Part 12
     March 25, 1944. Fifteenth Air Force crews temporarily close the
 Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria. This mission, against the
 Aviso viaduct, is the first operational use of the VB-l Azon
 (Azimuth Only) radio-controlled bomb.
     April 11, 1944. Led by Royal Air Force Wing Commander R.N. Bate-
 son, six de Havilland Mosquitos of No. 613 Squadron bomb an art
 gallery at The Hague where population records are kept. These
 records, many of which were destroyed, were used by the Gestapo to
 suppress the Dutch resistance.
     April 12, 1944. Maj. Richard I. Bong records three aerial kills
 in a single mission to bring his personal tally to 28, for which he
 is recognized amid much hoopla as surpassing the total of America's
 World War I "Ace of Aces," Capt. Edward Rickenbacker. (Captain
 Rickenbacker even sent Major Bong a case of scotch.) However, when
 the Air Force revises its aerial victory credits in the late 1960s,
 Captain Rickenbacker's long-accepted total of 26 kills is reduced to
 24.33, which means that Major Bong actually passed Captain
 Rickenbacker on April 3, 1944.
     May 11, 1944. Operation Strangle (March 19 to May 11) ends.
 Mediterranean Allied Air Forces' operations against enemy lines of
 communication in Italy total 50,000 sorties, with 26,000 tons of
 bombs dropped.
     May 21, 1944. Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo--systematic Allied
 air attacks on trains in Germany and France--begins.
     June 2, 1944. The first shuttle bombing mission, using Russia as
 the eastern terminus, is flown. Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, head of Medi-
 terranean Allied Air Forces, flies in one of the B-17s.
     June 6, 1944. Allied pilots fly approximately 15,000 sorties on
 D-Day. It is an effort unprecedented in concentration and size.
     June 9, 1944. Allied units begin operations from bases in France.
     June 13, 1944. The first German V-1s fired in combat are launched
 against England. Four of eleven strike London.
     June 15, 1944. Forty-seven B-29 crews, based in India and staging
 through Chengdu, China, attack steel mills at Yawata in the first
 B-29 strike against Japan.
     June 19-20, 1944. "The Marianas Turkey Shoot": In two days of
 fighting, the Japanese lose 476 aircraft. American losses are 130
 planes.
     June 22, 1944. The GI Bill is signed into law.
     July 5, 1944. The Northrop MX-324, the first US rocket-powered
 airplane, is flown for the first time by company pilot Harry Crosby
 at Harper Dry Lake, Calif.
     July 9, 1944. Part of wrecked and captured Fiesler Fi-103 "buzz
 bombs" are delivered to Wright Field, Ohio, for evaluation. Seventeen
 days later, Ford Motor Company finishes building a copy of the Argus
 pulse jet motor, and by October, Republic is chosen to build copies
 of the bomb's airframe. The US-built duplicates are called JB-1
 "Loons."
     July 17, 1944. Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first
 time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near Saint
 Lo, France.
     July 22, 1944. In the first all-fighter shuttle, Italy-based US
 P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs of Fifteenth Air Force attack Nazi
 airfields at Bacau and Zilistea, northeast of Ploesti. The planes
 land at Russian bases.
     July 27, 1944. The executive committee of the NACA discusses
 robots and their possibilities for military and other uses.
     August 4, 1944. The first Aphrodite mission (a radio-controlled
 B-17 carrying 20,000 pounds of TNT) is flown against V-2 rocket
 sites in the Pas de Calais section of France.
     August 14, 1944. Capt. Robin Olds records his first victory
 while flying with the 434th Fighter Squadron in the ETO. He would
 go on to tally eleven more "kills" by July 4, 1945. His next
 aerial victory would come on January 2, 1967, making him the only
 American ace to record victories in nonconsecutive wars.
     August 28, 1944. Eighth Force's 78th Fighter Group claims the
 destruction of an Me-262, the first jet to be shot down in combat.
     September 1, 1944. Company pilot Robert Stanley makes the first
 flight of the Bell RP-63A Kingcobra, a highly unusual modification
 to the P-63 that allowed the aircraft to be used as a piloted
 target. These "Pinball" aircraft were heavily armored (even the
 cockpit glazing was extra thick), and gunnery students would fire
 "frangible" bullets made of lead and plastic at these aircraft in
 flight.
     September 8, 1944. The German V-2, the world's first ballistic
 missile, is first used in combat. Two strike Paris; two more are
 launched against London.
     September 14, 1944. Col. Floyd B. Wood, Maj. Harry Wexler, and
 Lt. Frank Reckord fly into a hurricane in a Douglas A-20 to gather
 scientific data.
     September 17, 1944. Operation Market Garden begins: 1,546 Allied
 aircraft and 478 gliders carry parachute and glider troops in an
 airborne assault between Eindhoven and Arnhem in the Netherlands in
 an effort to secure a Rhine crossing at Arnhem.
     October 24, 1944. Navy Capt. David McCampbell, who will go on to
 be the Navy's leading ace of all time, sets the US record for aerial
 victories in a single engagement when he shoots down nine Japanese
 fighters.
     November 1, 1944. A Boeing F-13 (photoreconnaissance B-29) crew
 makes the first flight over Tokyo since the 1942 Doolittle Raid. The
 first XXI Bomber Command raid will be made on November 24, when
 eighty-eight B-29s bomb the city.
     November 3, 1944. The Japanese start their "Fu-Go Weapon" offen-
 sive against the United States. These balloon weapons are carried
 across the Pacific on the jet stream and release their bomblets
 over the US.
 End of Part 12
 ===
--- DB 1.39/004487
---------------