ME 262

  • ME 262 JET FLIGHT TESTING BEGINS

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Berlin, Germany · April 18, 1941 On this date in 1941 tests began of the world’s first operational turbojet fighter, the Messer­schmitt 262 Swallow (Schwalbe). The tests were really of the airframe because the BMW turbo­jets were nowhere close to being ready. On July 18, 1942, a fully con­figured version flew—this almost nine months before the…

  • MASSIVE AIR RAID ON REICH CAPITAL

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Berlin, Germany · March 3, 1945 Round-the-clock bombing operations against Germany began on March 3, 1944, with a U.S. 800‑plane day­light raid that dropped 2,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. On this date in 1945 Amer­i­can bombers mounted a day­light raid on Berlin that left 3,000 peo­ple dead and 100,000 home­less. Luft­waffe bombers reta­li­a­ted, attacking Brit­ain for the first…