1943 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1943:

Events

January

• January 27 - the USAAF makes its first daylight raid on Germany
• January 30 - Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquitos make the first daylight air-raid on Berlin
• January 30-31 – the H2S radar is used by RAF bombers for navigation for the first time

April

• April 15 - Operation Flax is put into effect, the systematic targeting by Allied fighter pilots of Luftwaffe transport aircraft bound for North Africa
• April 18 - Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his Mitsubishi G4M is ambushed by USAAF P-38 Lightnings over Bougainville

May

• May 17-18 - specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams

June

• June 11 - the Italian garrison on Pantellaria surrenders after taking heavy bombing, the first ground captured by air power alone.
• June 24-25 - the RAF uses chaff, codenamed "Window", for the first time to foil German radar during the Operation Gomorrah raids on Hamburg.

July

• July 18 - US Navy airship K-74 is shot down by a German submarine, the only airship lost to enemy fire during World War II.

August

• August 1 - Soviet fighter ace Lydia Litvak is shot down and killed. She had 12 victories at the time of her death.
• August 1 - USAAF B-24 Liberators flying from Libya attack the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania.
• August 13 - the USAAF makes its first bombing raid on Austria
• August 17 - 59 USAAF bombers are lost in raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt.
• August 17 - first operational use of the radio-controlled Henschel Hs 293 anti-ship missile
• August 17-18 - RAF bombers attack the German missile research station at Peenemünde.

September

• September 9 - Italian battleship Roma is sunk by two Fritz X radio controlled glide bombs
• September 11 - French fighter ace Pierre Le Gloan (18 victories) died in a crash
• September 12 - Benito Mussolini is freed in a daring rescue by Walter Gerlach in a Fieseler Storch
• September 15-16 - first use of the "Tall Boy" 12,000 lb (5,455 kg) bomb by RAF Lancasters.
• September 22-24, Ernst Jachmann flies his single-seat glider 55 hrs and 51 min in a thermal.

First flights

January

• January 9 - Lockheed Constellation

February

• February 4 - Bristol Buckingham

March

• March 5 - Gloster Meteor prototype DG 206

June

• June 15 - Arado Ar 234V1 GK+IV

July

• July 13 - Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender

September

• September 22 - DFS 228
• September 29 - De Havilland Vampire prototype LZ 548

October

• October 23 - Vickers Windsor
• October 26 - Dornier Do 335V1 CP+UA

December

• December 2 - Grumman XF7F

Entered service

January

• Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle with No. 295 Squadron RAF
• January 10 - Fairey Barracuda with No. 827 Squadron FAA