1945 in aviation

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Template:Short description Template:Yearbox Template:Portal This is a list of aviation-related events from 1945:

Events

  • The probe-and-drogue aerial refueling system, in which the tanker aircraft trails a hose with a stabilizing conical drogue at its end which mates to a fixed probe mounted on the receiving aircraft, is perfected. It is superior to and replaces the looped-hose system which had been in use since 1934, and it remains in use today.<ref>Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the WorldTemplate:'s Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Hermes House, 2006, Template:ISBN, p. 46.</ref>
  • With its runways repaired Leningrad′s Shosseynaya Airport (the future Pulkovo Airport) reopens; it had been closed since 1941 because of the proximity of German forces during the Siege of Leningrad. Only cargo and mail flights will take place until February 1948, when scheduled passenger service finally will resume.
  • Iraqi Airways is founded. It will begin flight operations in January 1946.

January

  • January 1 – The Luftwaffe targets Allied airfields in Europe in "Operation Bodenplatte", occurring during the German withdrawal from the Battle of the Bulge.
  • January 2
    • Japanese aircraft attack United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bases on Saipan for the last time.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 10.</ref>
    • U.S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29s based at Calcutta, India, bomb Bangkok, Siam.<ref name="philippines164">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 164.</ref>
    • Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay dies in the crash just after takeoff of a Lockheed Hudson at Toussus-le-Noble, France.
  • January 3 – The United States Navy creates its first aircraft carrier task group devoted to night flying, Task Group 38.5, consisting of the carriers Template:USS and Template:USS and six destroyers.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 87.</ref>
  • January 3–4 – U.S. Navy Task Force 38 begins its support of the U.S. invasion of Lingayen Gulf with carrier air strikes against Japanese forces and facilities on Formosa, the Pescadores, the Sakishima Gunto, and Okinawa, with the loss of 22 U.S. aircraft. Bad weather curtails the strikes and makes bomb damage assessment impossible, although the task force believes it has destroyed about 100 Japanese aircraft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 88–89.</ref>
  • January 4
    • A single Japanese bomber destroys 11 U.S. Navy PV-1 Ventura patrol aircraft parked at Tacloban Airfield on Leyte.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 99.</ref>
    • The escort carrier Template:USS is fatally damaged by a Japanese kamikaze in the Sulu Sea and scuttled later in the day.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 99, 101.</ref>
    • The Japanese make their last kamikaze attack on the U.S. invasion force off Mindoro, causing a cargo ship carrying ammunition to explode, killing all 71 merchant mariners on board.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 48.</ref>
  • January 5 – Kamikazes damage the U.S. escort carrier Template:USS and heavy cruiser Template:USS and the Australian heavy cruiser Template:HMAS in the South China Sea west of Manila Bay.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 103.</ref>
  • January 6
    • Twentieth Air Force B-29s raid the Ōmura aircraft factory on Kyushu.<ref name="philippines164"/>
    • Task Force 38 carrier aircraft attack Japanese forces and facilities on Luzon, claiming 14 Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air and 18 on the ground in exchange for the loss of 17 U.S. aircraft, but bad weather prevents them from employing the "Big Blue Blanket" tactic of maintaining continuous coverage over Japanese airfields to prevent Japanese aircraft from attacking the U.S. invasion force in Lingayen Gulf. In Lingayen Gulf, kamikazes damage the battleship Template:USS, killing 30 – including British Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden – the battleship Template:USS, the heavy cruiser Template:USS – mortally wounding Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler – the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, the light cruiser Template:USS, three destroyers, a destroyer-minesweeper, and a destroyer-transport and sink a destroyer-minesweeper.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 90, 104–110.</ref>
  • January 7
    • In clearer weather, Task Force 38 aircraft employ the "Big Blue Blanket" tactic over Luzon, flying 757 sorties, shooting down all four Japanese aircraft that they meet in the air and claiming another 75 destroyed on the ground. Task Force 38 loses 10 planes in combat and 18 due to non-combat causes. Eleven U.S. escort carriers in Lingayen Gulf contribute another 143 sorties, and U.S. Army Air Forces planes also participate. In Lingayen Gulf, kamikazes sink a destroyer and a destroyer-minesweeper.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 90, 111–113.</ref>
    • The second-highest-scoring American ace of World War II, U.S. Army Air Forces Major Thomas McGuire, is killed when his P-38 Lightning stalls at low altitude and crashes during a dogfight with a Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 (Allied reporting name "Oscar") fighter near Manapla over Negros Island in the Philippines. He has 38 kills at the time of his death.
  • January 8
    • A kamikaze again damages the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia in Lingayen Gulf. Out in the South China Sea, kamikazes damage the escort carriers Template:USS and Template:USS and an attack transport.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 117–118.</ref>
    • The Pan American World Airways Martin M-130 flying boat China Clipper, operating as Flight 161, strikes a blacked-out boat and crashes while landing at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, killing between 23 and 25 of the 30 people on board.
  • January 9
    • U.S. forces invade Luzon, landing at Lingayen Gulf. During the day, kamikazes attacking ships in the gulf damage the battleship Template:USS and the light cruiser Template:USS.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 126, 133.</ref>
    • Task Force 38 carrier aircraft strike Japanese targets at Formosa and Miyako-jima in foul weather, flying 717 sorties and dropping 212 tons (192,325 kg) of bombs. They shoot down all four Japanese aircraft they encounter in the air and claim 42 more on the ground, in exchange for the loss of 10 U.S. aircraft. They also sink a number of merchant ships and small naval craft. It is the last of seven days of Task Force 38 support to the Lingayen landings, during which it has flown 3,030 combat sorties, dropped 9,110 bombs – totaling about 700 tons (635,036 kg) of bombs – and lost 46 planes in combat and 40 to non-combat causes.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 91.</ref>
