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1940 in aviation

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Revision as of 00:28, 16 May 2025 by imported>Mdnavman (→‎May: Added first flight.)
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Template:Short description Template:Yearbox Template:Portal This is a list of aviation-related events from 1940:

EventsEdit

JanuaryEdit

FebruaryEdit

  • February 1 – The Soviets begin a new ground offensive in Finland, supported by about 500 bombers.<ref>Condon, Richard W., The Winter War: Russia Against Finland, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1972, p. 109.</ref>
  • February 28 – Germany begins the scrapping of the second Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier, Flugzeugträger B, while she still is incomplete on the building ways. Scrapping is completed four months later.
  • February 29

MarchEdit

  • The United States begins construction of a U.S. Navy seaplane base at Midway Atoll.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume IV: Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions, May 1942 – August 1942, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988, p. 72.</ref>
  • March 2 – The United Kingdom and France promise to send 100 bombers with crews and bombs to assist Finland at once, but do not follow through on the promise.<ref>Condon, Richard W., The Winter War: Russia Against Finland, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1972, p. 145.</ref>
  • March 6 – France informs the Finnish government that it will dispatch an expeditionary force including 72 bombers to Finland on March 13, but the Winter War ends before the French force can begin its journey.<ref>Condon, Richard W., The Winter War: Russia Against Finland, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1972, pp. 147–148.</ref>
  • March 13 – The Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland ends in the defeat of Finland. During the 3Template:Frac-month war, the Finnish Air Force has grown from 96 to 287 aircraft,<ref>Condon, Richard W., The Winter War: Russia Against Finland, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1972, pp. 30, 50.</ref> and has lost 62 aircraft in air-to-air combat and 59 more damaged beyond repair, while the Soviet Union has lost between 700 and 900<ref name="smithsonian52"/> – 725 confirmed destroyed and about 200 unconfirmed – of the 2,500 to 3,000 aircraft it has committed to the campaign, and another 300 damaged. The Soviet Air Force has dropped 150,000 bombs – about 7,500 tons (6,803 tonnes/metric tons) of bombs – on Finnish territory, but has performed poorly; its operations in early December 1939 had failed to disrupt Finnish mobilization and, despite unusually clear weather in January and February, it failed to disrupt the lone railroad connecting Finland with the outside world for more than a few hours at a time or to disrupt Finnish merchant shipping, despite 60 air raids on Finnish ports.<ref>Condon, Richard W., The Winter War: Russia Against Finland, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1972, pp. 7, 50, 55.</ref>
  • March 16 – The United Kingdom suffers its first civilian air-raid casualties of World War II during a raid by the LuftwaffeTemplate:'s Kampfgeschwader 26 on Scapa Flow.
  • March 19–20 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command conducts its first attack of World War II against a land target, when 20 Hampdens and 30 Whitleys strike the German seaplane base at Hörnum on the island of Sylt. One Whitley is lost.<ref>Hastings, Max, Bomber Command: ChurchillTemplate:'s Epic Campaign – The Inside Story of the RAFTemplate:'s Valiant Attempt to End the War, New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 80.</ref><ref name="raf.mod.uk">Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary: Campaign Diary 1940</ref>
  • March 25 – The United States Government grants permission to American aircraft manufacturers to sell advanced combat aircraft to countries fighting the Axis powers.

AprilEdit

MayEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> During the day, the Dutch Air Force loses about half its aircraft and the Belgian Air Force about a quarter of its planes, a combined total of more than 100 planes; France loses four of its 879 combat-ready planes destroyed on the ground and 30 damaged, while the Royal Air Force loses six planes destroyed and 12 put out of action out of 384 deployed in France. Dutch and Belgian aircraft and anti-aircraft guns shoot down 230 German planes including most of GermanyTemplate:'s transport aircraft, and Germany loses 44 more aircraft to French and British forces over France.<ref>May, Ernest R., Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France, New York: Hill and Wang, 2000, Template:ISBN, pp. 384–385.</ref> The Germans are the first to use military gliders in action in the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael when 41 DFS 230 gliders each carrying ten soldiers are launched behind Junkers Ju 52s. Ten gliders land on the grassed roof of the fortress. Only twenty minutes after landing the force has neutralized the fortress at a cost of six dead and twenty wounded.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

