Hello Folks, well, that’s another week we can’t get back. I hope it went well for you. Mine wasn’t bad, I managed to keep busy with the HAG Message Board. I just finished a series of posts on the land battle for Okinawa. Gosh, that was one bad mamma-jamma. I just started a series on MacArthur’s return to the Philippines. He decided to land at Leyte. The Naval battle of Leyte Gulf was highlighted on the History Channel program “DOGFIGHTS” a few weeks ago. It put a picture to some of the stuff I had read about it, especially about TAFFY 3’s exploits. Quite interesting. Check it out if you get the chance.  9:00 Friday nights.
Be Safe,
Tom K.

5 March 1911
The Belgian Army Balloon Company was formed as the Compagnie des Ouviers et Aerostiers.

5 March 1913
The 1st Aero Squadron of the United States Army was formed.

5 March 1915
Zeppelin LZ33 (L8) crashed near Ostend after being hit by gunfire over Nieuport during a mission to attack Britain.

7 March 1915
Paris came under attack by German Zeppelins.

8 March 1917
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the father of the rigid airship, died of pneumonia aged 78.

5 March 1918
The 2nd Balloon company was established, becoming the first United States balloon unit to serve operationally in France with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) ground forces.

10 March 1918
The Junkers D1, an all-metal single-seat cantilever monoplane fighter, was flown as a prototype. 41 aircraft were eventually produced.

10 March 1919
Brigadier General William ‘Billy’ Mitchell became the United States Director of Military Aeronautics.

5 March 1923
Igor Sikorsky, having previously escaped from Russia, formed the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation in the USA.

10 March 1934
After nine fatalities, the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) internal mail services were stopped.

9 March 1935
It was announced in Germany that the Luftwaffe had been established.

7 March 1936
Hitler renounced the 1925 Locano Treaty and German troops marched unopposed into the Rhineland.

10 March 1941
The RAF attacked Le Havre and at the same time gave the new 4-engine Halifax bomber its debut, although on of the six Halifaxs involved was shot down on its return flight by an RAF night fighter. 

7 March 1942
The first class of Tuskegee Airmen graduated from the U.S. Air Force Tuskegee Army Airfield. 

8 March 1942
The RAF used GEE for the first time for target marking during a raid on Essen. The technique was known as ‘Shaker’ and consisted of aircraft marking the target with flares allowing the aircraft further behind to see the target more clearly. However, the results of the raid were disappointing.

9 March 1942
The RAF returned to bomb Essen once more, but again were unable to inflict much damage due to the constant industrial haze over the city and the lack of landmarks which made the city notoriously hard to find.

5 March 1943
RAF Bomber Command reported the ‘first effective attack on Essen’ due primarily to the use of a new navigational aid called ‘Oboe’. The ‘Battle of the Ruhr’ began. 

5 March 1944
Brigadier General Orde Wingate’s special force landed at ‘Broadway’ in North Burma, in a night glider (sailplane) operation.

6 March 1944
During the first United States Army Air Force (USAAF) attack on Berlin, 69 of 730 heavy bombers deployed were lost and 11 out of 796 escort fighters were shot down.

RAF Bomber Command began a large-scale offensive over Northern France in preparation for D-Day.

8 March 1944
The US 8th Air Force carried out another heavy raid against Berlin.

6 March 1945
The US 8th Air Force launched a heavy attack against Chemnitz in Saxony. 

9 March 1945
German forces, including air units, continued to attack the bridge at Remagen in an effort to eliminate this allied bridgehead over the Rhine.

9-10 March 1945
279 Marianas-based Boeing B-29s began a new campaign of low-altitude incendiary night attacks against Japanese cities with an attack on Tokyo.

11 March 1945
An RAF Bomber Command record  for the largest tonnage dropped on a single target on a single day was achieved at Essen when 4,661 tons were dropped.

6 March 1951
The United States Air Force (USAF) approved license production of the English Electric Canberra by the Glenn L. Martin Company, under the designation B-57. It was the first operational aircraft of non-United States design to be accepted into service with the USAF since the 2nd World War.

5 March 1953
A Polish Air Force pilot landed a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 15 jet and sought political asylum on the Danish island of Bornholm.

10 March 1953
Two Czechoslovakian Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 15 attacked two United States Air Force (USAF) Republic F84 Thunderjets near Bavaria. 

8 March 1954
The United States and Japan signed a mutual defense agreement.

5 March 1962
The crew of a B-58 Hustler assigned to the 43rd Bombardment Wing set three speed records in a round-trip flight between New York City and Los Angeles, California. The bomber made the trip in four hours, 41 minutes and 15 seconds, averaging !,044.46 mph.

5 March 1965
The U.S. Air Force’s F-111 completed its first supersonic flight at Fort Worth, Texas. 

6 March 1965
A Sikorsky SH3A Sea King helicopter made the first non-stop helicopter flight across North America. Taking off from the USS HORNET at San Diego in California, it landed on the carrier USS FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT at Jacksonville in Florida. The distance traveled was 3,405 kilometers (2,116 miles) and a new international straight-line distance record for helicopters was established.

8 March 1967
The West German Air Force announced that all the ejection seats in their Lockheed F104G Starfighter fleet would be replaced with Martin-Baker GQ7 seats. 

10 March 1977
The first women navigator candidates reported to Mather AFB, California, to begin undergraduate navigator training.

8 March 1991
The first Martin Marietta Titan IV propelled by a heavy-lift space booster was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California. Augmenting the Space Shuttle, the Titan IV has two upper-stage options that enable it to carry several critical military payloads.
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Well, that’s it for this one Folks. Hope ya had fun and learned somethin’ See ya in seven.

Posted by Tom Kwiatkowski - 1941 Historic Aircraft Group

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