    • B-29s based at Kunming, China, attack Japanese shipping along the coast of Formosa, while Mariana Islands-based B-29s drop 122 tons (110,678 kg) of bombs on Japan.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 65–71, 84.</ref>
  • January 11 – U.S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29s based at Calcutta bomb Singapore.<ref name="philippines164"/>
  • January 12 – With 850 aircraft aboard its carriers, Task Force 38 strikes targets along a 420-nautical mile (778-km) stretch of the coast of French Indochina, flying 1,465 sorties; sinking 12 tankers, 17 other merchant ships, the disarmed French cruiser Template:Ship, and 15 Japanese naval vessels, including the light cruiser Template:Ship; and destroying 15 Japanese aircraft in the air, 77 on the ground, and 20 floatplanes on Camranh Bay in exchange for the loss of 23 U.S. aircraft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 168–169.</ref>
  • January 12–13 – Kamikazes resume attacks in Lingayen Gulf, damaging a destroyer escort, a destroyer-transport, an attack transport, and several merchant ships.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 146–151.</ref>
  • January 13 – A kamikaze damages the escort carrier Template:USS in the South China Sea off the mouth of Lingayen Gulf. It is the last successful kamikaze attack in the waters of the Philippine Islands.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 152.</ref>
  • January 14 – U.S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29s bomb Formosa.<ref name="philippines164"/>
  • January 15
    • Task Force 38 carrier aircraft in bad weather strike Japanese forces in China, Formosa, and the Pescadores, sinking two destroyers, a transport, and a tanker and destroying 16 Japanese aircraft in the air and 18 on the ground in exchange for the loss of 12 U.S. aircraft.<ref name="philippines171">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 171.</ref>
    • The German submarine Template:GS torpedoes the British escort aircraft carrier Template:HMS in the Irish Sea near the Clyde Lightvessel. Thane never again is seaworthy.<ref>Chesneau, Roger, ed., ConwayTemplate:'s All the WorldTemplate:'s Fighting Ships 1922–1946, New York: Mayflower Books, 1980, Template:ISBN, p. 26.</ref>
  • January 16
    • Task Force 38 aircraft strike Hong Kong, Hainan, and Canton and sweep the coast of China from the Liuchow Peninsula to Swatow. Hampered by bad weather, they sink two merchant ships and damage four others and destroy 13 Japanese planes in exchange for the loss of 22 U.S. aircraft in combat and five to non-combat causes.<ref name="philippines171"/>
    • U.S. Navy escort carrier support to the Lingayen Gulf landings ends. During 12 days of support, their aircraft have flown 6,152 sorties and claimed 92 Japanese aircraft destroyed in exchange for the loss of two aircraft, both FM Wildcat fighters.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 155–156.</ref>
    • The new British Pacific Fleet departs Ceylon for Australia.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 103–104.</ref>
  • January 16–20 – The U.S. Army Air Forces Fourteenth Air Force destroys over 100 Japanese planes on the ground in and around Shanghai, China.<ref name="philippines164"/>
  • January 17 – Twentieth Air Force B-29s bomb Formosa.<ref name="philippines164"/>
  • January 21
    • Task Force 38 aircraft fly 1,164 sorties in strikes on Formosa, the Pescadores, and the Sakishima Gunto, sinking five tankers and five other merchant ships and destroying two Japanese aircraft in the air and 104 on the ground. In Japanese air attacks on the task force, a bomber damages the aircraft carrier Template:USS and kamikazes damage the carrier Template:USS and a destroyer; an accidental bomb explosion during a landing accident damages the carrier Template:USS.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 179–182.</ref>
    • The British East Indies Fleet aircraft carriers Template:HMS and Template:HMS support the landings of the 26th Indian Infantry Division on Ramree Island off the coast of Burma.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 126">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 126.</ref>
  • January 22
    • Task Force 38 aircraft conduct an early morning night strike against Formosa, sinking a large tanker in exchange for the loss of three U.S. aircraft, then fly 682 sorties during daylight hours to strike and conduct photographic reconnaissance missions against Okinawa, the Sakishima Gunto, Ie Shima, and Amami O Shima, destroying 28 Japanese aircraft, all on the ground. Task Force 38 then retires to its base at Ulithi Atoll. During January 1945, its aircraft have destroyed 300,000 tons of Japanese shipping and claimed 615 Japanese planes destroyed in exchange for the loss of 201 U.S. carrier aircraft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 182.</ref>
    • U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft begin a heavy bombing campaign against Japanese forces on Corregidor. By the time U.S. ground forces land on Corregidor on February 15–16, they will drop over 3,200 tons (2,903,021 kg) of bombs on the island.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 203.</ref>
  • January 24
    • Twentieth Air Force B-29s bomb Iwo Jima.<ref name="MSE">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 12.</ref>
    • British Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers launch strikes against the Japanese-controlled oil refinery at Pladjoe, Sumatra. The refinery never recovers its full capacity during World War II.<ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 27">Hobbs, David, "The Royal Navy's Pacific Strike Force," Naval History, February 2013, p. 27.</ref>
  • January 26 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Ameer and HMS Shah support the landings of the Royal Marines on Cheduba Island off the coast of Burma.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 126"/>
  • January 27 – Twentieth Air Force B-29s based at Calcutta bomb Saigon, French Indochina.<ref name="philippines164"/>
  • January 29
    • Twentieth Air Force B-29s bomb Iwo Jima.<ref name="MSE"/>
    • British Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers launch strikes against the Japanese-controlled oil refinery at Soengi Gerong, Sumatra. The refinery never recovers its full capacity during World War II. Japanese aircraft counterattack the British carriers, but the British combat air patrol shoots them all down. In the strikes on January 24 and 29 combined, the British Pacific Fleet has lost 16 aircraft to enemy action and others in accidents, as well as 30 aircrewmen, some without trace.<ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 27"/>
    • The Germans scuttle the incomplete aircraft carrier Template:Ship – the proposed name "Weser" for her had never been officially assigned – at Königsberg to prevent her capture by the Soviet Union.<ref name="hazegray.org Graf Zeppelin">hazegray.org Graf Zeppelin</ref>
  • January 31

