[Featured image: President Ronald Reagan seconds before he is nearly assassinated in front of a Washington hotel. Second from the left is Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, Press Secretary James Brady is to the president’s left, the policeman on the right is Thomas Delahanty, and far right is Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy – all wounded during the attack. Story follows.]
1944: 450 American and British heavy bombers destroy thousands of buildings in historic downtown Sofia in the war’s heaviest raid on the Bulgarian capital.
A Consolidated B-24 “Liberator” during a mission above Sofia, Bulgaria in 1944. (National Archives photo)
Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command conducts what becomes its deadliest mission of the war during a strike on Nuremburg, Germany. 795 bombers set out on the mission and 95 are shot down or crash-land on the return trip. Some 700 airmen are missing and 160 of them end up in German prisoner of war camps.
During the Nuremburg raid, a Halifax bomber flown by captain Cyril J. Barton fell under attack by German fighters while enroute to the target. Barton manages to throw off the enemy fighters but not before they inflict heavy damage to his Halifax, causing three of his seven-man crew bail out. Despite not having a navigator, radio operator, or bombardier, Barton presses on to the objective and releases the bombs himself, then makes the return trip to England. The badly shot up plane runs out of fuel once they hit the coast, and Barton crash-lands – saving the crew, but at the cost of his life. For his actions, Barton is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the British equivalent to our Medal of Honor.
An RAF “Halifax” bomber. (Royal Air Force photo)
1945: While the U.S. First Army begins their attack on Paderborn, Germany, the Soviet Red Army captures Danzig (in the north) and crosses into Occupied Austria (to the south).
1981: President Ronald Reagan is shot during an assassination attempt at the Washington D.C. Hilton Hotel. While the president lost half his blood and was in shock from the gunshot, the 70-year-old former cavalry officer makes a full recovery – thanks to his fitness and the quick actions of his Secret Service agents.
Jerry Parr, the agent who pushed Reagan into the presidential limousine and made the life-saving decision to reroute the motorcade to George Washington Hospital instead of the medical team waiting at the White House, was inspired to become a Secret Service agent by watching a film starring Ronald Reagan called Code of the Secret Service (1939). Also wounded in the attack is White House Press Secretary James Brady, District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy.
