1943 In Aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1943:

Events

* Watanabe Iron Works transfers its aircraft manufacturing business to a new subsidiary, the Kyushu Airplane Company Ltd.

January

* January 5 – In support of the American occupation of Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands scheduled for the next day, United States Army Air Forces aircraft fly photographic reconnaissance missions over Amchitka and strike Japanese forces on Attu and Kiska, sinking two fully loaded Japanese transports approaching Attu and Kiska.
* January 6 – Firing at a Japanese Aichi D3A dive bomber ( Allied reporting name "Val") south of Guadalcanal, the United States Navy light cruiser claims the first hit on an enemy aircraft by antiaircraft ammunition employing the Mark 32 VT proximity fuse.
* January 13
** The U.S. Army Air Forces activate the Thirteenth Air Force in New Caledonia.
** Operating from Guadalcanal, United States Marine Corps Major Joe Foss shoots down three Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, bringing his victory total to 26, all scored since October 13, 1942; he is the first American to match Eddie Rickenbacker score of 26. Although Foss never shoots down another plane, his total is enough to make him the second-highest-scoring Marine Corps ace in history and the highest-scoring one to score all of his victories while in Marine Corps service.
* January 14–15 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command begins an area-bombing campaign against ports in France in an effort to attack German submarines and their bases there.
* January 15 – A Douglas C-54-DO Skymaster flying from the United States to the Casablanca Conference in French Morocco and operated by Transcontinental & Western Air on behalf of U.S. Army Air Forces Air Transport Command, disintegrates in mid-air for undetermined reasons and crashes in the jungle near Reynsdorp, Surinam, east-northeast of Paramaribo, killing all 35 people aboard. The English novelist and screenwriter Eric Knight, creator of the fictional collie Lassie, is among the dead.
* January 16–17 (overnight) – British bombing accuracy is poor in a raid on Berlin, which is beyond the range of the Gee and Oboe navigation aids. British bomber losses are small. Target indicator bombs are used for the first time.
* January 17–18 (overnight) – 188 British bombers attack Berlin, with poor accuracy. The Germans expect a return visit to Berlin and put up a better defence; the British lose 22 bombers, a very high 11.8 percent loss rate.
* January 21 – The Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Rear Admiral Robert H. English, and all 18 others aboard are killed in the crash of Pan American World Airways Flight 1104, a Martin M-130 flying boat, into a mountain near Ukiah, California.
* January 23 – The pilot of a Japanese Nakajima A6M2-N ( Allied reporting name "Rufe") floatplane fighter discovers that American forces have occupied Amchitka. Japanese aircraft from Kiska begin frequent raids against Amchitka that day and continue them for almost four weeks.
* January 24–25 – German aircraft attack Convoy JW 52 while it is en route the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union via the Barents Sea but cause no damage.
* January 26 – Three U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Seventh Air Force make the flight from Funafuti to bomb Tarawa Atoll.
* January 27
** The U.S. Army Air Forces make their first daylight bombing raid on Germany, hitting the naval facilities in Wilhelmshaven.
** The Soviet Union cancels the Polikarpov I-185 program.
* January 27–28 – For the first time, Oboe-equipped British Mosquitos leading the way for a British raid on Düsseldorf drop ground markers rather than sky markers to guide follow-on Pathfinder aircraft, clearly improving British night-bombing accuracy over that experienced before.
* January 28
** The Japanese begin to use their new airfield on Betio.
** A U.S. Army Air Forces P-40 Warhawk fighter squadron begins operations from Amchitka, the first Allied aircraft to do so. They intercept attacking Japanese aircraft for the first time the following day, shooting down both attacking "Rufes."
* January 29–30 – In the last naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of Rennell Island, Japanese land-based Mitsubishi G4M ( Allied reporting name "Betty") torpedo bombers attack a U.S. convoy bound for Guadalcanal while it is steaming east of Rennell Island in the southeastern Solomon Islands. They sink the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser .
* January 30
** Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquitos make the first daylight air raid on Berlin.
** Construction of the incomplete and much-delayed German aircraft carrier is halted for the last time.
* January 30–31 (overnight) – In a raid on Hamburg, Germany, Royal Air Force bombers use the H2S radar for navigation operationally for the first time.
* January 31
** Piloting one of eight United States Marine Corps F4F-4 Wildcat fighters escorting 12 SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers attacking Japanese shipping off Kolombangara, First Lieutenant Jefferson J. DeBlanc shoots down two Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi F1M2 ( Allied reporting name "Pete") floatplanes before Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Nakajima Ki-43 ''Hayabusa'' ("Peregrine Falcon"; Allied reporting name "Oscar") fighters attack. During the ensuring dogfight, DeBlanc and fellow Wildcat pilot Staff Sergeant James A. Feliton use Thach Weave tactics that allow DeBlanc to shoot down two Ki-43s. After Feliton is shot down, DeBlanc downs another Ki-43 – his fifth victory of the day – before being shot down himself. Japanese ace Takeo Takahashi receives credit for downing both Wildcats. DeBlanc and Feliton parachute into Vella Gulf, swim to Kolombangara, are rescued by coastwatchers, and return to their base on Guadalcanal on February 12. DeBlanc will receive the Medal of Honor for the flight.
** Bad weather has so restricted operations of the U.S. Army Air Forces Eleventh Air Force during the January that it has dropped only of bombs on Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands during the month and lost eleven aircraft, none to enemy action.