February

  • The U.S. Navy's first recorded use of jet-assisted take-off (JATO) takes place, when it is used to lift a PBM-5 Mariner off of a stretch of the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona, where the Mariner had been forced down.<ref>Smith, Bob, "On Patrol: Flying The Martin PBM Mariner in WW II", Wings, Granada Hills, California, April 1990, Volume 20, Number 4, page 55.</ref>
  • Two Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Mitsubishi Ki-46-IV (Allied reporting name "Dinah") reconnaissance aircraft fly 2,301 km (1,430 statute miles) at an average speed of Template:Convert, a notable combination of speed and endurance for the time.<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 175.</ref>
  • JapanTemplate:'s Urgent Dispersal of Plants Act orders the dispersal of Japanese industry to underground, semi-underground, and surface sites, with aircraft plants taking top priority. Although it does not become a general effort until April or May, Japanese officials predict completion of the mandated dispersal by December 1945.<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, pp. 14–15.</ref>
  • Ceremony at Boeing Wichita plant to mark delivery of the 1000th Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber to the United States Army Air Forces.
  • February 1–4 – Employing air command and control procedures pioneered by United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Keith B. McCutcheon, Marine Air Groups 24 and 32 provide highly effective close air support on Luzon for United States Army forces driving on Manila.<ref>"Twenty-Five Significant Dates in USMC Aviation History," The Washington Post, May 2, 2012, p. H5.</ref>
  • February 2 – The Horten H.IX V2, the second prototype and first powered prototype of the Horten Ho 229, makes it first flight at Oranienburg, Germany.<ref name = "bbc 229">Dowling, Stephen. "The Flying Wing Decades Ahead of its Time." BBC News, 2 February 2016.</ref> It is the world's first flight by a turbojet-powered flying wing.<ref name=WilkinsonNov2016>Wilkinson, Stephan, "The Horten Brothers′ Jet Flying Wing," Aviation History, November 2016, p. 22.</ref>
  • February 3 – Bound for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union, Convoy JW 64 becomes the first Arctic convoy to depart from the River Clyde. Its escort, designated Operation Hotbed, includes the British escort aircraft carriers Template:HMS and Template:HMS. Campania carries the first night fighter involved in a convoy escort operation, a Fairey Fulmar equipped with aircraft interception radar.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 105">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 105.</ref>
  • February 3 – The heaviest American strategic bombing raid on Berlin of the war (over one thousand bombers and 575 P-51 Mustang escorts) is carried out by the 8th Air Force, with highly decorated USAAF Lt. Col. Robert Rosenthal in command of the 8th's First Air Division<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Among the nearly 3,000 German lives lost in the raid,<ref>Smit, Erik/Evthalia Staikos/Dirk Thormann, 3. Februar 1945: Die Zerstörung Kreuzbergs aus der Luft, Martin Düspohl (ed.) on behalf of the Kunstamt Kreuzberg/Kreuzberg-Museum für Stadtentwicklung und Sozialgeschichte in co-operation with the Verein zur Erforschung und Darstellung der Geschichte Kreuzbergs e.V., Berlin: Kunstamt Kreuzberg, 1995, pp. 12seq; Template:ISBN.</ref> was the notorious Nazi Volksgerichtshof justice, Roland Freisler.
  • February 4
    • The British Pacific Fleet arrives at Fremantle, Australia.<ref name="operations104">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 104.</ref>
    • The Royal Air Force Gloster Meteor F.3 jet fighter deploys to Melsbroeck in Belgium to operate with the 2nd Tactical Air Force.
  • February 6
  • February 7 – 12 German Junkers Ju 88s attack Convoy JW 64 during its voyage from the Clyde to the Kola Inlet. An escorting corvette shoots one down.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 105"/>
  • February 9 – A dozen Focke-Wulf Fw 190s of Jagdgeschwader 5 attack over 30 British Commonwealth Beaufighters escorted by about a dozen Royal Air Force Mustangs over the Førde Fjord in Norway while the Allied aircraft are conducting a strike against German Navy vessels. The Allies lose eight Beaufighters and one Mustang in the failed raid, and the Germans lose several Fw 190s. Two of the Fw 190s shot down in the combat still exist, with at least one of them undergoing restoration to airworthy status.
  • February 10
    • Flying the 4th Fighter Squadron P-51D Mustang Bad Angel over Batan Island in the Formosa Strait, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Second Lieutenant Louis Curdes spots a USAAF 39th Military Airlift Squadron C-47 Skytrain on approach to land at a Japanese airfield. After the C-47 fails to respond to his attempt to warn its pilots of their mistake, he shoots out its engines, forcing it to ditch offshore, and its passengers and crew take to life rafts. He then drops them a message telling them to keep away from shore. He and his wingman return to base, then fly back to the rafts before dawn the next morning to cover the life rafts until a PBY-5A Catalina amphibian flying boat picks them up. Upon returning to base, he discovers that he had been out on a date with a nurse board the plane the night before he shot it down. Although he sports an American flag on his P-51D to signify shooting down the C-47, he is not awarded an official kill, but he does receive an Oak Leaf Cluster to his Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal for his actions. He becomes the only American pilot to shoot down German, Italian, Japanese, and an American aircraft during World War II.<ref>Hollway, Don, '"Triple Axis Ace," Aviation History, January 2017, pp. 54–56.</ref>
    • German Junkers Ju 88s attack Convoy JW 64 in the Arctic Ocean.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 105"/>
  • February 11 – A jet bomber is shot down in air-to-air combat for the first time, when a Royal Air Force Hawker Tempest Mark V downs a German Luftwaffe Arado Ar 234B Blitz (Lightning).<ref name="aradojetsin action">Anonymous, "Arado Jets in Action," Aviation History, November 2015, p. 62.</ref>
  • February 12 – United States Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29s bomb Iwo Jima. In this raid and their January 24 and 29 raids, they have dropped a combined total of 367 tons (332,940 kg) of bombs on the island.<ref name="MSE"/>
  • February 13–15 – Allied bombers attack Dresden with incendiary weapons, destroying most of the city and killing some 50,000 people.
  • February 15 – In ten weeks of steady bombardment of Iwo Jima, the U.S. Army Air Forces' Seventh and Twentieth Air Forces have dropped nearly 6,800 tons (6,168,920 kg) of bombs on the island.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 13.</ref>
  • February 16
  • February 16–17 – Eleven fleet aircraft carriers and five light aircraft carriers of the U.S. NavyTemplate:'s Task Force 58 conduct the first carrier-based airstrikes against Japan proper since the April 1942 Doolittle Raid, attacking targets in and around Tokyo and Tokyo Bay. U.S. Navy aircraft fly 2,761 sorties, claiming 341 Japanese planes shot down and 190 destroyed on the ground, several ships and craft sunk in Tokyo Bay, and damage to Japanese airframe and aircraft engine plants in exchange for 60 U.S. aircraft lost in combat and 28 more lost due to non-combat causes.<ref name="operations20">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 20–25.</ref>
  • February 18 – The Horten H.IX V2, the second prototype and first powered prototype of the Horten Ho 229, suffers an engine failure during its third test flight and crashes at Oranienburg, Germany, killing its pilot, Leutnant Erwin Ziller.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>"Horten Ho 229 V-2 (Ho IX V 2) der Absturz." Template:Webarchive DeutscheLuftwaffe.de, Retrieved: 21 February 2016.</ref> The third prototype is never completed, and the crash brings the Ho 229 program to an end.<ref name=WilkinsonNov2016/>
  • February 19 – U.S. Marine Corps forces invade Iwo Jima, beginning the Iwo Jima campaign.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 33–46.</ref>
  • February 20 – 25 German Junkers Ju 88s attack Convoy RA 64 with torpedoes as it steams from the Kola Inlet to the River Clyde. Wildcats from the British aircraft carriers Template:HMS and Template:HMS shoot down at least three of them.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 105"/>
  • February 20–21 (overnight) – 13 Japanese air raids strike at U.S. Fifth Fleet ships off Iwo Jima.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 52.</ref>
  • February 21 – Japanese kamikaze attacks strike U.S. ships off Iwo Jima. They badly damage the aircraft carrier Template:USS, which suffers 123 killed and missing and 192 wounded and the loss of 42 aircraft and is out of action for three months; sink the escort carrier Template:USS with the loss of 218 of her crew; and damage the escort carrier Template:USS and netlayer Template:USS. Bismarck Sea is to date the last U.S. aircraft carrier sunk by enemy action.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 52–56.</ref>
  • February 22 – The Allies launch Operation Clarion a 24-hour campaign where nearly 9,000 Allied aircraft attacked targets across Germany in effort to destroy all means of transportation available. Targets included railway marshalling yards, level crossings and signal boxes, bridges, canal locks and other transport infrastructure.
  • February 23 – March 2 – The night fighter squadron aboard Template:USS, operating off Iwo Jima, keeps planes airborne for a record 174 consecutive hours.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 56</ref>
  • February 24 – Not realizing that Women's Auxiliary Air Force Leading Aircraftwoman Margaret Horton is still sitting on the tailplane of his Spitfire to hold it down while he taxis on a windy day at a British airfield, Flight Lieutenant Neil Cox takes off with her draped across the tail cone. Ordered to land immediately without knowing why, he returns to base and lands safely, with Horton uninjured.<ref>Wilkinson, Stephan, "Amazing But True Stories," Aviation History, May 2014, p. 30.</ref>
  • February 25
    • Carrier aircraft of the U.S. NavyTemplate:'s Task Force 58 strike targets around Tokyo, but bad weather forces the cancellation of many strikes.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 57.</ref>
    • Allied forces capture an intact German Arado Ar 234B Blitz (Lightning) jet bomber for the first time.<ref name="aradojetsin action"/>
  • February 26 – A U.S. Army Air Forces C-87A Liberator Express disappears during a flight from Kwajalein Atoll to Johnston Island with the loss of all on board, including two Army Air Forces generals, Lieutenant General Millard Harmon and Brigadier General James R. Andersen.
  • February 27 – Off Iwo Jima, the U.S. Navy tank landing ship Template:USS, specially equipped with booms and cables for launching light aircraft, achieves the first successful launch of an OY-1 Grasshopper observation plane (Stinson L-5).<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 65.</ref>