  • May 11–12 (overnight) – British bombers interdict German Army troop movement as 37 Handley Page Hampdens and Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys bomb road and rail junctions near Mönchengladbach. Three British bombers are lost.<ref name="hinchcliffe37">Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 37.</ref>
  • May 13 – The Sikorsky VS-300, which made its first flight the previous year, makes its first untethered flight.
  • May 14
    • The Allies lose 110 aircraft – 70 British Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims and forty French planes – on one day in a disastrous attempt to bomb bridges over the River Meuse.<ref name="hinchcliffe36">Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, pp. 36–37.</ref>
    • Fifty-three German Heinkel He 111 bombers drop nearly 100 tons of bombs on Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The attack kills nearly 1,000 people, destroys 20,000 buildings, and leaves 78,000 people homeless.<ref name="hinchcliffe36"/>
  • May 15 – During British evacuation and demolition operations in Dutch ports, German dive bombers attack the British destroyer Template:HMS, which is beached and wrecked at the mouth of the Scheldt.<ref name="Sons 1971, pp. 50-51">Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, pp. 50–51.</ref><ref>Colledge, J, j., Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 363.</ref>
  • May 15–16 (overnight) – RAF Bomber Command conducts its first strategic bombing raid of World War II, as 99 Hampden, Whitley, and Vickers Wellington bombers strike German targets in the Ruhr Valley. One British bomber is lost.<ref name="hinchcliffe37"/>
  • May 17–18 (overnight) – 72 British bombers attack Bremen, Cologne, and Hamburg, killing at least 47 and injuring 127 in Bremen and Hamburg.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 38.</ref>
  • May 18
    • French Air Force pilot Roger Sauvage scores his first aerial victory, setting a German Heinkel He 111 afire over France, forcing it to land north of Fismes and capturing its two surviving crewmen. He will go on to become history's only black ace, with 16 kills by the end of World War II.<ref>Guttman, Jon, "History's Only Black Ace," Military History, January 2016, p. 16.</ref>
    • The British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious flies off Fleet Air Arm Supermarine Walrus flying boats of No. 701 Squadron for service at Harstad, Norway.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 42">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 42.</ref>
  • May 19 – During British naval operations to bring refugees from Ostend, Belgium, to the United Kingdom, German bombers sink the British destroyer Template:HMS off Belgium.<ref>Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, p. 511.</ref>
  • May 21 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and Template:HMS fly off Royal Air Force aircraft for service ashore at Bardufoss, Norway, with Glorious delivering the Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron and Furious the Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 42"/>
  • May 24
    • Adolf Hitler endorses the "Halt Order," stopping the German ground advance in France against Allied forces surrounded at Dunkirk to allow the Luftwaffe to finish them off. He does not rescind the order until May 26.
    • German bombers sink the British destroyer Template:HMS off Calais and damage a British and a Polish destroyer while they support British troops fighting there.<ref>Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, p. 51.</ref><ref>Colledge, J, j., Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 378.</ref>
  • May 24 – South African Airways suspends all flight operations. It will resume after World War II concludes in 1945.
  • May 25 – Template:HMS enters service with the Royal Navy as the worldTemplate:'s first fully armored aircraft carrier.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 215">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 215.</ref>
  • May 26 – June 4 – Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation, takes place, as 308,888Template:Citation needed Allied soldiers are evacuated to the United Kingdom from Dunkirk by sea under continuous German air attack. During the evacuation, German aircraft sink six British and three French destroyers and eight personnel ships and put 19 British destroyers and nine personnel ships out of action.<ref>Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, pp. 52–53.</ref>
  • May 27–28 (overnight) – 120 British bombers attack Bremen, Hamburg, Duisburg, Dortmund, Neuss, and other German cities. During the raid, Aircraftman Stan Oldridge, rear gunner of a Whitley of No. 10 Squadron, scores the first aerial victory of World War II over a German night fighter, shooting down what is probably a Messerschmitt Bf 109D near Utrecht early on May 28.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, pp. 38–39.</ref>

