May 30th, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF's Eighth Air Force based in England flies Mission 380: 928 bombers and 672 fighters in six forces are dispatched to hit aircraft industry targets in Germany and marshalling yards in France and Belgium; they claim 65-8-6 Luftwaffe aircraft; twelve bombers and nine fighters are lost:
1. 268 B-17s are dispatched to attack aviation industry targets at Dessau (83 bomb), Halberstadt (107 bomb) and Oschersleben (51 bomb); five other hit targets of opportunity; they claim 8-5-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; nine B-17s are lost.
2. 369 B-24s are dispatched to hit aviation depots at Oldenburg (135 bomb), Rotenburg (147 bomb) and Zwischenahn (71 bomb); one other hits a target of opportunity; one B-24 is lost.
3. 46 of 91 B-24s hit Munster/Handorf Airfield and 36 others hit Diepholz Airfield; two B-24s are lost.
4. 122 of 126 B-17s hit French marshalling yards; 62 hit Reims and 60 hit Troyes without loss.
5. 39 of 40 B-17s hit Brussels/Schaerbeck marshalling yard, Belgium without loss.
6. 76 of 84 B-17s hit V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais, France without loss.
Escort is provided by 186 P-38s, 184 P-47 Thunderbolts and 302 P-51 Mustangs; P-47s claim 2-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft with one aircraft lost;
P-51s claim 48-3-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 7-0-3 on the ground with the loss of eight P-51s (pilots are MIA); 637 Ninth Air Force fighters support the mission; they claim 8-0-2 aircraft in the air and 0-0-4 on the ground for the loss of three aircraft.
100 P-47s are dispatched to bomb 4 rail bridges in northwestern France; 37 hit Longueil bridge, 26 hit Beaumont-sur-Oise bridge, 23 hit Canly-le-Jouque bridge and 12 hit the Creil bridge; one P-47 is lost.
The USAAF's Ninth Air Force in England dispatches 320+ B-26 Marauders to attack airfields at Denain/Prouvy and Mantes/Limay, and highway bridges at Meulan and Rouen, all in France. Nearly 400 P-47s dive-bomb targets in northwestern Europe.
Frigates HMS Bigbury Bay, St Austell Bay and St Brides Bay laid down.
FRANCE:
D-Day Countdown
The German Perspective
Tuesday, 30 May, 1944
May 30th. Rommel has assembled most of his corps and army commanders at Caen to attend a weapons display at Riva Bella, just west of Ouistraham. Even Admiral Krancke and General von Funk. Featured in the show are some of Major Becker's multiple rocket launchers. The whooshing missiles impress everyone there. Becker also takes the opportunity to sow off some the armored assault guns that he has fashioned onto captured French armored chassis. Also displayed are a number of smoke launchers.
After the presentation, General Marcks has a chance to talk to Fifteenth Army Commander General von Salmuth.
He mentions to him the problems that he has on his Calvados coastline. Both the 352nd and the 716th Division each had a 30-mile stretch of beach to defend.
"It's the weakest sector of my whole corps," he admits worriedly.
They dine off a small but adequate field mess, sitting at tables under a lovely canopy of trees. It is just as well.
Enemy air activity is, as usual these days, bustling.
Rommel is surprised that the Mantes bridges are still functional.
Rommel closes the proceedings by addressing all of his commanders. He pleads with them to stay alert, and to be ready at all times. "You shouldn't count on the enemy coming in fine weather, and by day," he tells them.
Sadly for him, he will end up ignoring his own advice.
After the demonstration, Rommel, Buhle and Jakob ride off to tour the defensive barriers along the coast.
It will be Rommel's last tour of the invasion area before D-Day.
Eventually, Rommel, his staff, and the two visiting generals head back to the chateau. They stops at some deployment areas of the 21st Panzer Division.
Again he gives the `stay alert' speech. Major Hans von Luck is present here again, as he was at the conference. He expresses his anxiety over the fact that the enemy has not yet come. Would they ever?
This long period of no activity is starting to have an effect on his men, even the new recruits, fresh from Germany. The peaceful French countryside and good wine is not helping matters.
Rommel, Buhle, and Jakob head back. It is none too soon. By evening the Mante bridges are gone, as is the one at Gaillon, about 20 km downriver from Vernon. In fact all the bridges along the Seine between Elbeuf * and Paris are down.
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* Located on the Seine River, about two-thirds of the distance between Paris and Le Havre.
Pete Margaritis
GERMANY: Allied pilots who are shot down over Germany can no longer expect any mercy from the people. The Reichsleiter Martin Bormann has today issued a directive to all district and regional National Socialist leaders to the effect that lynch law is now approved by the government in Berlin.
This directive from Bormann, who is also Hitler's secretary, follows a newspaper article by the Reich propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, which was published on 27 May. Under the headline "Comments on the Enemy Air Terror", Goebbels concluded that, in view of the "criminal combat methods" now employed by the Allied air forces, pilots had no right to prevent the German people, in their "seething rage", from acting in their own defence and rewarding murder with murder. Bormann's directive has given the government seal of approval to Goebbel's incitement to mob justice.
ROMANIA: Jessy: A long lull on the whole front is broken by powerful German Attack on Koniev's Front in Romania.U.S.S.R.: USS Herndon (DD-198), commissioned as HMS Churchill (I-45) on 9 Sep. 1940; is transferred to Russia as Dyatelnyi today. She will be torpedoed and sunk by U-956 on 16 Jan. 1945 while escorting a White Sea convoy; the last war loss of the class and the only one of the destroyers transferred to Russia to be lost. (Ron Babuka)
ITALY: The British 8th Army takes Arce.
The USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches nearly 500 bombers to
attack targets in Austria and Yugoslavia; B-17s attack the marshalling yard
at Zagreb, Yugoslavia; B-24s attack aircraft factories at Wels, Ebreichadorf,
Pottendorf, Neudorfl and Neunkirchen, Austria; P-38s and P-51s provide
escort and many of the fighters strafe targets of opportunity in areas
around Zut, Brod, Susak, Bihac, Medak, and along the Karlovac-Livno road,
Yugoslavia.
NEW GUINEA: Minor skirmishes on Biak where the Americans are re-grouping. In the Wadke-Sarmi area the US 158 Infantry Regiment Combat Team establishes a new defensive line along the river Tirfoam. Japanese mount night attacks along the perimeter of the Arare mainland beachead opposite Biak. (Michael Kiddell)
U.S.A.:
Destroyer escort USS Hemminger commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Sentry commissioned.
ECUADOR: President Carlos Arroyo del Rio of Ecuador and his cabinet resigned after a revolutionary junta seized power in Guayaquil.