March

  • March
  • March 1
  • March 2 – German forces employ the Henschel Hs 297 surface-to-air anti-aircraft rocket system for the first time, firing it at Allied fighter-bombers in the vicinity of Remagen, Germany.
  • March 4
    • Task Force 58 returns to base at Ulithi Atoll. During its two-week cruise to the Tokyo area and Okinawa its pilots have claimed 393 Japanese aircraft shot down and 250 destroyed on the ground, in exchange for the loss of 84 planes, 60 pilots, and 21 aircrewmen in combat and 59 planes, eight pilots, and six aircrewmen in non-combat incidents.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 59.</ref>
    • Low on fuel after a raid on Japan, a B-29 Superfortress lands on Iwo Jima, the first of about 2,400 B-29s to do so before World War II ends in August.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 65, 72.</ref>
  • March 5 – A Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed Hudson crashes into the Coral Sea just off the coast of Queensland, Australia, just north of the mouth of the Barron River, killing everyone on board including Australian Army Major Generals George Vasey and Rupert Downes.
  • March 6 – Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of World War II, begins in Hungary. The Luftwaffe commits about 900 aircraft in support of the offensive, while 965 aircraft of the Soviet 17th Air Army support the Soviet and Bulgarian defenders.<ref>Spindler, John E., "Panzer Fury in Hungary," Military History, September 2017, pp. 36, 38.</ref>
  • March 9 – Disappointed in strategic bombing results against Japan with B-29 Superfortresses employing high-altitude daylight bombing as used in Europe, the United States Army Air ForcesTemplate:' Twentieth Air Force switches to low-altitude night bombing of Japan using incendiary bombs for the rest of World War II.<ref>Jablonski, Edward, Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17s and the Men Who Flew Them, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965, p. 279.</ref>
  • March 9–10 – The Great Tokyo Air Raid (USAAF codename Operation Meetinghouse), an overnight incendiary bombing raid by B-29 Superfortresses on Tokyo, is the single most destructive air raid during World War II,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> even with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being considered as single events.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It creates a conflagration which destroys Template:Convert of the city, killing an estimated 88,000 to 125,000 people, injuring at least 41,000 and perhaps as many as a million people, and leaving probably a million people homeless.
  • March 10 – The Government of Poland recreates LOT Polish Airlines, which had not operated since 1939. It will resume operations in 1946.
  • March 11 – Luftwaffe pilot Helmut Gerstenhauer and two copilots arrive at Werder, Germany, completing a flight in a Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 helicopter begun from Tempelhof Airport in Berlin on 26 February. Bound for Danzig, navigational problems and bad weather force them to stop at Crailsheim, Würzburg, and Meiningen on 26 February, Werder on 27 February (which they reach after a Template:Convert flight from Meiningen), Prenzlau on 28 February, and Stolp on 1 March, before finally departing Stolp on 5 March and arriving at Danzig later that day after a flight over the advancing Soviet Army. Ordered to return to Werder, they make a lengthy flight from Danzig to Werder via Garz. The entire 13-day journey has covered Template:Convert – an unofficial helicopter record at the time – with a flight time of 16 hours 25 minutes.
  • March 13–14 – A Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster of No. 617 Squadron bombs the Bielefeld Viaduct in Germany in the first operational use of the Template:Convert Grand Slam bomb.
  • March 14 – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, the future TAP Portugal, is founded. It will begin flight operations in September 1946.
  • March 15 – The U.S. Navy assigns responsibility for the evacuation of wounded personnel to the Naval Air Transport Service.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • March 17 – Training for U.S. Army Air Forces service, American actor Bobby Hutchins dies in the mid-air collision of two North American AT-6 Texan trainers at Merced Army Airfield in Merced, California. The other pilot survives.
  • March 18 – Carrier aircraft of the U.S. NavyTemplate:'s Task Force 58 strike Kyushu.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 94.</ref>
  • March 19 – Task Force 58 strikes ships in JapanTemplate:'s Inland Sea, damaging the battleship Template:Ship, the aircraft carriers Template:Ship and Template:Ship, and 14 other ships, followed by fighter sweeps over Kyushu.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 94, 99.</ref> Counterattacks by Japanese aircraft damage the aircraft carriers Template:USS, which suffers 101 killed and 269 wounded but remains in action for several more days, and Template:USS, which suffers 724 killed or missing and 265 wounded.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 94–98.</ref> Franklin survives to limp home to the United States despite near-fatal damage – probably the most severely damaged aircraft carrier every to make it back to port – and never returns to service.
  • March 21 – The Imperial Japanese Navy uses its Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka ("Cherry Blossom") rocket-powered human-guided anti-shipping kamikaze attack plane operationally for the first time, but without success.
  • March 22 – Template:USS is damaged by a flight deck fire caused by American antiaircraft fire, and Task Force 58 retires from Japanese waters. During its strikes on Kyushu and the Inland Sea it has claimed 528 Japanese aircraft destroyed; Japan admits to 163 aircraft lost in air-to-air combat and additional Japanese planes destroyed on the ground.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 100.</ref>
  • March 23 – April 1 – Task Force 58 conducts strikes on Okinawa and vicinity.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 101, 112.</ref>
  • March 23 – The British Pacific Fleet, centered around the aircraft carriers Template:HMS, Template:HMS, Template:HMS, and Template:HMS, departs Ulithi Atoll to begin operations as Task Force 57 of the United States Fifth Fleet.<ref name="operations104"/>
  • March 24
    • 112 carrier aircraft of Task Force 58 sink an entire convoy of eight Japanese ships Template:Convert northwest of Okinawa.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 112.</ref>
    • Allied forces begin large-scale crossings of the Rhine River in Operation Varsity. The operation involves 2,000 transport aircraft and gliders.
  • March 25
    • Japanese aircraft make their last raid on Iwo Jima. U.S. Army Air Forces P-61 Black Widow night fighters based on the island shoot down several of the Japanese planes and drive off the rest.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 68.</ref>
    • The Japanese high command issues an alert for Operation Ten-Go, a concentrated air attack against amphibious forces preparing to invade Okinawa.<ref name="operations101">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 101.</ref>
  • March 26
    • The United States declares the Iwo Jima operation "completed".<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 67.</ref>
    • The British Pacific Fleet conducts its first combat operation as Task Force 57 under the command of the United States Fifth Fleet, launching airstrikes against Japanese airfields on Miyako-jima in the Sakishima Gunto.<ref name="operations104"/><ref>Hobbs, David, "The Royal Navy's Pacific Strike Force," Naval History, February 2013, p. 28.</ref>
  • March 27
  • March 31
    • Twentieth Air Force B-29s again raid Japanese airfields on Kyushu.<ref name="operations101"/>
    • A kamikaze damages the U.S. heavy cruiser Template:USS off Okinawa, killing 9 and wounding 20.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 138.</ref>