February

* February – Nine months after the ''Amerikabomber'' aircraft design competition's proposal documents arrive in Hermann Goering's offices there, the Nazi German Reich Air Ministry states to the Heinkel firm during this month, that the only developments of their firm's operational Heinkel He 177A heavy bomber they would approve funding for "further development" of were the He 177A-5, A-6 and A-7 subtypes, and for the firm's entirely separate, 8–277 airframe design project; ordering a trio of four-engined, 8–277 airframed prototypes and ten service test airframes in the spring of 1943 for what would soon become Heinkel's entry in the ''Amerikabomber'' trans-Atlantic range strategic bomber design competition.
* February 1 – The Messerschmitt Bf 109 of ''Luftwaffe'' ace Erich Paczia – probably already dead – collides with the U.S. Army Air Forces B-17F Flying Fortress ''All-American'' over Tunisia, slicing off the bombers left horizontal stabilizer and elevator and leaving the tail section connected to the rest of the aircraft only by a few longerons and a narrow strip of aluminum skin. Despite the damage, the B-17Fs pilot, Lieutenant Kendrick Bragg, lands it safely at Biskra, Algeria, without injury to anyone on board. ''All-American'' is repaired and later returns to action.
* February 3 – While shooting down a British Halifax bomber, German night fighter ace Reinhold Knacke is himself shot down and killed by one of the Halifax's gunners. The first of three out of Germany's top four night fighter aces to die during the month, his score stands at 44, all at night, when he is killed.Hinchcliffe, Peter, ''The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces vs. Bomber Command'', Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1996, , pp. 113–114.
* February 3–4 (overnight) – 263 British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany; 16 are shot down, mostly by Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighters of ''Nachtjagdgeschwader'' 1.
* February 4 – The Casablanca directive directs the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces to accomplish the "progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial, and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened." It also establishes bombing priorities, notably including German submarine construction yards and oil plants and the German aircraft industry and transportation system.
* February 6–15 – Royal Air Force Coastal Command and the U.S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command carry out Operation Gondola over the Bay of Biscay to test the theory that every German submarine transiting an interdicted area could be attacked at least once by Allied aircraft if they flew in sufficient numbers day and night. Aircraft of the two commands fly a combined 2,260 flight hours during the operation.
* February 9 – Shortly after takeoff from West Palm Beach, Florida, for a flight to North Africa via the Azores, a U.S. Army Air Forces C-87 Liberator Express cargo aircraft begins to experience severe vibration. The pilot turns around and attempts to fly to Miami, Florida, for an emergency landing, but short of Miami the vibration becomes so severe that he orders the crew to bail out over the Atlantic Ocean, where six of the eight men are later rescued. On automatic pilot, the unmanned C-87 then climbs to altitude, flies across Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to Zaragoza, Mexico, in 4½ hours, and circles over Zaragoza for two more hours before crashing into a mountain.
* February 10 – A U.S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command B-24D Liberator sinks a German submarine, apparently , in the North Atlantic Ocean, the first submarine sunk by the command.
