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February 8 - a fleet of Junkers Ju 52s is used to airlift German troops to North
Africa.
February 10 - Britain uses paratroops for the first
time in an attack on Tragino
February 26 - Philippine Airlines was founded on
February 26, 1941, making it Asia's oldest and first carrier, still
to this day, operating under its current name.
March 11 - the Congress
of the United States passes the Lend-Lease bill, paving the way for the
provision of (amongst other equipment) 16,000 warplanes to the UK.
Later Lend-Lease arrangements will supply other Allied
nations.
April
April 15 - CAMCO signs an
agreement with the Chinese government to equip and administer the
American Volunteer Group in
China.
April 16 - London comes
under intense bomber attack, with nearly 900 tonnes of high
explosive dropped on the city.
May
May 6 - Igor
Sikorsky sets a world endurance record for helicopter flight of
1 hour 32 minutes, in a Sikorsky
VS-300
May 20 - the Luftwaffe's largest paratroop assault sees
22,750 troops landed in Crete in
Operation Merkur. The heavy losses taken
mean this will also be the Luftwaffe's last such operation for the
war.
May 29 - the USAAC forms Ferrying Command to fly newly
manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.
June
June 8 - July 8 - the British invade Syria - air combat between British and Vichy-French aircraft
ensues
June 20 - the USAAC is renamed the USAAF and placed under
the command of General Henry Arnold
June 22 - Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation
Barbarossa). 1,200 Soviet aircraft are destroyed on the first
day alone.
July
July 18 - the first RAF aircraft equipped with radar
July 28 - the Vichy government
agrees to build German aircraft in France
July 31 - a chartered DC-4 ferried 40 American servicemen to
Oakland,California from Nielson Airport in Makati City (Manila)
with stops in Guam, Wake Island, Johnston Atoll and Honolulu,
Hawaii, making Asia's First airline, Philippine Airlines, the first
Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean. December that year a
scheduled service commenced.
October 2 - Heini Dittmar sets a new airspeed record
of 1,004 km/h (624 mph) in a Messerschmitt Me 163A. The record
is unofficial because the flight (and the Me 163 programme) is kept
secret.
November
November 12 - aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is sunk by a
German submarine
December
December 7/8 - the Imperial Japanese Navy makes a
devastatingly successful surprise attack on the U.S.
Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor. Six aircraft
carriers launched a total of nearly 400 warplanes which claimed
five American battleships and ten other vessels, and damaged three
other battleships. The following day, the U.S, declares war on
Japan.
December 18 - Lt Buzz Wagner becomes the first US ace of the
war.
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