April

  • April 1
    • The Nakajima Aircraft Company comes under the control of the Japanese government and is renamed the First Munitions Arsenal.<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 21.</ref>
    • Operation Iceberg, the American invasion of Okinawa, begins the Okinawa campaign. Ohkas score hits on the battleship Template:USS and three of her escorts, and a kamikaze hits the aircraft carrier Template:HMS, the first British aircraft carrier hit by a kamikaze. Indefatigable suffers 14 killed, but resumes air operations an hour later.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 140, 154, 212.</ref><ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 29">Hobbs, David, "The Royal Navy's Pacific Strike Force," Naval History, February 2013, p. 29.</ref>
  • April 4 – During trials for rubber decks to be installed aboard future aircraft carriers, Royal Navy test pilot Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown declares an emergency and lands his Fleet Air Arm Bell Airacobra AH574 aboard the aircraft carrier Template:HMS. It is the worldTemplate:'s first carrier landing by an aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear.
  • April 6 – U.S. Navy aircraft from Template:USS, Template:USS, and Template:USS strike Japanese airfields and other targets on Miyako Jima and Ishigaki Jima in the Sakishima Gunto.<ref>Fredio Samples "Wings Over Sakishima" Template:ISBN</ref>
  • April 6–7 – The Japanese begin Operation Ten-Go with the first and largest of ten major Kikusui ("Floating Chrysanthemum") kamikaze attacks against Allied naval forces off Okinawa, committing 355 kamikazes and 341 bombers. On the first day, they sink two destroyers, a destroyer-minelayer, a tank landing ship, and two civilian ammunition ships and badly damage eight destroyers, a destroyer escort, and a minelayer. The Americans claim 357 Japanese planes destroyed. On the second day, the Japanese damage the battleship Template:USS, a destroyer, and a destroyer escort.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 181–198.</ref>
  • April 7
    • Accompanying B-29 Superfortresses, P-51 Mustangs of the U.S. Army Air ForcesTemplate:' 15th, 21st, and 506th Fighter Groups based on Iwo Jima become the first Allied fighters to escort bombers all the way to Tokyo, Japan, and back. The escort flights last seven to eight hours.<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 335.</ref> Fifty-four B-29s land on Iwo Jima during the day.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 70.</ref>
    • 386 carrier aircraft of Task Force 58 attack an Imperial Japanese Navy task force bound for Okinawa while it is steaming in the East China Sea, sinking the battleship Template:Ship, the light cruiser Template:Ship, and four of their eight escorting destroyers.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 199–209.</ref> It ends the last offensive sortie by Japanese surface ships of World War II.
  • April 8 – German test pilot Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg is shot down and killed, aged 42.
  • April 9
  • April 10 – The Luftwaffe flies its final sortie over the United Kingdom, a reconnaissance mission from Norway by an Arado Ar 234.
  • April 11 – British Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers launch strikes against Formosa.<ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 29"/>
  • April 12–13 – The second Japanese Kikusui attack on Allied ships off Okinawa includes 145 kamikazes, which attack along with 150 fighters and 45 torpedo bombers. U.S. Navy ships and aircraft claim 298 Japanese aircraft destroyed. On April 12, the destroyer Template:USS becomes the first ship to be sunk by an Ohka. Kamikazes also hit the battleship Template:USS, four destroyers, four destroyer escorts, a destroyer-minelayer, a minesweeper, and several smaller craft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 222–230.</ref>
  • April 13 – British Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers launch a second strike against Formosa. During the April 11 and 13 strikes, their aircraft shoot down at least 16 Japanese planes, destroy additional Japanese aircraft on the ground, and strike airfields and road and railroad targets, for the loss of three British aircraft.<ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 29"/>
  • April 14–15 (overnight) – An Avro Lancaster on a night mission against Potsdam becomes the last British bomber shot down by a German night fighter during World War II.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 32.</ref>
  • April 15–16
    • Task Force 58 launches fighter sweeps over Kyushu, claiming 29 Japanese aircraft shot down and 51 destroyed on the ground on the first day.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 248.</ref>
    • The third Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 165 kamikazes. They sink the destroyer Template:USS and a minesweeper and damage the aircraft carrier Template:USS, three destroyers, a destroyer escort, a minesweeper, and a landing craft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 235–238.</ref>
  • April 16 – The final Soviet assault against Berlin begins with strikes by 150 Soviet Air Force night bombers of the 4th and 16th Air Armies against German positions in the early morning hours, coordinated with mortar and artillery attacks. By 1500 hours, 647 Soviet combat aircraft are in the air. The day ends with the Soviet Air Force having flown 5,300 sorties, claiming 131 German aircraft shot down in exchange for 87 Soviet aircraft.<ref>Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, Template:ISBN, pp. 210–211.</ref>
  • April 18
  • April 19 – The International Air Transport Association is founded in Havana, Cuba, with 57 member airlines from 31 countries.
  • April 20
    • British Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers launch strikes against the Sakishima Islands.<ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 30">Hobbs, David, "The Royal Navy's Pacific Strike Force," Naval History, February 2013, p. 30.</ref>
    • "Morotai Mutiny": members of the Australian First Tactical Air Force based on the island of Morotai in the Dutch East Indies tender their resignations to protest their belief that they are being assigned to missions of no military importance and in which they are not specialists; a subsequent inquiry effectively vindicates them.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
    • A Swordfish from the merchant aircraft carrier (or "MAC-ship") Template:MV drops two depth charges on a periscope sighting position in the last attack on a submarine by a MAC-shipTemplate:'s aircraft. During World War II, no submarine makes a successful attack against a convoy containing a MAC-ship. MAC-ship aircraft have attacked 12 German submarines; although they never sink one, their activities have proven very effective in convoy defense.<ref>Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 110.</ref>
  • April 21 – The Focke-Wulf Fw 200KB-1 Condor Hessen (registration D-ASHH) attempts the last scheduled flight in the history of Deutsche Luft Hansa, a trip from Berlin to Munich. The airliner crashes and burns near Piesenkofen shortly before its planned arrival in Munich, killing all 21 people on board.<ref>Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description</ref>
  • April 22 – The last flight in Deutsche Luft Hansa's history, a non-scheduled flight from Berlin to Warnemünde, takes place. After Germany surrenders in May, the Allies dissolve the airline and seize its aircraft.
  • April 23 – The United States Navy puts its first autonomously radar-guided bomb, the SWOD-9 "Bat" into use, dropping it from Consolidated PB4Y Liberators on Japanese shipping in Balikpapan Harbour.
  • April 24 – Flying a Messerschmitt Me 262, Luftwaffe ace Günther Lützow is killed in combat with U.S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolts near Donauwörth, Germany. His credited with 110 kills.
  • April 25
  • April 26/27 (overnight) – 563 bombers of the Soviet Air ForceTemplate:'s 18th Air Army strike Berlin.<ref>Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, Template:ISBN, p. 211.</ref>
  • April 27–28 – The fourth Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 115 kamikazes. They sink an ammunition ship and damage four destroyers and the hospital ship Template:USS.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 238–239, 244.</ref>
  • April 30 – May 7 – To divert Japanese attention from Operation Dracula and suppress Japanese airpower in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, aircraft from the British aircraft carriers Template:HMS and Template:HMS fly 400 sorties over eight days against Japanese airfields and shipping in the islands, losing one aircraft.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 127">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 127.</ref>