* February 13 – First combat mission of the Vought F4U Corsair, when Guadalcanal-based Marine Fighter Squadron 124 (VMF-124) Corsairs escort U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bombers on a raid against Kahili Airfield on Bougainville. They encounter no enemy aircraft.Angelucci, Enzo, ''The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present'', New York: Orion Books, 1987, , p. 440.
* February 14 – The first combat action of the F4U Corsair occurs, when 50 Imperial Japanese Navy A6M Zero fighters attack a formation of American bombers and their escorting fighters. In what the Americans call the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre," the Japanese shoot down two U.S. Marine Corps Corsairs and eight U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft – two P-40s, four P-38s, and two B-24s – losing three Zeroes in exchange.
* February 15 – Convoy JW 53 departs Loch Ewe, Scotland, for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union. The British aircraft carrier escorts it, but must turn back after only two days due to damage incurred during bad weather. No aircraft carrier escorts an Arctic convoy again until February 1944.
* February 17 – U.S. Army Air Forces Seventh Air Force aircraft on a photographic reconnaissance mission discover a large Japanese seaplane base at Butaritari at Tarawa Atoll heavy bomber catches fire in the air and crashes into a building just north of Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, killing all ten aboard the plane – including famed Boeing test pilot Edmund "Eddie" Allen – and 19 or 20 people on the ground.
** Japanese aircraft raid Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands for the last time.
* February 19 – Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King places the responsibility for the development of the helicopter in the United States Department of the Navy under the United States Coast Guard.
* February 22 – A Pan American Airways Boeing 314A Clipper flying boat (registration NC18603) on a United Service Organizations flight crashes near Lisbon, Portugal, when its left wing hits the water of the Tagus while it turns on descent to a landing at Lisbon. Twenty-five of the 39 people on board die, including American novelist, journalist, and war correspondent Ben Robertson and the Russian-born American singer and actress Tamara Drasin. Also on the plane is American actress Jane Froman, who had exchanged seats with Drasin and survives with serious injuries.
* February 24 – The second of three top German night fighter aces to die during the month, Paul Gildner, is killed in a crash after an electrical failure aboard his Messerschmitt Bf 110. Like Reinhold Knacke, who died earlier in the month, he has 44 night victories when he dies; his overall score is 48 kills.
* February 25–26 – German aircraft attack Convoy JW 53 during its voyage from Loch Ewe, Scotland, to Molotovsk in the Soviet Union via the Barents Sea, causing no damage.
* February 26
** Soviet troops shoot down the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch of German Nazi SS-''Obergruppenführer'' Theodor Eicke near Lozovaya in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic while he is conducting a battlefield reconnaissance during the opening stages of the Third Battle of Kharkov, killing Eicke and the other two men on board.
* February 28 – Aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Forces Eleventh Air Force have dropped of bombs on Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands during the month, although half of their sorties have suffered from icy and corroded bomb racks that fail to release bombs.

