70 years ago today, on the 2nd of August 1944, the Arado Ar234 "A" flew the worlds first jet reconnaissance sortie. Piloted by Obit. Erich Sommer, it over flew the Normandy beach heads taking photos of allied activity, achieving more in one flight than the luftwaffe had been able to do in months. With fellow pilot Horst Gotz, they flew another 7 missions without detection, and followed this with flights over the UK, including London. Too fast for allied interception, the V5 of Gotz ironically fell victim to German AA fire, and crash landed, only to be subsequently rammed by a Fw 190!! The V7 of Sommers was retired from service on October 20th, after an inexperienced pilot damaged it on take off. The 'B" model was ready for service by this stage, and took over in the bomber /recon role, and that in itself is another chapter. Overshadowed by the Me 262, the Arado Ar 234 'a' achieved a number of firsts, and deserves more recognition than it got. As one documentary stated, the design of the Ar 234 was found to be so correct, its prototypes were made operational.