1943
January 27: The first World War II US mission flown against the German homeland bombs Wilhelmshaven.
March 5/6: The first raid of the Battle of the Ruhr flew RAF Bomber Command's 100,000th sortie of World War II, with 160 acres destroyed and 53 Krupps buildings bombed at Essen.
April 13: The Eighth Air Force's largest mission to date (115 B-17s) destroys half of the Focke-Wulf factory buildings in Bremen
May 5: P-47s are first used for escorting bombers.
May 17: Operation Chastise bouncing bombs breached the Möhne and Eder Dams
June 8: The first use of the Azon guided bomb targets the Melun bridge
June 11/12: The first two Operation Pointblank raids included a successful mass trial of H2S radar on Münster
June 13: The heaviest fighter attacks to date against the Eighth Air Force claim 26 B-17s bombing Bremen & Kiel U-boat facilities.
c. June: A 100 BG B-17 surrendered and then escaped.
June 20/21: Operation Bellicose targets Würzburg radar production and is the first bombing of a V-2 rocket facility.
July 19: The first Allied World War II bombing of Rome drops 800 tons of bombs on Littoro and Clampino airports, causing immense damage and 2000 deaths
July 24: After the US developed an airborne radar immune to Window, the first use of the countermeasure (40 tonnes—92 million strips) were dropped during a Hamburg bombing mission.
July 29 First use of unguided air-to-air rockets against American combat box formations of heavy bombers by JG 1 Oesau and JG 11, attacking with Bf 109Gs and Fw 190As each armed with pairs of Werfer-Granate 21 rocket ordnance, developed from the 21 cm Nebelwerfer 42 ground barrage rocket system.
August 1: Flying from North Africa Operation Tidal Wave bombs the oil refineries at Ploiești. A large number of the bombers are loft for little strategic benefit. Five Medals of Honor are awarded to American aircrew.
August 13: The first Ninth Air Force raid on Austria bombed the Wiener Neustadt Bf 109 factory
August 17: The double-strike USAAF Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission was the third shuttle bombing. British aircraft operate diversionary attacks.
August 17/18: The Operation Hydra bombing of V-2 facilities at Peenemünde began Operation Crossbow.
August 18: The counterattack against Operation Hydra included the first operational use of Schräge Musik by German fighters
August 27: The first mission against a "Heavy" Crossbow site bombed the Watten V-2 rocket bunker
October 10: As a result of the June "surrender/escape" of a 100 BG B-17, out of the 13 B-17s of 100 BG attacking a railyard in Münster, only the B-17F of Robert Rosenthal survives to return safely to Thorpe Abbotts in England.
October 14: The Second Raid on Schweinfurt (Black Thursday) resulted in 122 damaged bombers and 650 MIA/KIA.
November 1: A Combined Bomber Offensive progress report estimates that 19/19/9 German towns & cities have been virtually destroyed/severely damaged/more effectively damaged – another report claims 10% of German war potential had been destroyed
November 2: The USAAF 12th Air Force conducted the first large Allied aerial attack against Zadar, Italy
November 2: A raid targeting the Wiener Neustadt Messerschmitt plant damaged the nearby Raxwerke V-2 rocket facility.
November 3: A Wilhelmshaven raid is the first Eighth Air Force blind-bombing mission to completely destroy the aiming point, the Eighth's first 500-plane mission, and the first use by the US of H2X radar
November 18/19: The "Battle of Berlin" aerial campaign bombing began
November 22/23: The largest force sent to bomb Berlin to date (764 aircraft) conducted the most effective World War II raid on Berlin
December 2: 100 Ju-88s bombed the port of Bari, hitting a secret store of US mustard gas (83 of the sailors died within a month). Autopsies indicated excess white blood cells, and the discovery led to the use of the gas to combat leukemia (the secret regarding the storage at Bari of mustard gas was subsequently declassified in 1959).
December 5: B-26s of the Ninth Air Force attacked three V-1 ski sites near Ligescourt, the first No-Ball missions.
Read more about this topic: List Of Air Operations During The Battle Of Europe