March

* Consolidated Aircraft Corporation and Vultee Aircraft Inc. merge to form Consolidated Vultee Aircraft, soon unofficially, and later officially, known as Convair.
* The Aichi Clock and Electric Company Ltd. forms a separate firm, Aichi Aircraft Company, to take over its aircraft and aircraft engine business.
* March 1
** Since January 14, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has launched major raids on Wilhelmshaven four times, Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg three times each, and Bremen, Düsseldorf, and Nuremberg once each, as well as on Milan and Turin.
** RAF Coastal Command first deploys ASV Mark III radar.
* March 1–2 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies the last raid of its early 1943 campaign against German submarines and their bases in France. It has attacked Lorient nine times and Brest once since the start of the campaign on January 14, but found German submarine pens impervious to its bombs. The raids have caused much damage to the French cities and their residents.
* March 2–5 – In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft attack a convoy of eight Japanese cargo ships escorted by eight destroyers carrying troops from Rabaul, New Britain, to Lae, New Guinea, as it transits an unnamed body of water soon to be named the Bismarck Sea. For the loss of five aircraft, they sink all eight cargo ships and four of the destroyers, damage the other four destroyers, and shoot down 20 to 30 Japanese fighters attempting to provide air defense. About 3,000 Japanese troops are killed.
* March 5
** Twelve German Heinkel He 111 bombers attack Convoy RA-53 during its voyage from Murmansk in the Soviet Union to Loch Ewe, Scotland, but cause no damage.
** In the North Atlantic Ocean, the first U.S. Navy antisubmarine hunter-killer group begins combat operations, centered on the escort carrier and the aircraft of Composite Squadron 9 (VC-9) embarked aboard her.
* March 5–6 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command begins a bombing campaign against the Ruhr area of Germany with an Oboe-marked raid on Essen. Known as the Battle of the Ruhr, it will last until mid-July. The first raid destroys 53 buildings in the Krupp complex and destroys of Essen.
* March 10
** The U.S. Army Air Forces activate the Fourteenth Air Force in China.
** The first combat mission of the U.S. Army Air Forces Republic P-47 Thunderbolt takes place, a fighter sweep by England-based 4th Fighter Group P-47s over France. They encounter no enemy aircraft.Angelucci, Enzo, ''The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present'', New York: Orion Books, 1987, , p. 391.
* March 12–13 (overnight) – The second Royal Air Force Bomber Command raid on Essen during the Battle of the Ruhr is even more destructive than the first one of March 5–6.
* March 20 – During the evening, aircraft drop naval mines for the first time in the Pacific, when 42 U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps TBF Avengers from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, mine the harbor at Kahili, Bougainville, during a diversionary raid on Kahili Airfield by 18 U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses. The following evening, 40 Avengers carry out another mining operation at Kahili during a diversionary raid by 21 U.S. Army Air Forces bombers on the airfield.
* March 27
** The British escort carrier suffers a massive accidental internal explosion and sinks off the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379. There are 149 survivors.
** The German ''Luftwaffe'' decides to discontinue development of the Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
* March 28 – 57 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 18 Aichi D3A ( Allied reporting name "Val") dive bombers and 37 Mitsubishi A6M Zeros – attack Allied shipping in Oro Bay off New Guinea, sinking a United States Army transport and a Dutch merchant ship.Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume VI: Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, 22 July 1942-1 May 1944'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988, p. 125.
* March 31 – Since January 1, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has flown 12,760 sorties and lost 348 bombers, a 2.7 percent loss rate. German night fighters have shot down 201 of the bombers.