JuneEdit

JulyEdit

  • July 3
    • British bombers make a daylight attack against German barges assembling at Rotterdam in anticipation of an invasion of the United Kingdom, their first attack against German efforts to build an invasion force. Such raids will peak in September and end in October after the threat of a German invasion abates.<ref name="hinchcliffe43">Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 43.</ref>
    • During the British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the aircraft carrier Template:HMS mine the harbor and unsuccessfully attack the French battlecruiser Strasbourg as she flees to Toulon. French Curtiss Hawk 75 fighters and Blackburn Skua fighters from Ark Royal engage in a dogfight, during which the French shoot down one Skua.
  • July 4
  • July 5 – Shore-based Swordfish of the Fleet Air ArmTemplate:'s No. 813 Squadron make a torpedo strike against Italian ships at Tobruk, sinking a transport and a destroyer, blowing the bow off another destroyer, and damaging an ocean liner.<ref name="Sons 1971, p. 150">Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, p. 150.</ref>
  • July 6 – Twelve Swordfish aircraft from Ark Royal make a torpedo strike against Mers-el-Kébir, sinking a French patrol boat and badly damaging the beached battlecruiser Dunkerque. It is the most successful aerial torpedo attack against a capital ship in history at the time.<ref name="Thetford, Owen 1991, p. 144">Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, Template:ISBN, p. 144.</ref>
  • July 8
  • July 8–9 (overnight) – 64 British bombers strike airfields in the Netherlands and ports in north Germany and lay sea mines. GermanyTemplate:'s first specialized night fighter unit, Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, scores its first victory, as Oberfeldwebel Hermann Förster shoots down a Whitley off Heligoland.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 44.</ref>
  • July 8–13 – Italian high-level bombers subject ships of the British Mediterranean Fleet to repeated heavy attacks while the fleet is at sea in the Mediterranean. They score only one hit, on the light cruiser Template:HMS.<ref>Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, pp. 150–151.</ref>
  • July 9
    • The indecisive Battle of Calabria is the first major fleet action of World War II between the British and Italian navies. Swordfish from the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS conduct two torpedo strikes but score no hits.<ref>Macintyre, Donald, The Naval War Against Hitler, New York: Charles ScribnerTemplate:'s Sons, 1971, no ISBN, p. 151.</ref>
    • 40 Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers attack the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and other ships of Force H off Sardinia. They drop over 100 bombs but score no hits, and Blackburn Skuas from Ark Royal shoot down two SM.79s and damage two others.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 51"/>
  • July 10 – The Battle of Britain commences with the first German attacks on British convoys in the English Channel.
  • July 14 – In retaliation for the British attacks at Mers-el-Kébir and Dakar, French bombers again attack Gibraltar, but most of their bombs fall into the sea.
  • July 15 – Over strong protests by Pan American Airways president Juan Trippe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves a seven-year temporary certificate permitting American Export Airlines to begin transatlantic service, providing flights between New York City and Lisbon, Portugal, using Sikorsky VS-44 flying boats.
  • July 20 – Fleet Air Arm Swordfish of No. 813 Squadron conduct another torpedo strike against Tobruk, sinking two Italian destroyers.<ref name="Sons 1971, p. 150"/>
  • July 25–26 (overnight) – 166 British bombers strike German airfields in the Netherlands and targets in the Ruhr.<ref name="hinchcliffe43"/>
  • July 29 – The Soviet Union cancels the Polikarpov SPB (D) twin-engine dive bomber program in favor of the Petlyakov Pe-2.
  • Late July – In the first use of airborne radar for interception of an enemy aircraft, a Flying Officer Ashfield flying a British Bristol Blenheim IF night fighter destroys a German Dornier Do 17 bomber. A second such kill will not be achieved until November – again by Ashfield.<ref name="CF"/><ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 66.</ref>

