April 1st, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: A ten-mile deep coastal belt from Land's End to the Wash is closed to the public.
GERMANY: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 287 consisting of 440 bombers and 475 fighters; the target is the chemical industry at Ludwigshafen (the largest in Europe). The 245 B-17s dispatched of the lead force abandon the mission over the French coast due to heavy clouds. The 195 B-24s in the second force became widely dispersed and bomb targets of opportunity; 101 hit Pforzheim; 38 hit Schaffhausen, Switzerland; 17 hit Strasbourg, France; and 9 hit Grafenhausen; Schaffhausen and Strasbourg were mistaken as German towns; they claim 1-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 12 B-24s are lost. Escort is provided by 280 P-47 Thunderbolts and 195 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51 Mustangs: P-47s claim 13-1-19 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground 2 P-47s are lost; P-51s claim 5-2-4 aircraft, 2 P-51s are lost.
SWITZERLAND: 26 USAAF bombers kill 50 Swiss civilians as they mistakenly bomb Schaffhausen.
FINLAND: Paasikivi and Enckell return from Moscow. As Paasikivi notes in his diary, during the negotiations the Russians, Molotov included, were scrupulously polite and considerate personally, but absolutely unyielding in negotiations. Finland has to accept the Soviet demands or the war goes on.
U.S.S.R.: The 40,000 strong German Force near Skala is caught between the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts.
ITALY: Twelfth Air Force B-25s attack Leghorn harbour, bridges at Orvieto, and railway track south of Poggibonsi; B-26 Marauders hit Arno River railroad bridges at Signa, Riva-Trigoso, and Valdarno, while A-20s hit ammunition dumps; P-40s hit targets in the vicinity of Gaeta, Formia tunnel, several fuel dumps, bridges, and guns in the battle areas; P-47s bomb Poggibonsi bridge and strafe a train; and fighters patrol the Anzio battle area without incident.
INDIA: Headquarters of CBI Theatre are moved to New Delhi, with a Forward Echelon at Chungking, China. (Gordon Rottman)
BURMA: The Tenth Air Force dispatches 14 P-38s to hit a freight train and damage a factory in the vicinity of Mandalay; near Rangoon, 16 B-24s hit a railroad station and bomb Akyab while 6 B-25s damage a railroad bridge near Nattalin; 40 RAF A-31 Vengeances attack the Homalin, Paungbyin and Thaungdut areas; and 10 RAF A-31s attack Japanese positions near Buthidaung in the Arakan coastal region.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb Boela on Ceram Island in Moluccas /Islands, and B-25s attack Penfoei on Timor Island in the Lesser Sunda Islands.
NEW GUINEA: Fifth Air Force B-25s and A-20s hit the Tadji and Hansa Bay areas.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: Aircraft of Task Force 58 commence an all-out attack against Woleai Atoll and a minor raid on Ulithi Atoll. This concludes three days of attacks against targets in the western Carolines including the Palau Islands. During these three days, the USN estimates that the Japanese lost 150 aircraft in the air and on the ground; and two destroyers, four escort ships and several auxiliary and merchant vessels totalling 104,000 tons. Aerial mines are also dropped in the main fleet anchorage in the Palau Islands which will block it for six weeks. US losses are 58 aircraft and 18 airmen.
Three aircraft carrier groups of the US Navy were involved in the attacks.
The carriers despatched their planes at dawn on 30 March and
again yesterday, losing 20 aircraft. The Japanese combined fleet had been forced
out of Truk, and the concentration of its forward elements on the Palaus was seen as a potential threat to General
MacArthur's advance along the north New Guinea coast. The Palau Islands are beyond the range of Allied heavy bombers based at Darwin, Australia, so the US Navy was asked to send Task Force 58 - practically the whole of the US Fifth Fleet - to take out the base as it had at Truk.
A Japanese reconnaissance aircraft detected the approaching ships, and as a result the strike date was moved forward to 30 March while the Japanese flew in all the fighters they had from Peleliu and Yap to defend the new base. US aircraft mined passages to the main harbour, trapping many ships which then became prime targets.
Admiral Mineichi Koga, the Japanese navy chief, decided to move his headquarters from the battleship MUSASHI to Davao. He left the Palaus on 31 March for Davao, but his plane never arrived.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: 24 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s bomb supply areas at Wunapope and Ratawul on New Britain Island; 28 P-39Airacobras and P-40s hit the Toboi wharf area at Simpson Harbour; 3 P-40s follow with a strike on oil and coal storage in same general area; fighters maintain sweeps over Rabaul and New Ireland Island throughout the day and B-25s harass Rabaul during the night of 1/2 April.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Thirteenth Air Force dispatches 12 P-38s to bomb the mission at Monoitu and 12 P-40s hit Numa Numa supply dumps on Bougainville Island.
U.S.A.: Stan Kenton And His Orchestra's record of "Do Nothin' 'Till You Hear From Me" with vocal by Red Dorris makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is their first single to make the charts and it stays there for 1 week reaching Number 10.
Cherry Point: The 9th Marine Air Wing is commissioned. It succeeds the 3rd MAW to train, equip, and prepare Marine aviation units for combat. It was strictly a training wing and did not see any combat. (Mel Shettle)