British Military Aviation in 1945 - Part 1

Part 2

January
The RAF Helicopter Training School is formed at Andover, under the command of Squadron Leader B.H. Arkell. The school was equipped with Sikorsky R4 helicopters.

1 January
Operation Bodenplatte (Baseplate): the Luftwaffe launches over 800 fighters and fighter-bombers, predominantly Focke Wulf Fw190s and Messerschmitt Bf109s, in a low-level surprise attack on Allied advanced airfields in Belgium and the Netherlands. Surprise was complete, although the attacks on some airfields were ineffective. Nevertheless, 224 Allied aircraft were destroyed (144 RAF) with a further 84 damaged beyond unit repair.

Despite this, Bodenplatte proved to be a phyrric victory. Allied pilot losses were minimal, and the aircraft destroyed were replaced within two weeks. By contrast, the Luftwaffe lost 300 aircraft during the course of the operation to Allied airfield defences, German anti-aircraft units that had not been warned of the planned assault, and accidents. Surviving records indicate that 237 Luftwaffe pilots were killed, went missing or were captured and 18 wounded, including some of Germany's most experienced fighter leaders.

1 January
The Victoria Cross is posthumously awarded to Flight Sergeant G. Thompson, a wireless operator, for saving the lives of his fellow crewmembers during a dawn bombing raid on the Dortmund-Ems canal in Germany in an Avro Lancaster (PD377 'U') of No.9 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command.

11 January
A ceasefire is announced in Greece between government forces and the National Popular Liberation Front (ELAS) guerillas and agreement is confirmed by the government on 12 February. Despite numerous infringements of the ceasefire during 1945, the Royal Air Force (RAF) units began to withdraw during the year. RAF squadrons comprising Greek personnel were transferred to the Royal Hellenic Air Force in mid-1946 and the RAF presence in Greece had ended by the end of that year.

13-14 February
RAF Bomber Command opens what will become one of the most controversial aerial bombardments in the history of the Combined Bomber Offensive - the raids conducted on the city of Dresden by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the night and by the Eighth United States Army Air Force (USAAF) during the following day.

During the opening weeks of 1945, consideration within the higher Allied politico-military leadership turned to the manner in which British and United States strategic bomber forces might be used to aid the Soviet advance into Germany. The desire to provide some tangible assistance to the Soviet armed forces led to the conception of a plan, codenamed Thunderclap, to disrupt German defensive operations by striking at vital urban centres where, as Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, noted on 26 January 1945, "a severe blitz will not only cause confusion in the evacuation from the East but will also hamper the movement of troops from the West."

Debate within the Air Ministry with regards to the merit of diverting RAF Bomber Command and the US Eighth Air Force from their current primary targets - oil production facilities, jet aircraft factories and submarine yards - to Thunderclap was spurred by the intervention of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. On 26 January, Churchill pressed the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair,"I asked [on 25 January] whether Berlin, and no doubt other large cities in East Germany, should not now be considered especially attractive targets. Prey report to me tomorrow what is going to be done." Moreover, the possible advantages of such attacks were not lost on Soviet military leaders. At Yalta on 4 February, General Antonov advocated air attacks against communication centres including Berlin and Leipzig.

The first such centre to be attacked was Dresden. A planned USAAF attack on the city on 13 February 1945 was abandoned due to unsuitable weather. However, on the night of 13-14 February 796 Avro Lancasters and nine de Havilland Mosquitoes of RAF Bomber Command, attacking in two raids separated by a gap of three hours, dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of incendiaries on the city. Following the second raid, a firestorm developed, which led to large areas of the city being burned out. At the time of the attack, Dresden was crowded with refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet Army. It is now accepted that between 40,000 and 50,000 casualties resulted from these attacks.

14 February
A second attack was carried out by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) on the following day, when 311 Boeing B17 Flying Fortresss of the 1st Air Division, US Eighth Air Force dropped a further 771 tons of bombs on the city. Two further US attacks were mounted on 15 February and on 2 March 1945. Subsequently, Chemnitz was also attacked by the Royal Air Force as a Thunderclap target and on 26 February 1,066 USAAF Boeing B17 and Consolidated B24 Liberator bombers dropped 2,796 tons of bombs on Berlin.

23 February
The Victoria Cross is posthumously awarded to Captain E. Swales of the South African Air Force for his action in the bombing of the rail junction at Pforzheim in Germany in an Avro Lancaster PB538 'M', No.582 Squadron RAF Bomber Command.

3 March
The V1 flying bomb campaign against the United Kingdom reopens with the launch of an extended-range variant of the missile from launching sites in the Netherlands. This bombardment ceased at the end of March, by which time 275 missiles had been fired. However, of these only thirteen reached London.

During the V1 campaign as a whole, over 10,000 weapons were launched at the United Kingdom. Of these, 7,488 crossed the British coast. 3,957 were shot down by the defences. Of the 3,531 that were not shot down, 2,419 landed in the London area, approximately 30 hit Southampton and Portsmouth and a single weapon landed on Manchester. 6,184 people were killed and 17,981 people injured.

Part 2