AugustEdit

SeptemberEdit

  • Imperial Japanese Navy Aichi D3A dive bombers and Nakajima B5N carrier attack bombers begin bombing attacks on Chongqing.<ref name="PMR 120">Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 120.</ref>
  • September 2 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal conduct Operation Smash, a night raid on Cagliari, Sardinia. While some Swordfish drop parachute flares, others bomb an Italian military headquarters and aircraft parked on the ground.<ref>Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 126.</ref>
  • September 3 – Ark Royal aircraft again attack Cagliari in Operation Grab in an attack similar to that of Operation Smash. The raid is less successful, with many bombs falling into the sea.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 52"/>
  • September 4
    • Adolf Hitler orders German bombing attacks on London.<ref name="CF 270"/>
    • Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS attack Italian airfields on Rhodes.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 48">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 48.</ref>
  • September 7 – Hermann Göring orders the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) to stop targeting British airfields and to attack the city of London instead. The Luftwaffe attacks London that evening, the first of 57 consecutive nights of German air raids on London.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 53.</ref>
  • September 7–8 – The largest mass air combat in history takes place over Great Britain, with 1,200 British and German aircraft operating in an area of only 24 x 48 km (15 x 30 miles).
  • September 9 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal strike Cagliari, Sardinia, inflicting more damage under heavy fire.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 52"/>
  • September 10 – The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) forms the Corpo Aereo Italiano (Italian Air Corps) as an expeditionary force for bombing the United Kingdom alongside the German Luftwaffe from bases in Belgium.<ref name="Wikipedia as a reference">Wikipedia Corpo Aereo Italiano article.</ref>
  • September 13 – The Imperial Japanese NavyTemplate:'s Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter scores its first aerial victories, when a flight of Zeroes attacks 27 Nationalist Chinese fighters over Chongqing and claims to have destroyed all of them; actual Chinese losses probably are 13 to 24 aircraft. No Zeroes are lost.<ref name="PMR 120"/>
  • September 15 – Germany makes its heaviest daylight raid on London. The Royal Air Force destroys 185 German aircraft over England during the day. As a result, Germany abandons its hopes of achieving victory in the Battle of Britain.<ref name="CF 29"/>
  • September 17 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS raid Benghazi, Libya.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 48"/>
  • September 17–18 – The world's first high-performance, purpose-built night fighter, the British Bristol Beaufighter, flies its first operational patrols, with the RAF.<ref name="CF">Crosby, Francis. The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World'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: Anness Publishing Ltd, 2006. Template:ISBN. p. 30.</ref>–
  • September 23 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal arrives off Dakar, Senegal, with the Free French leader General Charles de Gaulle embarked. She flies off two French Caudron C.270 Luciole trainer aircraft which carry Free French officers ashore to request that Vichy French forces there join de Gaulle on the Allied side, but the Vichy French refuse.<ref>Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, pp. 52–536.</ref>
  • September 24–26 – A British naval force supports a disastrous Free French attempt at an amphibious invasion of Dakar. Vichy French forces resist successfully, and HMS Ark Royal loses nine Swordfish aircraft before operations are called off.<ref>Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 53.</ref>
  • September 24–25 – French Air Force bombers raid Gibraltar in retaliation for the British and Free French attack on Dakar.
  • September 25 – The bombers of the Corpo Aereo Italiano (Italian Air Corps) arrive at their base in Belgium to participate in the Battle of Britain. The fighters will arrive later.<ref name="Wikipedia as a reference"/>
  • September 29 – Two Royal Australian Air Force Avro Ansons of No. 2 Service Flying Training School with two men aboard each plane collide in mid-air over Brocklesby, New South Wales, Australia, and become interlocked with one on top of the other. The engines of the lower aircraft keep running, and the pilot of the upper plane finds he can control the two aircraft using his ailerons and flaps; he lands the planes, still interlocked, safely in a paddock near Brocklesby, and all four men survive with only one of them injured.
  • September 30 – The Battle of Britain is said to be over, with Hitler's planned invasion of the United Kingdom (Operation Sea Lion, or Unternehmen Seelöwe) postponed indefinitely. Since September 1, the Royal Air Force has lost 65 bombers.<ref>Sweetman, John. Schweinfurt: Disaster in the Skies. New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971. p. 23.</ref>

OctoberEdit

  • The German Luftwaffe begins photographic mapping flights over the western border regions of the Soviet Union.<ref>Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, Template:ISBN, p. 55.</ref>
  • Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi G3M (Allied reporting name "Nell") bombers based at Hanoi in French Indochina begin attacks on the Burma Road.<ref>Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 122.</ref>
  • The British Royal Air Force begins to install IFF Mark II, the first operational identification friend or foe system.
  • October 1 – A British bomber is shot down over the Netherlands by German antiaircraft artillery after being illuminated by a searchlight coupled to a Freya radar. It is the first time an aircraft is destroyed after being detected and illuminated by a radar-guided searchlight.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 52.</ref>
  • October 2 – The first ground-radar-controlled aerial victory at night takes place as the LuftwaffeTemplate:'s dunkele Nachtjagd ("dark nightfighting," abbreviated as Dunaja) technique – in which ground-based radar is used to control night fighters until they come within visual range of a target – has its first success. A Freya radar is used to coach the Dorner Do 17Z-10 night fighter pilot to within visual range of a British Vickers Wellington bomber over the Netherlands, allowing him to shoot it down.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 51.</ref>
  • October 8
  • October 14 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS raid Leros.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 48"/>
  • October 20 – During an air show at Marianna, Arkansas, a sightseeing plane circling a parachutist as he descends becomes entangled in his parachute. The plane crashes, killing all five people on board it as well as the parachutist.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • October 24
  • October 31 – Since August 1, the Luftwaffe has lost 1,733 aircraft in the Battle of Britain, while the Royal Air Force has lost 915 fighters.<ref>Potter, E. B., Sea Power: A Naval History, Second Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1981, Template:ISBN, p. 250.</ref>

