes.  Later attempts by the US to mimic this success fails spectacularly due to the poor design of the Mk. 13 torpedo.

The loss of the Repulse and Prince of Wales leaves the Allies in a state of shock with the realization that they no longer possess any significant naval or land forces to counter the Japanese in the Pacific.  The British presence is almost completely obliterated and the US Navy is, for a period, held close to California as it regathers its strength; by this point, only four Allied capital ships remain in theater the PTO: the USS Lexington (CV-2), USS Saratoga (CV-3), USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Colorado (BB-45).

Also on this day, US FEAF sends out a series of strikes against Japanese shipping in attempt to stall the ongoing invasion of the Philippines.  This is the first USAAF operation of the Second World War.  The bombers, hurriedly camouflaged and haphazardly crewed and maintained, are launched knowing that another Japanese strike against US bases would doom the remaining Boeing B-17s.  As such, the 19BG (the FEAF's remaining heavy bomber unit) is spread throughout the Philippine islands at Clark Field, San Marcelino, and the Del Monte pineapple plantation.

These attacks are launched piecemeal, with the largest force being composed of a mere five aircraft.  Bombloads are composed of a crude assembly of whatever is on hand, worsened by chronically malfunctioning bombracks that fail to jettison loads (a common issue with early B-17s).  One bomber, 40-2045, bombs the light cruiser Natori before being followed home by Japanese interceptors and shot down over Clark Field.  Its pilot, CPT Colin P. Kelly, Jr., holds the burning aircraft up just long enough for the surviving crew to bail out.  Kelly is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this act and becomes the USAAF’s first war hero, with many accounts erroneously claiming that Kelly rammed his bomber into a Japanese battleship.

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