May

  • The United States Strategic Air Forces control about 17,000 aircraft and 500,000 personal in the European Theater of Operations.
  • Sine it began operations on June 7, 1944, the Balkan Air Force has flown 38,340 sorties, dropped 6,650 tons of bombs, delivered 16,440 tons of supplies, and flown 2,500 individuals into Yugoslavia and 19,000 (mostly wounded) out.<ref>The Oxford Companion to World War II page 79</ref>
  • May 1 – The U.S. NavyTemplate:'s mixed-propulsion Ryan FR Fireball becomes the first aircraft incorporating jet propulsion to qualify for use aboard aircraft carriers.<ref name="AE 413">Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 413.</ref>
  • May 2 – The British East Indies FleetTemplate:'s 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron – consisting of the aircraft carriers Template:HMS, Template:HMS, Template:HMS, and Template:HMS – begin support of Operation Dracula, a British assault on Rangoon, Burma. Their aircraft fly 110 sorties, bombing Japanese forces in support of a British amphibious landing.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 127"/>
  • May 2–3 – With an attack on enemy airfields, Royal Air Force Mosquitoes of No. 8 Group operate the last offensive action in the war by Bomber Command.
  • May 3
  • May 3–4 – The fifth Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 125 kamikazes. They sink three destroyers and two smaller ships and damage the aircraft carrier Template:HMS, the light cruiser Template:USS, four destroyers, a destroyer-minelayer, and three smaller ships.<ref name="operations233">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 233, 251–256.</ref>
  • May 4
  • May 4–5 – Carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet strike airfields on the Sakishima Gunto.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 264.</ref>
  • May 5–6 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker resume support of Operation Dracula, bombing Japanese forces south of Rangoon and attacking shipping off BurmaTemplate:'s Tenasserim coast.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 127"/>
  • May 7 – The Royal Air Force sinks a German submarine for the last time in World War II.
  • May 8
  • May 9 – British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft strike the Sakishima Gunto. Kamikazes hit the aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and Template:HMS.<ref name="operations265">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 265.</ref>
  • May 10 – Sighting a Japanese Kawasaki Ki-45 (Allied reporting name "Nick" fighter flying high over Okinawa, U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Robert R, Klingman in an F4U Corsair gives chase for over 185 miles and intercepts the Ki-45 at Template:Convert. Finding his guns frozen, he climbs well above the CorsairTemplate:'s service ceiling of Template:Convert and cuts off the Ki-45Template:'s tail with his propeller in several passes, causing it to crash. He then belly lands safely at Kadena field on Okinawa.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 269.</ref> He receives the Navy Cross for the action.
  • May 10–11 – The sixth Japanese Kikusui attack off Okinawa includes 150 kamikazes. They damage two destroyers and the aircraft carrier Template:USS, which suffers 353 killed, 43 missing, and 264 wounded. One of the most heavily damaged aircraft carriers to survive the war, Bunker Hill is out of service for the rest of World War II.<ref name="operations233"/>
  • May 11 – Over three years after its first use in Germany to save test pilot Helmut Schenk's life, the Martin-Baker company makes the first live firing of one of its own ejector seat designs.<ref>Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the WorldTemplate:'s Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, Template:ISBN, p. 223.</ref>
  • May 12 – A kamikaze hits the battleship Template:USS at Hagushi anchorage, Okinawa.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 267–268.</ref>
  • May 12–13 – Carrier aircraft of Task Force 58 strike targets on Kyushu and Shikoku. The British Pacific FleetTemplate:'s carriers strike the Sakishima Gunto.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 263, 265.</ref>
  • May 14
    • A kamikaze crashes on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Template:USS, knocking her out of action for the rest of World War II.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 251–256.</ref>
    • The final Arctic convoy of World War II, Convoy JW 67, departs Scapa Flow for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union escorted by the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS. It returns to the United Kingdom later in the month as Convoy RA 67. QueenTemplate:'s presence as an escort is deemed necessary in case any German submarine commanders opt to ignore GermanyTemplate:'s surrender and attack the convoy.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 105"/>
  • May 15 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Template:Ship in the Indian Ocean, but achieve only one near-miss.<ref>Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, pp. 127–128.</ref>
  • May 16–17 – British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft strike Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Gunto.<ref name="operations265"/>
  • May 18 – A CorsairTemplate:'s guns accidentally fire in the hangar deck of the British aircraft carrier Formidable, striking an Avenger. The Avenger explodes, starting a fire that destroys 28 planes.<ref name="Hobbs, David 2013, p. 30"/>
  • May 20 – 29 aircraft from the British aircraft carriers Template:HMS, Template:HMS, and Template:HMS conduct devastating strikes against Japanese shipping, airfields, and communications in southern Burma and Sumatra.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 128">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 128.</ref>
  • May 23–25 – The seventh Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves 165 kamikazes. They sink a destroyer-transport and two smaller ships and damage a destroyer and a destroyer-transport on May 25.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 233, 270–271.</ref>
  • May 24–25 – British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft make the final strikes of the war against the Sakishima Gunto, where all Japanese airfields have now been knocked out.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 266.</ref>
  • May 24/25 (overnight) – Five Imperial Japanese Army Mitsubishi Ki-21 (Allied reporting name "Sally") bombers carrying Giretsu Kuteitai special airborne attack troops make a suicide raid on Kadena and Yontan airfields on Okinawa. Four are shot down, but the fifth belly lands on the principal runway at Yontan and disgorges ten giretsu troops, who destroy seven and damage 26 planes, blow up two fuel dumps, and kill two Americans and wound 18 before being killed. Japanese planes also bomb Ie Shima during the night.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 270–271.</ref>
  • May 27 – During the Seventh War Bond Air Show at the Army Air Forces Fair at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, the pilot of a U.S. Army Air Forces Curtiss XP-55 Ascender fighter prototype (serial number 42-78847) attempts a slow roll during an exhibition flight after a low pass with a P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang on each wing but loses altitude and crashes, sending flaming debris into occupied civilian ground vehicles on a highway near the airfield. The crash kills the XP-55Template:'s pilot and between two and four civilians (sources differ) on the ground.<ref>Scott, Roland B., "Air Mail", Wings, Granada Hills, California, October 1978, Volume 8, Number 5, page 10.</ref>
  • May 27–29 – The eighth Japanese Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves 110 kamikazes. They sink a destroyer and damage two destroyers, three merchant ships, and an attack transport.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 233, 259–262, 272.</ref>
  • May 31 – Middle East Airlines is founded. It will begin flight operations in January 1946.

June

  • The United States possesses the worldTemplate:'s first two atomic bombs.<ref>Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945–1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, Template:ISBN, p. 12.</ref>
  • The Nicaraguan airline LANICA is founded. It will begin flight operations in 1946.
  • June 2–3 – Carrier aircraft of Task Group 38.4 strike Kyushu.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 298.</ref>
  • June 3–7 – The ninth Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves only 50 kamikazes and causes no significant damage.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 233, 274.</ref>
  • June 5 – A typhoon strikes U.S. Navy Task Force 38 southeast of Okinawa. The aircraft carriers Template:USS, Template:USS, Template:USS, Template:USS, Template:USS, and Template:USS are damaged and the task force loses 76 aircraft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 305–307.</ref>
  • June 6 – The Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) is established under the Convention on International Civil Aviation, intended to operate until 26 countries ratify the convention and thereby permit the establishment of a permanent organization.<ref>icao.int International Civil Aviation Organisation History Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • June 8 – Carrier aircraft of Task Group 38.4 strike Kyushu. Aircraft bombing Kanoya Air Field employ variable time fuzes on Template:Convert bombs for the first time as a means of attacking revetted Japanese aircraft.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 307.</ref>
  • June 17 – 457 B-29 Superfortresses drop 3,195 tons (2,898,485 kg) of bombs on Ōmuta and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278">Okumiya, Masatake, Jiro Horikoshi, and Martin Caidin, Zero! The Story of JapanTemplate:'s Air War in the Pacific: 1941–1945, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1956, SBN 345-02242-4-125, Template:ISBN, p. 278.</ref>
  • June 19
    • 481 B-29s drop 3,335 tons (3,025,492 kg) of bombs on Toyohashi and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
    • B-24 Liberators of the U.S. Army Air Forces' 404th Bombardment Squadron make the longest bombing mission flown in the North Pacific Area during World War II, flying a 2,700-mile (4,348-km) round trip from Shemya to attack the Japanese base at Kruppu in the Kurile Islands. The B-24s are in the air for Template:Frac hours.<ref>Garfield, Brian, The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians, Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, 1995, Template:ISBN, p. 394.</ref>
  • June 21–22 – The tenth and final Japanese Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves only 45 kamikazes. They sink a medium landing ship and the hulk of a decommissioned destroyer and damage two seaplane tenders and two smaller ships.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 233, 278–279.</ref>
  • June 22 – 412 B-29s drop 2,290 tons (2,077,474 kg) of bombs on Kure, Wakayama, and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • June 26 – 468 B-29s drop 3,058 tons (2,774,199 kg) of bombs on Osaka and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • June 28 – 485 B-29s drop 3,519 tons (3,192,416 kg) of bombs on Okayama, Sasebo, and Moji, Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • June 30 – United States Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson approves a U.S. Army Air Forces request for the Douglas Aircraft Company to develop an airplane capable of reaching a sustained speed of Mach 2 at an altitude of Template:Convert, flying for at least 30 minutes, and taking off and landing under its own power.<ref>Guttman, Jon, "Douglas X-3 Stiletto," Aviation History, November 2016, p. 14.</ref>

