This Day in . . .
303rd Bomb Group (H) History
May 3, 1943
303rd BG: A scheduled mission to Antwerp, Belgium was cancelled due to adverse weather.
May 3, 1943
8th AF: In Iceland, Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews, the USAAF officer who is Commanding General , U.S. Army (ETOUSA), is killed in an aircraft crash while landing. There has been speculation over the years whether Andrews instead of Eisenhower would have commanded the Allied forces in Europe if he had lived. Camp Springs Army Air Field, Camp Springs, Maryland was renamed Andrews Army Air Field (now Air Force Base) in 1945 in his memory.
May 3, 1944
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS 8th AF: Mission 336: 47 of 51 B-24s bomb the V-weapon site at Wizernes, France; 33 are damaged; 3 airmen are WIA. Escort is provided by 48 P-47s and 53 P-51s without loss. Mission 337: 5 of 5 B-17s drop 960,000 leaflets on 26 towns in France, Belgium and The Netherlands; 1 B-17 is damaged. 9 B-24s are dispatched on CARPETBAGGER operations.
May 3, 1945
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS 8th AF: 2 missions are flown. Mission 977: 399 B-17s are dispatched to drop food supplies in the Netherlands at Schipol (251) and Alkmaar (20) Airfields, Vogelenzang (42), Hilversum (21), Utrecht (58) and a target of opportunity (3) in the Netherlands; a total of 739.1 tons of food are dropped. Mission 978: 14 B-17s, escorted by 43 of 47 P-51s, drop leaflets in Germany during the day.
May 2
May 4