NovemberEdit

DecemberEdit

  • The Soviet Union abandons voluntary recruitment for its military flight training programs and begins to feed personnel into such programs via conscription.<ref>Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, Template:ISBN, p. 57.</ref>
  • The French aircraft manufacturer Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Midi (SNCA du Midi, or SNCAM), which manufactures aircraft under the Dewoitine name, is absorbed into Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est (SNCASE), bringing to an end Dewoitine's existence as a business entity and the production of aircraft under its name.
  • Early December – Southampton suffers two particularly severe German night bombing raids.<ref name="hinchcliffe55">Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. 55.</ref>
  • December 4 – Operational control of RAF Coastal Command is transferred to the Royal Navy, although Coastal Command remains part of the Royal Air Force. Air protection of British merchant shipping soon begins to improve.<ref>Mason, David, U-Boat: The Secret Menace, New York: Ballantine Books, 1968, no ISBN, pp. 46, 48.</ref>
  • December 12 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Eagle and Template:HMS strike Italian transport at Bardia, Libya. Later in the month their aircraft strike Rhodes and Stampalia in Greece and Tripoli in Libya.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 61">Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 61.</ref>
  • December 16–17 (overnight) – For the first time, Royal Air Force Bomber Command conducts a raid focusing on attacking a city center rather than specific targets in Operation Rachel, a raid by 134 British bombers against Mannheim, Germany, in reprisal for the German raid on Coventry in November. Their bombs are dispersed widely, killing 34 people in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.<ref name="hinchcliffe55"/><ref>Hastings, Max, Bomber Command: ChurchillTemplate:'s Epic Campaign – The Inside Story of the RAFTemplate:'s Valiant Attempt to End the War, New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 93.</ref>
  • December 21 – Nine Fairey Swordfish from the British aircraft carrier Template:HMS sink two Italian merchant ships off Tunisia with the loss of one Swordfish.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 61"/>
  • December 23 – Eddie August Schneider dies in a crash when his plane is clipped by a U.S. Navy bomber at Floyd Bennett Field.
  • December 25 – Two British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Grumman Martlets of 804 Naval Air Squadron shoot down a German Junkers Ju 88 off Scapa Flow. It is the first aerial victory in Europe by any variant of the Grumman F4F Wildcat.<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, pp. 226–227.</ref>
  • December 29–30 (overnight) – The Luftwaffe makes a devastating attack on London, making extensive use of incendiary weapons and causing the Second Great Fire of London with hundreds of casualties.<ref name="Pocket On This Day">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • December 31 – During 1940, German night fighters defending Germany have shot down 42 British bombers.<ref>Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces vs. Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1996, Template:ISBN, p. 107.</ref>

First flightsEdit

JanuaryEdit

FebruaryEdit

MarchEdit

AprilEdit

  • April 1 – Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket<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. 230.</ref>

MayEdit

  • May 6 – Dewoitine D.750
  • May 13 – Bell XFL-1 Airabonita<ref name="AE 44">Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 44.</ref>
  • May 18 – SAAB B17<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
  • May 29 – Vought XF4U-1, prototype of the F4U Corsair<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. 437.</ref>

JulyEdit

AugustEdit

SeptemberEdit

OctoberEdit

NovemberEdit

DecemberEdit

Entered serviceEdit

FebruaryEdit

MarchEdit

AprilEdit

MayEdit

JuneEdit

JulyEdit

SeptemberEdit

OctoberEdit

NovemberEdit

RetirementsEdit

JulyEdit

AugustEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

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