July

  • Japan produces 1,131 aircraft, its lowest monthly total since February 1943.<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 15.</ref>
  • A U.S. Army Air Forces air intelligence report finds that Army Air Forces aircraft had destroyed 30,152 German aircraft during the war in Europe in exchange for 18,418 Army Air Forces aircraft destroyed.<ref>Sweeting, C. G., "Duel in the Clouds," Aviation History, January 2013, p. 56.</ref>
  • Several manufacturers have built a combined total of 8,751 Airspeed Oxfords.<ref>Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the WorldTemplate:'s Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, Template:ISBN, p. 75.</ref>
  • Avro Canada is formed as a part of the Hawker Siddeley Group and takes over the former Victory Aircraft factory at Malton, Ontario, Canada.<ref>David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 88.</ref>
  • Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela (LAV) makes its first international flights, inaugurating service between Venezuela and Boa Vista, Brazil.
  • July 1–3 – The U.S. Navy escort carriers Template:USS, Template:USS, and Template:USS with Marine Air Group 2 embarked support Australian Army amphibious landings at Balikpapan, Borneo.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944–1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 272.</ref>
  • July 2
    • 532 B-29 Superfortresses drop 3,709 tons (3,365 metric tons/tonnes) of bombs on Kure, Kumamoto, and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
    • The Okinawa campaign is officially declared over with the complete defeat of Japanese forces there. During the campaign, the Allies have lost 32 ships and naval craft sunk and 368 damaged and over 4,900 naval personnel killed and 4,824 wounded. Most of the ships sunk were victims of kamikazes. The Allies also have lost 763 aircraft during the campaign.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 282.</ref>
    • The shareholders of Aeroput, Yugoslavia's first civilian airline and the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1927 to April 1941, when the German invasion of Yugoslavia knocked it out of business and destroyed most of its property, meet to restart the airline and its operation. However, JAT Jugoslovenski Aerotransport will replace Aeroput in April 1947, and Aeroput will be dissolved in December 1948 without having resumed flight operations.
  • July 4 – 483 B-29s drop 3,752 tons (3,404 metric tons/tonnes) of bombs on Kōchi and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • July 5 – The U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board approves the acquisition of American Export Airlines (AEA) by American Airlines. AEA retains a separate identity as a subsidiary of American, but its acquisition allows American to compete with Pan American Airways in transatlantic service.
  • July 5–11 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carriers Template:HMS and Template:HMS strike Japanese airfields and shipping at Car Nicobar.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 128"/>
  • July 7 – 568 B-29s drop 4,227 tons (3,835 metric tons/tonnes) of bombs on Chiba and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • July 10 – Aircraft from the 20 aircraft carriers of U.S. Navy Task Force 38 strike Tokyo and vicinity.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 310–311.</ref> In addition, 536 B-29s drop 3,872 tons (3,513 metric tons) of bombs on Sendai and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • July 11 – Iceland Airways – the future Icelandair – makes its first commercial flight over the Atlantic Ocean, using a Consolidated PBY Catalina to fly four passengers and a crew of four from Reykjavík, Iceland, to Largs, Scotland.
  • July 12 – An Eastern Air Lines Flight 45, a Douglas DC-3-201C en route from Boston Massachusetts, to Miami, Florida, with stops in Washington, D.C. and Columbia, South Carolina, collides with a United States Army Air Forces A-26 Invader bomber Template:Convert above Syracuse, South Carolina, (about Template:Convert from Florence, South Carolina. The commercial pilot, G. D. Davis, lands his airliner in a cornfield. One passenger, an infant, is killed aboard the airliner. The A-26Template:'s tail is sheared off; two aboard the bomber die and one is able to parachute safely.
  • July 13 – 517 B-29s drop 3,640 tons (3,302 metric tons/tonnes) of bombs on Utsunomiya and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • July 14 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft fly 1,391 sorties against targets in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, without any Japanese air opposition. They destroy 25 Japanese aircraft, sink three destroyers, eight naval auxiliaries, and 20 merchant ships, and damage a destroyer, three escort craft, and 21 merchant ships.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 311.</ref>
  • July 15
  • July 16 – 471 B-29s drop 3,678 tons (3,337 metric tons/tonnes) of bombs on Numazu and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • July 18 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft conduct heavy strikes against targets along the shore of Tokyo Bay, concentrating on the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, where they damage the battleship Nagato and sink a submarine, a destroyer, and three smaller vessels.<ref name="operations316">Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 316.</ref>
  • July 19
  • July 20 – 473 B-29s drop 3,255 tons (2,953 metric tons/tonnes) of bombs on Fukui and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • July 23 – The Japanese submarines Template:Jsub and Template:Jsub depart Japan to launch a surprise air strike on American ships at Ulithi Atoll using six submarine-launched Aichi M6A floatplanes painted in American markings. The two submarines will abort the mission and jettison the aircraft on 16 August when they learn of JapanTemplate:'s surrender.
  • July 24
  • July 24–26 – Aircraft from carriers of the British 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron strike Japanese airfields and shipping in northern Malaya.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 128"/>
  • July 28
  • July 29 – U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchells and U.S. Navy aircraft from the aircraft carrier Template:USS further damage the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaiyo in Beppu Bay.<ref name="combinedfleet.com"/>
  • July 29–30
    • Japanese kamikazes make their last attacks on ships off Okinawa, damaging two U.S. destroyers.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 280.</ref>
    • Carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 strike the Maizuru Naval Arsenal and the north coast of Honshu, Japan.<ref name="operations331"/>
  • July 30 – Swissair resumes commercial flight operations. It had suspended them for the duration of World War II in August 1944.
  • July 31 – Since beginning the strategic bombing campaign against Japan in June 1944, B-29s of the U.S. ArmyTemplate:'s Twentieth Air Force have destroyed 67 Japanese cities, leaving only four major cities – Kokura, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, – undamaged. During July 1945, the B-29s have carried an average bombload of 7.4 tons (6.7 metric tons) per plane – an increase of 4.8 tons (4.4 metric tons) since November 1944 – dropped more than 75 percent of their bombs by radar, and suffered a loss rate of only 0.4 percent of aircraft raiding Japan (down from 5.7 percent in January 1945).<ref>Okumiya, Masatake, Jiro Horikoshi, and Martin Caidin, Zero! The Story of JapanTemplate:'s Air War in the Pacific: 1941–1945, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1956, SBN 345-02242-4-125, Template:ISBN, Template:USD, pp. 276-277.</ref>

