One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University

1942
bombers to attack the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania. Col. Harry A.
Halverson led the raid from Fayid, Egypt, but it caused little damage.
July 4: In the first Army Air Forces mission over western Europe, the 15th
Bombardment Squadron, flying six U.S.-built Boston bombers belonging
to the Royal Air Force, participated in a British attack on four
enemy airfields in the Netherlands.
July 4: The Army Air Forces Chinese Air Task Force was activated under Maj.
Gen. Claire Chennault to replace the American Volunteer Group.
July 7: A Lockheed Vega A–29 of the 396th Bombardment Squadron attacked
and sank a German submarine off Cherry Point, North Carolina—the
first such sinking off the Atlantic coast by an Army Air Forces aircraft.
July 19: The Messerschmitt Me–262 flew for the first time, piloted by Fritz
Wendel. The aircraft was the world’s first operational jet fighter.
August 17: Eighth Air Force conducted its first heavy bomber raid in Europe.
Twelve B–17s under the command of Col. Frank A. Armstrong, Jr.,
bombed railroad marshalling yards at Rouen in German-occupied
France. The raid demonstrated the feasibility of daylight bombing.
On August 17, 1942, Eighth Air Force inaugurated U.S. strategic bombing of Nazi
targets in Europe with the B–17E Flying Fortress.
43