Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » This Week In Military/Aviation History: 30 April

Hello Folks, well, another month falls by the wayside. I looked outside and darned if my lawn doesn’t need a serious mow, and there are pretty, little yellow flowers growing nicely here and there also. Wasn’t it snowing not that long ago? Turn around and they’re little, turn around and they’re grown. Hope your week went well. Now, let’s get down to some historic stuff.

30 April 1915
German Navy Zeppelin Z9, commanded by Kapitan Mathys, made an attack on three British submarines, damaging the conning tower of one of them.

May 1915
The first Canadian flying school, the Curtiss Aviation School opened at Long Branch.

1 May 1916
The German Schutte-Lanz airship crashed near Gotland.

4 May 1916
Zeppelin LZ32 was shot down and destroyed by British naval gunfire.

May 1917
Fast and well armed Spad XIII single-seat fighters entered service with French squadrons on the Western Front.

2-3 May 1923
Lieutenant O.G. Kelly and Lieutenant J.A. Macready ot the United States Army Air Service (USAAS) made the first non-stop flight across the United States. Flying a Fokker T2, the journey time was 26 hours 50 minutes. They left Roosevelt Field, Long Island and landed at Rockwell Field in California.

1 May 1925
The Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps was formed.

5 May 1936
Mussolini announced the occupation of Addis Ababa and the end of the Abyssinian war - a war in which modern weapons, such as aircraft and poison gas were used against a primitive, poorly equipped enemy.

6 May 1937
German hydrogen-filled airship, the ‘Hindenburg’ was destroyed by fire whilst docking at Lakehurst in New Jersey. 33 of 97 people on board were killed.

May 1941
The Soviet Union brought RUS-1 and RUS-2 air defense radar sets into service.

4 May 1942
The U.S. Navy repelled the Japanese at the Battle of the Coral Sea. This helped save Australia and blocked the Japanese juggernaut in the Pacific.

6 May 1942
The remaining U.S. troops on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.

1 May 1944
A major Allied offensive against the rail transportation system in Europe began.

3 May 1944
Admiral Koga’s death was announced - Admiral Toyoda succeeded him as Commander in Chief of Japanese air and naval forces.

30 April 1945
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the air raid bunker beneath the German Chancellery in Berlin as Soviet troops advanced through the city. Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels was scheduled to become the new German Chancellor but he, his wife and six children also committed suicide. Karl Doenitz was named Hitler’s successor.

2 May 1945
Soviet troops completed the capture of Berlin. The remaining German troops in Italy surrendered.

The final RAF Bomber Command sortie of WWII - DeHavilland Mosquitos attacked Keil, Germany.

3 May 1945
Okinawa - Japanese General Ushijima asked Tokyo to step up kamikaze attacks on American ships in support of the Japanese land offensive.

5 May 1948
The first carrier-based jet squadron, USN 17A, was established with 16 Phantoms and operated from the USS SAIPAN from 5 to 7 May.

1 May 1949
The Air Arm, Hong Kong Defense Force was established with RAF assistance. It adopted the title Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force in 1970.

3 May 1952
A ski-and-wheel-equipped U.S. Air Force C-47 Skytrain made the world’s first successful North Pole Landing.
30 April 1953
The Polish pilot who landed a MiG-15 on Bornholm Island left Britain for the United States.

1 May 1954
The first USAF Airborne Early Warning and Control Division was formed and equipped with Lockheed R-121 Constellation aircraft for radar surveillance.

5 May 1961
Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space, when he was carried into a sub-orbital trajectory in a Mercury capsule on a flight which lasted 15 minutes 22 seconds.

5 May 1970
The Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps was expanded to include women after test programs at Ohio State, Drake, East Carolina and Auburn Universities proved successful.

30 April 1975
The last United States Personnel left Vietnam in a dramatic helicopter air lift from secured locations in Saigon. In total, 7,014 United States and South Vietnamese personnel were evacuated in the days before the North Vietnamese captured the city, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War.

2 May 1977
First Lt. Christine E. Schott became the first woman undergraduate pilot training student to solo in a T-38 Talon.

2 May 1980
Second Lt. Mary L. Wittick was the first woman to enter the Air Force undergraduate helicopter pilot training program in Class 81-05.

30 April 1985
The Lockheed Starfighter ended all front-line service when the Danish Air Force disbanded its ESK726 squadron.

May 1988
The Soviet Union began withdrawing its armed forces from Afghanistan.

May 1992
Plans to retire the McDonnell Douglas F4G Phantom II from American service were shelved. As a result of its success in Operation Desert Storm, it had been decided to keep the F4G in service in the anti-aircraft radar countermeasures role with the USAF for several more years.

1 May 1996
A German officer assumed command of a German tactical training center at Holloman AFB, N.M. This was the first time a foreigner had commanded a unit at a U.S. Air Force base within the United States.

4 May 1999
An F-16CJ pilot of the 78th EFS scored the first F-16CJ victory of Allied Force when he shot down a MiG-29.
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Well that’s it for this week. See ya in seven.