April 9th, 1944 (SUNDAY)
FRANCE: During Eighth Air Force Mission 294, 5 B-17s drop 2.752 million leaflets on Rouen, Paris, Amiens and Caen, France at 2224-2338 hours without loss. During the night, 23 B-24s are dispatched on CARPETBAGGER operations delivering supplies to the Resistance.
S.O.E. operative Peter Lake is parachuted into the Dordogne. His mission, to train members of the members of the Resistance in sabotage and guerilla warfare in preparation for D-Day. More... (Scott Peterson)
ITALY: Twelfth Air Force P-40 and A-36 Apache fighter-bombers bomb the railroad line between Rome and Bracciano, hitting tracks, a station, and a warehouse; attack Littoria and Terracina, repair shops northwest of Valmontone and several gun positions; and bomb scattered motor transport during armed reconnaissance of the Avezzano-Sora-Pontecorvo-Ceprano areas.
CENTRAL EUROPE: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 293: 542 bombers and 719 fighters are dispatched to aircraft factories and airfields in Germany and Poland; the bombers claim 45-8-14 Luftwaffe aircraft; 32 bombers and 10 fighters are lost.
- 41 B-17s bomb the aviation industry at Rahmel, Poland and 96 attack Marienburg, Germany; 3 others hit targets of opportunity; 6 B-17s are lost.
- 33 B-17s bomb the Focke-Wulf plant at Poznan, Poland and 85 bomb the Heinkel plant at Warnemunde, Germany; 18 others hit Marienehe Airfield; 12 B-17s are lost
- 106 B-24s bomb an assembly plant at Tutow, Germany; 14 hit Parchim, Germany and 6 hit targets of opportunity; 14 B-24s are lost.
Escort is provided by 119 P-38s, 387 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47s and 213 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s; the fighters claim 20-1-6 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 19-0-8 on the ground; no fighter support is available over the targets because of bad weather or distance: 2 P-38s, 4 P-47s and 4 P-51s are lost.
INDIA: Japanese troops surround the British IV Corps at Kohima and Imphal.
North BURMA: Indaw: Hundreds of gliderborne troops have been dropped into Burma to reinforce the Chindits. This second wave of Chindits landed to the west of the Japanese line of communications, joining up with one of the original Chindit columns, and aims to cut the line of communications of the Japanese besieging Imphal.
Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 41 2:55 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Indaw, Burma. Bombed Japanese supply dumps. (Chuck Baisden)
The Mogaung Valley is attacked by 100+ Tenth Air Force fighter-bombers and a few B-25s; the aircraft hit town areas, bridges, storage areas, support ground forces, and hit targets of opportunity in general in or near Mogaung, Kamaing, Laban, Hopin, Myitkyina, and Nsopzup; 25 B-25s and P-51s hit fuel dumps at Indaw, bomb a road near Manhton and support ground forces at Lasai; 6 B-24s bomb Mandalay railroad yards, another bombs nearby Maymyo, and 13 others mine areas near Mandalay and Magwe; also in the Mandalay area, 11 P-38s damage several locomotives, numerous railroad cars and set a steamer afire near Ywataung.
CHINA: 2 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s sink a Japanese merchant vessel off the southern tip of Hainan Island claim 3 fighters shot down over Yulinkan Bay.
JAPAN: A weather sortie by an Eleventh Air Force B-24 over Matsuwa Island, Kurile Islands, is negative due to low clouds and fog.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, 23 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s bomb Lakunai; 31 fighter-bombers hit Ralum supply areas while 22 others strike Wunapope; and during the night of 8/9 April, 7 B-25s fly heckling missions against Rabaul.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Seventh Air Force B-24s fly a photo reconnaissance mission over Maloelap, Wotje, and Mille Atolls, and a single Tarawa Atoll-based B-25 bombs Taroa Island, Maloelap Atoll; B-25s, in a shuttle mission from Abemama Island, bomb Jaluit Atoll, rearm at Majuro Atoll, and then hit Maloelap Atoll.
NEW GUINEA: 55 Fifth Air Force B-25s bomb the Aitape area while B-24s and A-20s hit Wewak, Boram, Cape Moem, AA positions along Hansa Bay, and barges southeast of Mushu Island and in the Wagol River; and P-39Airacobras hit troops, barges, and bridges in the Madang, Awar, Bogia and Bunabun areas.
PACIFIC OCEAN: US Submarines sink 2 Japanese ships:
- USS Seahorse (SS-304) attacks a Japanese convoy sinks a transport about 40 miles (64 km) west of Saipan, Mariana Islands.
- USS Whale (SS-239) sinks a Japanese army cargo ship off the northwestern coast of Kyushu, Japan.
The Japanese hospital ship Takasago Maru is damaged by a mine off the Palau Islands.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Rockets and machine gun fire from four TBM Avengers and FM-2 Wildcats of Composite Squadron 58 (VC-58) in the escort aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), together with depth charges from destroyer escorts USS Pillsbury (DE-133), USS Pope (DE-134), USS Flaherty (DE-135), and USS Chatelain (DE-149), sink German submarine U-515 at 1515 hours local off Madeira Island, Portugal. 44 of the 60 man crew on the U-boat survive.
Jim Verdolini notes in his diary: (Jim is 17-years-old and on his first ship. Some of the information was inserted postwar after conversations with his old Skipper, ComOfficer, Engineering Officer and shipmates).
April 9, 1944 Aboard U.S.S. Guadalcanal CVE60
A CVE is a small escort carrier, approximately 500 ft long, carrying a compliment of 870 men, and 27 planes. Our primary mission was to hunt and kill submarines. Our operating area on this deployment was between the Azores and Gibraltar. It was a known as U boat lane.
We kept going to Battle Stations. Our planes had spotted a sub on the surface, but it was too late to make a pass. The pilot could not get a shot at it. It was dark, and he saw it silhouetted. When he turned back it was gone. The Captain sent out another flight, and at 0130 hours (1:30AM) They spotted the sub again, and dropped depth charges. No luck. We secured from GQ for the night.
1300 hours(1 PM) our destroyers were pinging on the U boat again. At 1410 hours the Destroyer Escort Pope, dropped a depth charge pattern, and the U boat commander at 600 feet gave orders to blow all tanks, and prepare to abandon ship. We could see the sub from the bridge of our ship, and when he broke the surface, all ships fired at him.
We couldn't tell if he was abandoning ship, or would try to torpedo us.
Four minutes later the sub slowly reared herself up and sank. We fished forty five survivors out of the water. She was U-515. We found out later, that the crew of U 515 hated their Captain. He had frozen promotions on his boat to prevent any of his hand picked crew from being transferred. His name was Werner Henke, and the British wanted him for questioning about the British ship Ceramic, which was torpedoed and only one man survived to tell about it. Seems that Henke torpedoed the Ceramic, then surfaced. He had thought it was a troop transport, but it actually had dependents coming from Australia. The people were in the water, men, women and children. But the U boat could not take any aboard. No room. He did take one soldier back to Germany, to prove that he had sunk a transport. The rest of the survivors died in the water from exposure.
Capt. Henke promised to co-operate with our skipper, if we did not turn him over to the British. However after we returned Stateside, Capt. Henke tried to escape, and was shot and killed. The U-515 had four sights on us, but our Cans (Destroyer Escorts) were doing their job, and the U Boat had to abort each time.