Part-10
     December 10, 1941. Five B-17s of the 93d Bomb Squadron, 19th
 Bomb Group, carry out the first heavy bomb mission of World War II,
 attacking a Japanese convoy near the Philippines and also sinking
 the first enemy vessel by US aerial combat bombing.
     December 16, 1941. Lt. Boyd "Buzz" Wagner becomes the first
 American USAAF ace of World War II by shooting down his fifth
 Japanese plane over the Philippines.
     December 20, 1941. The American Volunteer Group (Claire L.
 Chennault's Flying Tigers), in action over Kunming, China, enters
 combat for the first time.
     February 23, 1942. B-17s attack Rabaul, the first Allied raid
 on the newly established Japanese base.
     February 22, 1942. First American air headquarters in Europe in
 World War II, US Army Bomber Command, is established in England,
 with Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, commanding.
     March 7, 1942. The first five African American pilots graduate
 from training at Tuskeegee Army Air Field in Alabama. By the end of
 the war, the Tuskeegee Airmen would number 950 pilots and open the
 door to the armed forces for other African Americans.
     March 9, 1942. The US Army is reorganized into three autonomous
 forces: Army Air Forces, Ground Forces, and Services of Supply.
     April 8, 1942. The first flight of supplies takes place over
 "The Hump"--a 500-mile air route from Assam, India, over the Hima-
 layas, to Kunming, China, where the Chinese continue to resist
 Japanese forces. By August, Tenth Air Force will be ferrying over
 700 tons a month to these troops who were cut off by the Japanese
 control of the Burma Road.
     April 18, 1942. Sixteen North American B-25s, commanded by Lt.
 Col. James H. Doolittle, take off from USS Hornet (CV-8) and bomb
 Tokyo. For planning and successfully carrying out this daring raid,
 Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle is promoted to brigadier general
 (skipping the grade of colonel) and is awarded the Medal of Honor.
     May 4-8, 1942. The Battle of the Coral Sea becomes the first
 naval engagement fought solely by aircraft.
     May 26, 1942. Contract test pilot Vance Breese makes the first
 flight of the Northrop XP-61 Black Widow from Northrop Field in
 Hawthorne, Calif. The Black Widow is the Army Air Forces's first
 purpose-designed night fighter.
     June 3-4, 1942. In the Battle of Midway, three US carriers
 destroy four Japanese carriers while losing one of their own, in-
 flicting a major defeat on the Japanese fleet.
     June 12, 1942. In the first mission against a European target,
 thirteen B-24s of HALPRO Detachment fly from Egypt against the
 Ploesti, Romania, oil fields.
     July 4, 1942. The first Army Air Forces bomber mission over
 western Europe (flown in Douglas A-20s) in World War II is flown
 against four airdromes in the Netherlands.
     July 4, 1942. The Flying Tigers are incorporated into the AAF
 as the 23d Pursuit Group.
     July 7, 1942. A B-18 of 396th Bombardment Squadron sinks a Ger-
 man submarine off Cherry Point, N.C., in first sure "kill" off the
 Atlantic coast by aircraft.
     August 17, 1942. The first American heavy bomber mission in
 western Europe in World War II is flown by B-17s of the 97th Bom-
 bardment Group against the Rouen-Sotteville railyards in France.
     October 2, 1942. The Bell XP-59A lifts off from Muroc Dry Lake
 Bed, Calif., with Bell test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls.
 It is the first flight of a jet airplane in the United States. The
 next day, Col. Lawrence C. Craigie makes the first flight by a
 USAAF pilot.
     November 2, 1942. NAS Patuxent River, Md., is established as the
 Navy's test center for aircraft and equipment.
     November 8-11, 1942. Army pilots take off from carriers to sup-
 port the invasion of North Africa. The P-40 pilots then touch down
 at land bases.
     December 1942. The first issue of Air Force Magazine is pub-
 lished. It succeeds the Army Air Forces Newsletter.
     December 4, 1942. Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberator crews, based
 in Egypt, bomb Naples--the first American attacks in Italy.
     December 27, 1942. 2d Lt. Richard I. Bong, who would later go on
 to be America's leading ace of all time and win the Medal of Honor,
 records his first aerial victory. Lieutenant Bong, who recorded all
 of his victories while flying the Lockheed P-38, would score more
 than half of his kills while flying with the 9th Fighter Squadron.
     January 5, 1943. Army Air Forces Maj. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz is
 appointed commander in chief of the Allied Air Forces in North
 Africa.
     January 9, 1943. Famed Boeing test pilot Eddie Allen and Lock-
 heed test pilot Milo Burcham make the first flight of the Lockheed
 C-69 transport (the military version of the Model 49 Constellation)
 at Burbank, Calif. Mr. Allen was on loan to Lockheed for the
 occasion.
     January 27, 1943. The first American air raid on Germany is made
 by Eighth Air Force B-17 crews against Wilhelmshaven and other
 targets in the northwestern part of the country.
     February 15, 1943. It is announced that Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker
 will succeed Maj. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz as commander of USAAF's Eighth
 Air Force.
     February 18, 1943. First class of thirty-nine flight nurses
 graduates from AAF School of Air Evacuation, Bowman Field, Ky.
     February 27, 1943. RAF Bomber Command announces that the Allied
 air forces have made 2,000 sorties in the past forty-eight hours.
     March 2-4, 1943. A Japanese attempt to reinforce Lae, New
 Guinea, is foiled by aircraft of the Southwest Pacific Air Forces
 during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Modified B-25s are used for
 the first time in low-level skip bombing techniques. More than sixty
 enemy aircraft are destroyed, and some 40,000 tons of Japanese
 shipping are sunk. End of Part 10
 ===
--- DB 1.39/004487
---------------