London, England • August 4, 1944 In early June 1944 the Royal Air Force began deploying the first of several bunker-buster bombs—the 4,000 lb./1.8 metric ton Tallboy S (small), Tallboy M (medium) weighing in at 12,000 lb./5.4 metric tons, and its successor Grand Slam (Tallboy L, large) at 22,000 lb./9.97 metric tons, whose blast yield was equivalent to 6.5 tons of TNT. Meanwhile the United States…
Over Germany • March 18, 1945 On April 18, 1941 tests began of the world’s first operational twin-engine turbojet fighter, the Messerschmitt 262 Swallow (Schwalbe). The tests were really of the airframe because the BMW turbojets were nowhere close to being ready. Over a year later, on July 18, 1942, a fully configured version flew—this almost…
London, England · June 13, 1944 Beginning on this date in 1944 in London, one week after the Allied D‑Day landings in Normandy, France (Operation Overlord), the Germans unleashed their pilotless flying “retaliation weapon,” Vergeltungswaffe‑1, on England. Adolf Hitler crowed to his rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun, “This will be retribution against England. With it…
Antwerp, Belgium • September 4, 1944 Almost three months after D-Day British troops, assisted by members of the Belgian resistance, entered Antwerp on this date in 1944. They seized Belgium’s port on the Scheldt River before the Germans could destroy its installations. Opening Western Europe’s largest deep-water port, whose 10 square miles of docks, 20 miles of…
Antwerp, Belgium · September 4, 1944 Almost three months after D-Day British troops, assisted by members of the Belgian resistance, entered Antwerp on this date in 1944. They seized the Belgian port on the Scheldt River before the Germans could destroy its installations. Opening the deep-water port, whose 10 square miles of docks, 20 miles of waterfront,…
London, England · August 4, 1944 The British had begun deploying the first of several bunker-buster bombs (Tallboy and its successor Grand Slam) in 1944 while the Americans had nothing similar to deploy. On this date in 1944 the U.S. Eighth Air Force kicked off Operation Aphrodite, a program developed in total secrecy and designed…
London, England · June 13, 1944 Beginning on this date in 1944 in London, one week after the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy, France (Operation Overlord), the Germans unleashed their pilotless flying “retaliation weapon,” Vergeltungswaffe‑1, on England. Only one of ten V‑1 flying bombs launched that day caused any casualties—eight civilians killed when a V‑1…
Antwerp, Belgium · September 4, 1944 Almost three months after D-Day British troops, assisted by members of the Belgium resistance, entered Antwerp on this date in 1944. Opening the Belgian port, whose 10 square miles of docks, 20 miles of waterfront, and 600 cranes were 80 miles from open sea on the Scheldt River, was meant to solve the…
London, England · August 4, 1944 The British had begun deploying the first of several bunker-buster bombs (Tallboy and its successor Grand Slam) in 1944 while the Americans had none to deploy. On this date in 1944 the U.S. Eighth Air Force kicked off Operation Aphrodite, a program developed in total secrecy and designed to…
London, England · June 13, 1944 Beginning on this date in 1944 in London, one week after the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy, France (Operation Overlord), the Germans unleashed their pilotless flying “retaliation weapon,” Vergeltungswaffe‑1, on England. Only one of ten V‑1 flying bombs launched that day caused any casualties—eight civilians killed when a V‑1…