This is a list of aviation-related events from 1944:
Events
January United States Coast Guard pilot Lieutenant, junior grade, Stewart Graham makes the first helicopter flight from a merchant ship in convoy in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the United States Department of the Navys development of the helicopter as an antisubmarine warfare weapon. The Douglas Aircraft Company submits a proposal to the United States Army Air Forces for a Mach 1-capable research aircraft.Guttman, Jon, "Douglas X-3 Stiletto," Aviation History, November 2016, p. 14. During the month, land-based American aircraft drop about of bombs each on Mili Atoll, Maloelap, Wotje and Roi-Namur. Mili is attacked almost every day; Maloelap and Wotje are bombed the most heavily.Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume VII: Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls, June 1942 – April 1944, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984, p. 214. To lead the Germans to believe that the next Allied amphibious operation would be in the area rather than at Anzio, Allied fighters attack targets around Civitavecchia, Italy and Allied bombers attack targets in northern Italy right up to the Italian border with France.Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, January 1943 – June 1944, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 331. Soviet forces clear German forces from Leningrad's Shosseynaya Airport (the future Pulkovo Airport). The airport has been closed since 1941; it will resume cargo and mail flights in 1945 after its runways are repaired and scheduled passenger flights in February 1948. January 1 – The U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) establish the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSAFE). USSAFE is to exercise operational control of the USAAFs Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces. January 1/2 – 421 British Avro Lancaster bombers attack Berlin. German night fighters intercept them, and 28 Lancasters (6.7 percent of the force) do not return. January 2/3 – 383 British bombers raid Berlin. German night fighters mostly intercept them over the target and 27 Lancasters, are lost. January 2 – Japanese antiaircraft guns shoot down three United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators over Maloelap during a daylight raid, forcing B-24s to switch to night raids in which their bombing is much less accurate. January 2–13 – Allied aircraft systematically attack rail communications in central Italy in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Germany from supplying and reinforcing its forces fighting in southern Italy. January 3 Flying an F4U Corsair, United States Marine Corps ace Gregory "Pappy" Boyington is shot down over Rapopo Airfield, New Britain, with 24 kills to his credit. Thought to have died, he received a "posthumous" Medal of Honor on 15 March; in fact, he survives and spent 20 months as a prisoner-of-war at Rabaul and in Japan.Guttman, John, "Pappys Pacific Exploits", Aviation History, January 2011, p. 29. When a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter shoots off part of the right wing of the U.S. Army Air Forces B-17F Flying Fortress Snap! Crackle! Pop! over Saint-Nazaire, France, sending the burning bomber into a fatal spin, its ball turret gunner, Staff Sergeant Alan Magee, jumps or is thrown from the plane without a parachute and falls four miles (6.4 km), plunging through the glass ceiling of the Saint-Nazaire train station. He miraculously survives, and spends the rest of World War II as a prisoner of war.von Wodtke, Carl, "Miracle of Saint-Nazaire," Aviation History, May 2014, p. 21. Amid snow squalls and strong, gusting winds that had grounded all other aircraft in the area, United States Coast Guard Commander Frank A. Erickson pilots a Sikorsky HNS-1 helicopter from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Battery Park in Manhattan, where he picks up two cases containing over 40 units of blood plasma that are lashed to the helicopter's floats. He then flies on to deliver the plasma to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where it is used to treat survivors from the United States Navy destroyer , which had capsized and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean off New York Harbor that morning after a series of violent internal explosions. It is the first time in history that a helicopter has flown in such adverse weather conditions and history's first "lifesaving" flight by a helicopter. January 4 An operation by American aircraft based at Tarawa Atoll lays mines in the channel at Jaluit, forcing Japanese shipping to cease use of the atolls lagoon and the withdrawal of most Japanese seaplanes there. 539 bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force raid Kiel and Münster, Germany, escorted by 155 fighters. Nineteen bombers and two fighters are lost. The bombers and fighters combined claim 12 German aircraft shot down, 13 probably shot down and 10 damaged. January 4/5 – 80 British bombers raid two German V-1 flying bomb launch sites in the Pas de Calais and at Bristillerie without loss. January 5 235 Eighth Air Force bombers escorted by 111 fighters raid the shipyard and industrial areas in Kiel with the loss of 10 bombers and seven fighters. The bombers and fighters claim 63 German aircraft shot down, seven probables and 21 damaged. Another 78 bombers raid Neuss, Geilenkirchen, Düsseldorf, and Wassenburg, Germany, losing two aircraft and claiming two German aircraft shot down, five probables and two damaged. 