May 16th, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: With the liberation of their countries rapidly approaching, the the exiled governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway today agreed to give Allied military commanders a free hand in administering territories after the Germans have been expelled. Norway, a close neighbour of the Soviet Union, signed a separate pact with Moscow.
Agreements signed in London give the commanders "such measures of supreme responsibility and authority over the civil administration as may be required by the military situation." The arrangements are temporary, and the exiled governments will take over as soon as the military situation permits. Talks are now being held with General de Gaulle's Free French on the administration of liberated areas of France.
GERMANY: Field Marshal Ernest Milch orders the long-range bombardment of England with FZG-76 (V1) missiles.
U-2327 laid down.
NORWAY: An RAF Sunderland sinks U-240.
BALTIC SEA: U-24 encountered a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea, but neither boat attacked.
ITALY: Axis defences at Cassino are crumbling. The Polish II Corps are attacking against German parachute troops. These elite troops hold while the Poles sustain heavy casualties.Cassino: Fusilier Francis Arthur Jefferson (1921-82), Lancs Fusiliers, smashed a counter-attack when, under blistering fire, he knocked out one tank and forced another to retreat. (Victoria Cross)
BURMA: Japanese resistance at Kohima is broken.
Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 58 Flight time not logged. Hailakandi to Silhet, Assam to Hopin, Burma. Mission was to destroyed one of our C-47 that had crash-landed with classified equipment aboard. We arrived over the area to find both Japanese and Chindit patrols were engaged in a fire fight. As we circled a Japanese fighter mad a pass at us from 6 o'clock level and broke off at to 3 o'clock when I fired a burst at him from the tail turret. Both guns jammed after the first burst. He had us cold turkey but think he was worried about our fighter top cover or maybe my tracers came close enough to discourage him from continuing his attack. We had no fighter cover on this mission and never did attempt to destroy the C-47 transport.
Notes: I flew as a spare gunner on this flight and it was to be the last combat mission for me in W.W.II. A few days later we packed our gear and left Hailakandi for Asonsol, India (We had another name for the place). A month later I was on my way back to the USA. I was offered a Warrant Office Jr. grade to stay but I had enough of the war and India and I had got sort of attached to my six stripes as a Master Sgt.
Did not fly as a combat crew man again until 1951 when my first flight in a B-29 was a combat mission to North Korea. Although I had been an instructor at Lowry AFB, CO teaching B-29 gunnery systems, I had lot to learn as to being a crewman on that magnificent bomber. (Chuck Baisden)
WAKE ISLAND USAAF's Seventh Air Force B-24s based on Kwajalein Atoll bomb the island.
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Beacon Hill commissioned.
U.S.A.:
Escort carrier USS Bougainville launched.
Submarine USS Sea Cat commissioned.
Destroyer USS Collett commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Melvin R Nawman commissioned.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-314 was commissioned at New York with LTJG F. H. James, USCGR, as her first commanding officer. He was succeeded on 18 September 1945 by LTJG F. A. Ziemba, USCGR, who in turn was succeeded on 19 November 1945, by LT B. T. Bassford, USCGR. She departed New York on 21 June 1944 for the Southwest Pacific where she operated during the war.