April

* Qantas Empire Airways begins the longest scheduled nonstop airline service in history, a 28-hour flight between Perth, Australia, and Ceylon using PBY Catalina flying boats which becomes known as the "Double Sunrise Route" because passengers and crew see two sunrises during the journey. Each flight can carry up to three passengers, who are advised that the flight can take as little as 24 hours or as long as 32 hours.
* April 1 – The Imperial Japanese Navy begins the I Operation, a land-based air offensive over the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, with a fighter sweep by 58 Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes from Rabaul down New Georgia Sound. Over the Russell Islands, 41 U.S. F4F Wildcats, F4U Corsairs, and P-38 Lightnings intercept them. The Japanese lose 18 Zeros in exchange for six American fighters.
* April 1–2 – U.S. Army Fifth Air Force bombers attack a Japanese convoy bound for Kavieng, sinking a merchant ship and damaging the heavy cruiser and a destroyer. ''Aoba'' is never again capable of steaming at maximum speed.
* April 8 – 177 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 67 Aichi D3A ( Allied reporting name "Val") dive bombers escorted by 110 Zeroes – conduct the largest Japanese air attack since the attack on Pearl Harbor, targeting U.S. shipping in Ironbottom Sound off Guadalcanal and Tulagi. They sink a U.S. destroyer, a New Zealand corvette, and a U.S. tanker. Seventy-six U.S. fighters intercept the Japanese, losing seven of their number while shooting down 12 Vals and an estimated 27 Zeroes. U.S. Marine Corps Reserve First Lieutenant James E. Swett shoots down seven Japanese aircraft, all Vals, during his flight.
* April 11 – 94 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 22 Aichi D3As and 72 Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes – attack Allied shipping at Oro Bay off New Guinea, sinking a merchant ship and damaging a merchant ship and a minesweeper. The 50 Allied fighters based at Dobodura, New Guinea, intercept the Japanese, shooting down six Japanese planes without loss to themselves.
* April 12 – The Japanese conduct their largest air raid in the Southwest Pacific thus far in World War II, with 174 planes – 131 fighters and 43 medium bombers – attacking Port Moresby, New Guinea. The raid causes little damage, and the 44 Allied fighters that intercept the Japanese shoot down five aircraft, all fighters, for the loss of two of their own.
* April 14
** 188 Japanese planes from Rabaul raid Milne Bay, New Guinea, destroying one merchant ship and damaging others. Twenty-four Royal Australian Air Force Curtiss Kittyhawks intercept them, shooting down seven Japanese aircraft in exchange for three Kittyhawks.
** enters service as the first British merchant aircraft carrier, or "MAC-ship." Each of the 19 MAC-ships ultimately placed in service is a bulk cargo ship or tanker which continues to carry cargo while equipped with a full-length flight deck. Steaming within convoys, MAC-ships each operate three or four Swordfish aircraft for antisubmarine patrols. Although no MAC-ships aircraft ever sink a German submarine, no convoy containing a MAC-ship ever loses a ship, and none of the MAC ships are lost.Sturtivant, Ray, ''British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990'', Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, , p. 110.
* April 15
** Operation Flax, the systematic targeting by Allied fighter pilots of ''Luftwaffe'' transport aircraft bound for North Africa, is put into effect.
** The first encounter of the U.S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolt with enemy fighters occurs, as 335th Fighter Squadron P-47Cs shoot down three German fighters in exchange for a loss of three P-47Cs.
** During a single 12-hour period, the U.S. Army Air Forces Eleventh Air Force flies 112 sorties against Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands, dropping of bombs on Kiska and on Attu.Garfield, Brian, ''The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians'', Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, 1995, , p. 262.
* April 16 – Believing they had sunk a cruiser, two destroyers, and 25 transports and shot down 175 Allied aircraft, the Japanese end the I Operation air offensive. Actual Allied losses have been one destroyer, one tanker, one corvette, and two cargo ships sunk and about 25 planes shot down.
* April 18 – Precisely one year after the Doolittle Raid, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navys Combined Fleet, is killed when the Mitsubishi G4M ( Allied reporting name "Betty") in which he is riding as a passenger, T1-323, is ambushed and shot down by U.S. Army Air Forces P-38 Lightning fighters over Bougainville in Operation Vengeance. The attacking P-38s also shoot down an accompanying Betty – critically injuring Yamamotos chief of staff, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki – and three out of six Zero fighters escorting them. One P-38 is shot down.
* April 20 – Led personally by the commander of the Seventh Air Force, Major General Willis H. Hale, 22 U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators from Funafuti bomb and photograph Nauru. Japanese aircraft follow them home and attack Funafuti early on April 21, destroying two B-24s and killing six men.Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume VII: Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls, June 1942 – April 1944'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984, p. 83.
* April 21 – Since the second week of April, the U.S. Army Air Forces Eleventh Air Force has raided Kiska 83 times.
* April 23 – Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Tarawa Atoll