August

  • After spending the World War II years based at Helensburgh, Scotland, the Royal Air Force's Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment moves back to its prewar base at Felixstowe, Suffolk.
  • August 1 – Essair Lines becomes the first airline to operate as a "feeder" or "local service" airline, a new category of airline established experimentally by the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board to provide commercial air service to smaller communities. Under a temporary certificate to operate in this way, Essair flies routes within Texas.
  • August 2
    • 855 B-29 Superfortresses drop 6,600 tons (5,987 metric tons) of bombs on Toyama, Tachikawa, and other cities in Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/> The attack on Toyama is an incendiary raid that destroys almost the entire city.
    • A U.S. Navy PV-1 Ventura patrol plane discovers survivors of the heavy cruiser Template:USS, the first indication that Indianapolis is even missing, 84 hours after she had been sunk by the Japanese submarine Template:Jsub in the Philippine Sea. A large air-sea rescue operation lasts until August 8, but saves only 316 of her crew of 1,199.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 322–327.</ref>
  • August 6
  • August 7
  • August 8 – 245 B-29s drop 1,296 tons (1,176 metric tons) of bombs on Yawata, Japan.<ref name="ballantine278"/>
  • August 9
    • The B-29 Superfortress Bockscar drops the plutonium-239 atomic bomb Fat Man on Nagasaki, Japan.
    • Carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 conduct devastating strikes against Japanese airfields in northern Honshu where the Japanese had been marshalling aircraft for a planned major suicide strike on B-29 bases in the Mariana Islands. The Americans claim 251 Japanese aircraft destroyed and 141 damaged.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 332.</ref>
  • August 10
    • Task Force 38 aircraft again strike northern Honshu heavily, striking two previously undetected Japanese airfields.<ref name="operations331"/>
    • After suffering heavy damage during the airstrikes of July 24, 28, and 29, the Japanese aircraft carrier Template:Ship is abandoned in Beppu Bay when she lists far enough for the port side of her flight deck to be underwater. She later will be scrapped in place.<ref name="combinedfleet.com"/>
  • August 13 – Carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 strike the Tokyo area, claiming 272 Japanese aircraft destroyed and 149 damaged.<ref name="operations331"/>
  • August 13–14 (overnight) – Seven B-29 Superfortresses drop five million leaflets over Tokyo, providing the Japanese population for the first time with the news that Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration and was negotiating for peace.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 348.</ref>
  • August 15
    • Task Force 38 launches its last strike of the war, targeting Tokyo. A second strike jettisons its bombs in the sea when it receives word of the ceasefire agreement with Japan. In the final large dogfight of World War II, 15 to 20 Japanese planes jump six F6F Hellcats of U.S. Navy Fighter Squadron 88 (VF-88) from Template:USS; the Hellcats shoot down nine Japanese plans in exchange for four of their own.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIV: Victory in the Pacific, 1945, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 334.</ref>
    • An Imperial Japanese Navy Nakajima C6N Saiun ("Painted Cloud") reconnaissance plane (Allied reporting name "Myrt") is shot down by a Lieutenant Commander Reidy five minutes before the armistice with Japan takes effect. It is the last confirmed air-to-air victory of World War II.<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 439.</ref>
    • Seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of World War II.
  • August 15 (August 14 east of the International Date Line) – VJ Day; Japan surrenders, ending the war in the Pacific theater and bringing World War II to an end.
  • August 18
  • August 19 – Two Mitsubishi G4M (Allied reporting name "Betty") bombers carry Japan's surrender delegation to Ie Shima.
  • August 25 – A U.S. Army Air Forces P-38 Lightning fighter piloted by Colonel Clay Tice becomes the first American aircraft to land in Japan following the armistice of August 15.<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 267.</ref>

September

October

November

December

  • December 4 – A de Havilland Sea Vampire Mk 5 becomes the first jet aircraft to intentionally take off and land from an aircraft carrier, Template:HMS.<ref>"First Jet Landing." Naval Aviation News, United States Navy, March 1946, p. 6. The first jet aircraft to operate from an aircraft carrier was the unconventional composite propeller-jet Ryan FR Fireball, but it was designed to utilize its piston engine during takeoff and landing. On 6 November 1945, the piston engine of an FR-1 failed on final approach and the pilot started the jet engine and landed, thereby performing the first jet-powered carrier landing, albeit unintentionally.</ref><ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 298, states that the Sea Vampire's landing was on December 3, 1945.</ref>
  • December 5 – Flight 19, a formation of five U.S. Navy TBM Avengers with a total of 14 men aboard, vanishes without trace over the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida. A U.S. Navy PBM-5 Mariner flying boat sent to search for the Avengers also disappears with the loss of all 13 men aboard, apparently the victim of an accidental mid-air explosion.
  • December 8 – The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff release a report on the effect of atomic weapons on warfare. It finds that there is no effective defense against atomic weapons and that the appearance of such weapons in the hands of an adversary would seriously degrade American national security. It also notes that the Soviet Union has better air defenses than does the United States, leaving the United States more vulnerable to atomic attack. It finds that in a war with the Soviet Union, the United States will have to seize forward bases from which to launch bombers for nuclear strikes, and that the United States will have to strike first to preempt a Soviet nuclear attack if the Soviet Union develops an atomic arsenal and the United States detects preparations for such an attack.<ref>Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945–1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, Template:ISBN, p. 14.</ref>
  • December 21 – The first flight by an American turboprop-powered aircraft takes place, when the Consolidated Vultee XP-81, previously flown with a piston engine, flies under turboprop power for the first time.<ref name="anon">Anonymous, "Mystery Ship Answer," Aviation History, January 2011, p. 12.</ref>

First flights

January

  • January 26
    • McDonnell XFD-1, prototype of the FD Phantom, later redesignated FH Phantom, the first jet aircraft to operate from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 297.</ref>
    • Miles M.57 Aerovan<ref>Brown 1970, p. 290</ref>

February

  • February 1 – Kawasaki Ki-100<ref name="Francillon, René J. 1979, p. 130">Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 130.</ref>
  • February 2 – Horten H.IX V2, first powered prototype of the Horten Ho 229<ref name = "bbc 229"/>
  • February 6 – Morane-Saulnier MS.470<ref>de Narbonne Le Fana de l'Aviation February 2005, p. 73</ref>
  • February 7 or 11<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 98.</ref> – Consolidated-Vultee XP-81 (with piston engine)<ref name="anon"/>
  • February 21 – Hawker Sea Fury prototype SR661
  • February 23 – Bachem Ba 349 Natter (first vertical launch under rocket power)<ref name="Donald, David 1997, p. 93"/>
  • February 25 – Bell XP-83<ref>Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 117.</ref>
  • February 26 – SNCASO SO.30N<ref name="fan423p74">de Narbonne Le Fana de l'Aviation February 2005, p. 74</ref>
  • February 27 – Curtiss XF15C<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 179.</ref>
  • February 27 – Bréguet 500 Colmar<ref name="fan423p74"/>

March

April

  • Kokusai Ki-105 Ohtori ("Phoenix")<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 485.</ref>
  • Nakajima Ki-87<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 240.</ref>
  • Rikugun Ki-93<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 244.</ref>
  • April 15 – North American XP-82, prototype of the P-82 Twin Mustang<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 340.</ref>
  • April 19 – de Havilland Sea Hornet prototype PX212
  • April 27 – Pilatus P-2

May

  • May 8 – Yokosuka R2Y1 Keiun ("Beautiful Cloud"), piston-engined prototype of the R2Y2, projected as the first Japanese jet attack aircraft<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 474.</ref>
  • May 17 – Lockheed XP2V-1 Bu48237, prototype of the P2V Neptune (later P-2 Neptune)<ref>Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The God of the Sea's Namesake", Naval History, October 2011, p. 16.</ref>

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

  • December 2
  • December 8 – Bell 47 prototype<ref>David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 109.</ref> NC1H
  • December 15 - Nord Norécrin<ref>de Narbonne Le Fana de l'Aviation December 2005, pp. 74–75</ref>
  • December 19
    • Grumman XTB3F-1, prototype of the AF Guardian<ref>Swanborough, Gordon, and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, London: Putnam, 1976, Template:ISBN, p. 226.</ref>
    • Morane-Saulnier MS.570<ref>de Narbonne Le Fana de l'Aviation December 2005, pp. 75–76</ref>
  • December 21 Consolidated Vultee XP-81 (with turboprop engine, first American turboprop-powered flight)<ref name="anon"/>
  • December 22 – Beechcraft Bonanza<ref>David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 98.</ref>
  • December 28 – Edo XOSE-1, prototype of the Edo OSE<ref>Dorr, Robert F., "Mystery Ship Answer," Aviation History, March 2013, p. 12.</ref>

Entered service

January

March

May

August

November

Retirements

May

References

Template:Reflist

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