World War II calendar
What happened on February 22 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
Air Marshal Arthur Harris assumed command with orders to intensify the strategic bombing offensive against Germany. Bomber Command had not yet demonstrated that it could place a large, concentrated force over one city in a short period. Harris wanted an operation large enough to produce measurable destruction and visible enough to defend the bomber offensive within the British government.
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Arthur Harris took over Bomber Command eight days after the Area Bombing Directive was issued. He had been in Washington while the Air Staff and War Cabinet settled the policy, so the decision to make built-up districts the general aiming points was not his. He nevertheless arrived with views that fitted the directive closely. Harris doubted that the available night force could systematically destroy small 'panacea' targets such as individual oil plants, aircraft factories or ball-bearing works. The official history records 378 aircraft serviceable with crews when he took over,…
Continue in Area Bombing Begins →
On 22 February the Eighth again dispatched a very large bomber force, but cloud and disrupted assembly reduced the number reaching planned targets in coherent formations. German fighters found sections of the stream under less favourable escort conditions. The Eighth lost forty-one heavy bombers, its most expensive day of Big Week. The loss demonstrates why long-range escort did not make deep bombing safe. Weather, formation integrity, navigation and the timing of fighter handovers still determined whether the Luftwaffe could obtain a favourable interception. From Italy the Fifteenth Air Force also…
Continue in Big Week and Air Superiority →