196 Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress bombers escorted by 225 P-47 Thunderbolt fighters attack two German airfields in France with the loss of 12 B-17s and five P-47s. The bombers and fighters combined claim 55 German aircraft shot down, 10 probables and 10 damaged. January 5/6 – 358 British bombers make the first large raid on Stettin, Germany, since September 1941. Most of the German night fighters sent aloft fail to intercept them but 16 bombers (4.5 percent of the force) are lost. January 6 - The commander of the historic American Doolittle Raid, then-Lt. Gen Jimmy Doolittle, takes command of the US Eighth Air Force. January 7 – 502 Eighth Air Force bombers escorted by 571 fighters bomb the IG Farben plant at Ludwigshafen, Germany, with the loss of 19 bombers and six fighters. The bombers and fighters combined claim 37 German aircraft shot down, six probables and 20 damaged. January 11 Ten United States Navy PB4Y-1 Liberators bomb Roi and attack shipping in Kwajalein Atolls lagoon, sinking a Japanese gunboat. In one of the largest U.S. Army Air Forces raids to date, 663 Eighth Air Force bombers escorted by 592 fighters strike aviation industry targets at Braunschweig, Halberstadt, Oschersleben and Osnabrück, Germany, encountering an estimated 500 German fighters and losing 60 bombers and five fighters. The bombers and fighters combined claim 258 German aircraft shot down, 72 probables and 114 damaged. Flying a P-51 Mustang, Major James H. Howard finds himself alone in defending a B-17 group from 30 German fighters and claims two German aircraft shot down, one probable and two damaged without loss to the B-17s; he receives the Medal of Honor for his actions. January 13 – The first aeronautical mission from the United States arrives in Venezuela. It begins an evaluation of the equipment, facilities, and personnel of the Venezuelan military aviation forces, which have received no spare parts for their aircraft since the outbreak of World War II. January 13–19 – Allied air forces attack targets in Italy to seal off the beachhead for the upcoming invasion at Anzio, focusing on airfields around Rome and central Italy.Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, January 1943-June 1944, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 233, 250–251, 393. January 14 – 552 Eighth Air Force bombers escorted by 645 fighters strike 20 V-1 flying bomb sites in the Pas-de-Calais area of France, with the loss of three bombers and three fighters. The bombers and fighters combined claim 22 German aircraft shot down, one probable and one damaged. January 14/15 458 British bombers carry out the first major raid on Braunschweig, Germany, of the war. German night fighters intercept them when they cross the German border on the inbound flight and continue to attack them until they cross the coast of the Netherlands on their way home; 38 bombers (7.6 percent of the force), all Lancasters, are lost. Most of the bombs land in small towns and open countryside, and Braunschweig itself suffers only 10 houses destroyed and 14 people killed. 82 British bombers strike German V-1 flying bomb sites at Ailly, Bonneton, and Bristillerie, France, without loss. January 19 – Allied heavy and medium bombers strike Viterbo, Rieti, and Perugia, Italy. The Allied air forces claim that their air campaign has cut all communications between northern Italy and the Rome area, although this does not turn out to be true. January 20/21 – 769 British bombers raid Berlin. German night fighters intercept them early and 35 bombers (4.6 percent of the force) are lost. Berlin is cloud-covered and results of the raid are unknown. January 21 – 795 Eighth Air Force bombers escorted by 628 fighters strike 24 V-weapon sites in the Pas-de-Calais and Cherbourg-en-Cotentin areas of France, with the loss of six bombers and one fighter. The bombers and fighters combined claim 11 German aircraft shot down, one probable and six damaged. January 21/22 648 British bombers make the first major raid on Magdeburg, Germany, of the war. German night fighters intercept them over the North Sea and 57 bombers (8.8 percent of the force) are lost, with three-quarters of them probably falling victim to night fighters. The raid is unsuccessful because of the bombs are scattered. German ace Hauptmann Manfred Meurer is killed when his Heinkel He 219 night fighter collides with a British Lancaster bomber over Magdeburg late on 21 January; he has 65 kills at the time of his death.Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces vs. Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1996, , p. 126. Another 34 bombers make a diversionary raid on Berlin with the loss of a Lancaster. 111 British bombers attack German V-1 flying bomb launching sites in France without loss. January 22 – In Operation Shingle, Allied forces land at Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. Allied air forces fly 1,200 sorties in support of the landings.Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, January 1943-June 1944, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 331, 335. January 23 – Off the Anzio beachhead, a raid by 55 German aircraft sinks the British destroyer with a torpedo and damages the destroyer with a Fritz X radio-guided bomb.Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, January 1943-June 1944, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, p. 344. January 24 Over 1,000 Soviet Air Forces aircraft support Soviet ground forces as the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket begins around Cherkasy and Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.Citino, Robert M., "The Korsun Noose," MHQ, Winter 2017, p. 28. German raids of 15, 43 and 52 aircraft strike Allied ships off Anzio, damaging an American destroyer and minesweeper and sinking a British hospital ship.Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Volume IX: Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, January 1943-June 1944, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990, pp. 345–346.