August 14th marks both the independence of Pakistan as well as the birth of their air force. Having been founded in 1947, the PAF has a relatively short history among the air forces of the world.

The early battles along the coast of Britain were merely an introduction, an Act 1. On August 13th Luftwaffe Reichsminister Göring let slip the full might of the Luftwaffe against a battered nation that many wondered would survive the onslaught.

The American held island of Guam was taken by the Japanese only days after the attack on Pearl Harbour. This was mainly possible due to the fact it was not heavily fortified.  Being the largest of the Mariana Islands, Guam was held by the United States from 1898. Due to its strategic importance in the Pacific theatre it was only a matter of time before the United States would attempt to take it back.

On the 19th of July 1941, Hitler ordered a bombing raid on Moscow. This was meant to soften up the capital of the Soviet Union, and to reduce the morale of the defending troops for when the German army would eventually reach the city. However, the Soviet troops were prepared and expecting the bombers. The Germans were met with fire from countless AA guns and illuminated by over 300 searchlights. The Luftwaffe continued their campaign throughout 1941, but failed to achieve significant results.

The battles for Guadalcanal starting from August 1942 were the beginning of the end of the Pacific War. The lessons and trials endured during Operation Watchtower would form the basis of the method in which the war in the Pacific would be conducted. The tragedies endured by Allied naval, air, and ground forces during this campaign lead to many lessons being learned by the their commanders while these same lessons were not taken on board by the Japanese high command.

While Japanese efforts to build an efficient jet engine started before the beginning of the war in the Pacific, the Nakajima Kikka was the first jet aircraft to start from Japanese soil on August 7th, 1945.

Formed by the Kuomintang Party in 1920, the Republic of China Air Force relied heavily on export aircraft in order to build up a substantial force. Initially the air force was used as a mere tool of local warlords.

Sparked by the start of World War I three days earlier, the Swiss Air Force was established on the 31st of July 1914. The emergency unit consisted of a handful of pilots flying civilian aircraft and armed with rifles in case of combat. Despite the primitive condition of their air force, the Swiss were prepared to defend their neutrality by force.

The relative peace of the arctic shore was disturbed on July 30th 1941. The Fleet Air Arm had launched two strikes against German ships in ports of northern Norway and Finland. The raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo would become a black day for the FAA.

Allied troops arrived in Milne Bay at the eastern tip of New Guinea in June 1942, consisting of an Australian militia battalion and US airfield construction teams.On August 31st, the Japanese began an all-out night attack, making at least three “banzai” charges against the Allied positions at Milne Bay.

By mid July 1935, Boeing Aircraft Company presented a new aircraft, the Model 299 to the nation’s press. One journalist described the new aircraft as a ‘15-ton Flying Fortress’ and Boeing leapt on the chance to officially adopt the name.

The Royal Norwegian Air Force (abbreviated to RNoAF, and in Norwegian, ‘Luftforsvaret’) is Norway’s active air force, formed after the unification of the Army Air Force and the Naval Air Service in 1944, both of which had been in existence since 1915. 

To take Port Moresby, the capital of New Guinea, Japanese commanders decided to first land on the opposite side of the island. The landings in the villages of Buna and Gona in eastern New Guinea took place on the 21st and 22nd of July 1942.

The Beaufighter was the child of the Beaufort design, which was a direct design continuation from the Blenheim bomber. With Air Ministry support, the Type 156 Beaufighter prototype first flew in July 1939.

On July 12th 1944, after the six leading pilots of 616 Squadron had completed conversion training, the Gloster Meteor F1 became the allies first operational combat jet after a delayed entry almost 3 months after its German counterpart; The Messerschmitt Me 262.

Wilhelm Emil “Willy” Messerschmitt was born in Frankfurt on the 26th of June, 1898. From an early age, specifically after he saw one of the great Zeppelins flying overhead, he became fascinated with aviation. As a boy growing up, he spent most of his time building model airplanes. In his teen years, he became very close friends with German sailplane pioneer Friedrich Harth.

Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa, literally "Operation Barbarossa")", Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June the 22nd, 1941, in the largest German military operation of World War II.

Horikoshi was born in Fujioka, where he attended high school. He later attended the First Higher School in Tokyo, and in 1927 he would graduate from the Aviation Laboratory of the University of Tokyo with an engineering degree. Almost immediately after, he became employed in Mitsubishi, in the Nagoya Aircraft Manufacturing Plant.