August 26th, 1943 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission 35:
36 B-26s attack Carpiquet Airfield at Caen, France at 1846 hours.
The RAF's Desert Air Force (DAF) is assigned to the Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF), along with US units of the Ninth Air Force which have been an operational part of DAF and Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force (NATBF).
GERMANY: Stalag 383, Bavaria: Two British prisoners made a daring escape from this camp yesterday by walking out of the gate wearing home-made German uniforms and carrying forged passes.
The escapers, Lance-Sergeant Suggit of the 5th (Inniskilling) Dragoon Guards and Sergeant Beeson of the RAOC, had to bring their attempt forward a day because there is so much activity, masterminded by the escape committee, that their original plan would have clashed with an attempt by others to "go over the wire". They made their German uniforms from Australian tunics dyed green with dyes acquired from the camp theatre.
Their badges were made of cardboard covered in silver paper, and their medal ribbons cut out of tin coloured with red and black ink. A friendly guard from Alsace lent them his papers so that they could be forged.
At dusk tonight, with sandwiches in their fake holsters, they walked nonchalantly out of the gate.
U-750
commissioned.
U-1279 laid down.
BALTIC SEA: Soviet submarine SC-203 sunk near Cape Uret by torpedo from Italian submarine SB.4. All hands lost.
ITALY: 80+ Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) B-17s, with P-38 escort, bomb Capua Airfield; and 100+ fighter-escorted medium bombers hit Grazzanise Airfield and satellite field.
HONG KONG: 15 US Fourteenth Air Force B-24s, with an escort of 17 P-38 Lightnings and P-40s, bomb Kowloon Docks; 5 Japanese interceptors are shot down.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 11 US Thirteenth Air Force B-25s and 40+ USMC SBD Dauntlesses, escorted by fighters, pound AA positions and barges at Ringa and Webster Coves on New Georgia Island and at Nusatuva Island; 15 B-24's bomb Papatura Ite and supply areas on Papatura Fa Island; 15 B-24's, with fighter escort, bomb Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island; and P-39Airacobras strafe buildings on Gizo Island and at Kolulavabae Inlet.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The US Eleventh Air Force's striking power shrinks rapidly as 2 B-24
Liberator and 2 B-25 squadrons are ordered to prepare for departure to the Zone
of Interior (ZI).
CANADA: Churchill sets off for a four-day fishing holiday in the Laurentian mountains.
Minesweeper
HMCS Ross Norman purchased.
Frigate HMCS Eastview laid down Montreal,
Province of Quebec.
Minesweeper HMS Mariner (ex-HMCS
Kincardine) laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.
U.S.A.: Washington: The French Committee of national Liberation is granted limited recognition by the US, Britain and Canada. Tomorrow The U.S.S.R. and China do the same.
Submarine USS Charr laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Stadtfield commissioned.
Destroyer escorts USS O'Neill, Bronstein, William T Powell and Chaffee laid
down.
Minesweeper USS Dunlin launched.
Destroyer escort USS Haines launched.
California: Battery Ashburn, two 16-inch guns in casemates, is completed at Fort Rosecrans, a coastal artillery fort near San Diego. (Benjamin Ledin)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-410 sank SS John Bell and SS Richard Henderson in Convoy UGS-14.
German submarine U-84 (Type VIIB) is listed as missing in the middle of the North ATLANTIC OCEAN, position unknown. All hands, 46-men, are lost.
U-84 had previously been recorded as sunk 24 Aug, 1943 in the middle of the North Atlantic, in position 27.09N, 37.03W, by aerial torpedoes from aircraft of the US escort carrier USS Core, but U-84 was ordered to refuel from U-760 on 18 August in position 37.00N, 44.30W which is over 600 nautical miles from the attack by USS Core's aircraft. (Alex Gordon)