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

1944
March 6: In its first major raid on the Berlin area, Eighth Air Force lost 69
of the 658 heavy bombers it launched—the highest number of
bombers lost in a single day during the war. Nevertheless, the bombers
dropped 1,600 tons of bombs on the German capital.
March 11: Essen, Germany, was the target for 4,738 tons of bombs dropped
by 1,079 Eighth Air Force bombers—the highest tonnage of bombs
dropped during World War II by the Army Air Forces on one target in
a single mission.
March 11: Operation THURSDAY concluded. During this operation, the
Allies airlifted more than 9,000 personnel and more than 1,400 mules
and horses from India to a location 200 miles behind enemy lines in
Burma.
March 19: To support an Allied offensive in Italy, the Mediterranean Allied
Air Force launched a seven-week bombing campaign called Operation
STRANGLE, targeting German supply lines. By May 11, the Allies had
flown some 50,000 sorties and had dropped 26,000 tons of bombs.
March 25: Fifteenth Air Force attacked the Aviso Viaduct in the Brenner
Pass, temporarily cutting the main highway between Italy and greater
Germany. On this raid, the Army Air Forces used for the first time a
VB–1 Azon radio-guided bomb—the crude predecessor of the precision-guided
munitions developed and used with great success over a
quarter century later.
March 28: Eighth Air Force activated the 801st Bombardment Group
(Heavy) Provisional to conduct special operations missions in the
European theater.
March 29: The 1st Air Commando Group was activated in India to provide
airlift and air support to British soldiers behind enemy lines in Burma.
April 3: Mediterranean Allied Air Force sent 375 B–17 and B–24 heavy
bombers on the first heavy air raid over Budapest, Hungary.
April 4: The Army Air Forces activated Twentieth Air Force in Washington,
D.C., to manage B–29 Superfortress operations against Japan—first
from India and China and later from the Mariana Islands in the
Pacific.
April 8: Ninth Air Force launched one of the largest tactical air raids of the
war, sending 163 B–26s and 101 P–47s against enemy-held facilities at
Hasselt, Belgium.
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