July 8th, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The Eighth Air Force in England flies two missions.
1. Of 331 B-24s dispatched, 14 hit Schore Bridge, nine hit Welle Bridge, one hits Orsel Airfield and one hits a target of opportunity; escort is provided by 266 P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs; they claim 20-0-19 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground; a P-51 is lost.
2. Of 304 B-17s dispatched, 61 hit Poix Airfield, 49 hit V-1 sites, 37 hit Etaples Bridge, 13 hit a road junction, 12 hit Abbeville Airfield and 11 hit Etaples choke point; four B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 36 P-47 Thunderbolts.
3. Of 130 B-24s dispatched, 71 hit V-1 sites, 13 hit St Vallery en Caux Airfield and 11 hit Abbeville railroad junction.
4. Of 264 B-17s dispatched, 21 hit Jaigle, 20 hit Barenton and ten hit Chandai rail junctions, 11 hit Nantes/Gassicourt Bridge, 11 hit Nantes railroad bridge, nine hit railroad tracks at Yvetot, 11 hit Nogent and six hit Rouen marshalling yards, 24 hit Conches and 11 hit St Andre de l'Eure Airfields and 25 hit targets of opportunity; five B-17s are lost.
Forces 3 and 4 are escorted by 286 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s; they claim 0-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground.
86 P-47s bomb St Andre de l'Eure Airfield without loss.
Mission 461: Four B-17s drop leaflets in France during the night.
17 B-24s are dispatched on CARPETBAGGER missions.
FRANCE: A major British and Canadian attack will begin around Caen. 2726 tons of bombs have been dropped by 450 RAF bombers overnight as part of the preliminaries. The battleship HMS RODNEY has delivered hundreds of 16-inch shells. US forces coordinate an attack to the west. The British and Canadian troops enter the outskirts of Caen, only to find SS Colonel Meyer's Panzers still firmly established outside Caen.While the citizens of Caen huddled in cellars, the Germans stubbornly held out. Hitler has ordered that every square kilometre must be defended to the last man. But the Allies penetrated into the centre of the ruined city to the north bank of the river Orne. There they were held by Meyer's men. In a month of battles, every one of Meyer's battalion commanders has been killed and he has received no replacements. "Officers and men know the struggle is hopeless," Meyer wrote in his diary, "but they remain willing to do their duty to the bitter end.
Minesweeper
HMS Pylades is sunk in the Northern Defence Line off Normandy Sword Beach area
by a Niger or Marder human torpedo. Her stern is blown off and she sinks very
quickly. (Alex Gordon)(108)
About 280 Ninth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders bomb V-weapon HQ at Chateau-de-Ribeaucourt, numerous strongpoints in the Caen battle area, rail bridges at Mantes-La-Jolie, Saumur, Nogent-le-Roi, and Caen and (late in evening) fuel dumps in Rennes and a bridge at Nantes; fighters escort the bombers and fly armed reconnaissance throughout wide areas of France, concentrating on the frontline area; targets hit include marshalling yards, bridges, ammunition and supply dumps, troop concentrations and tanks.
HUNGARY: Budapest: At least 300,000 Hungarian Jews have been gassed or shot at Auschwitz-Birkenau in the last 46 days under Adolf Eichmann">Eichmann's carefully thought-out plan to destroy the Jewish population of Hungary. But today Hungary's regent, Admiral Miklos Horthy, ordered a halt to Jewish deportations following concerted pressure from Allied governments, the Red Cross, the pope and the king of Sweden.
Hitler himself had to persuade Horthy, a natural defender of the Jews, to agree to the deportations in the first place. Now, with the Russians getting nearer every day, Horthy feels strong enough to stand up to him, sacking the veteran fascists Laszlo Baky and Vitez Endre who were helping to implement Nazi racial policies.
Although Eichmann">Eichmann remains determined to try to keep the trains running, he
may have met his match in the form of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat.
Wallenberg, on his way to Budapest clutching Swedish visas for 630 Hungarian
Jews and British documents guaranteeing a further 700 entry to Palestine, is
expected to arrive tomorrow. The king of Sweden has sent Wallenberg on a mission
to save as many Jews as possible. His brief is simple: protect them while visas
are prepared, then get them to a safe haven.
FINLAND: This morning the Soviets attack again
the Finnish positions at Tähtelä, west of Pyöräkangas and Ihantala, but are
repulsed. A rested and refitted Soviet 286th Division tries to attack at Vakkila
and Ihantala, but its attempts are prevented by Finnish artillery.
U.S.S.R.: Baranovichi, between Minsk and Brest-Litovsk, is liberated by Rokossovsky.
ITALY: The Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 520+ B-17s and B-24s to attack targets in the Vienna, Austria area including refineries at Vosendorf and Korneuburg, the airfield at Zwolfaxing, Markersdorf, and Munchendorf, and marshalling yard and oil storage at Vienna/Floridsdorf, and the airfield at Veszprem; fighters fly 200+ sorties in support of the bomber missions which are opposed by 100+ fighters; 14 US aircraft are lost; heavy bombers and fighters claim 50+ fighters shot down.
CHINA: American B-29s based here have carried out a second attack on the Japanese mainland. Last night's raid by 20th Bomber Command was aimed at naval installations at Sasebo and the iron and steel works at Yahata, "Japan's Essen", first hit by B-29s three weeks ago. Sasebo, Omura and Tobata were also hit. General Arnold, the commander of the USAAF, set up the independent 20th to fly the huge bombers in any theatre of war. he has said that B-29s will only fly night raids until the shakedown stage is over.
MARIANAS ISLANDS: Japanese air attacks continue and a P-61 Black Widow shoots down a G4M "Betty" during the night near Saipan while Navy F6F Hellcat pilots shoot down 9 A6M "Zekes" early in the morning.
During the night of 7/8 July, Seventh Air Force B-24s stage through Eniwetok Atoll and bomb Truk Atoll; more B-24s follow with another raid during the day.
Also during the day, Seventh Air Force P-47s fly fighter-bomber operations against Japanese troops on Saipan, Pagan, and Tinian Islands.
The cruisers and destroyers of Task Group 53.18 begin a daily bombardment of Guam.
MARIANAS ISLANDS, SAIPAN: Victorious but stunned US troops on Saipan are still coming to terms with the mass suicide of 8,000 Japanese defenders and civilians in the final throes of the invasion. Ever since Tarawa, US veterans of the Pacific campaign have become used to the gruesome Japanese determination to fight to the death. On Saipan they were as ready as it is possible to be when the Japanese launched a last desperate lunge, quickly losing 1,500.
But this was as nothing compared with the shock when US troops broke through to Marpi and found thousands of bodies on the rocks and floating in the surf. Many were civilians, many of them children and themselves hurled over the cliffs rather than be taken prisoner, heeding the warning by Saipan's commander General Saito that they would be tortured and killed if captured. Saito committed ritual suicide.
The survivor's stories bear out the results of a wider survey conducted among Japanese prisoners - many injured or unconscious when captured. Of the PoWs surveyed 84% said they expected to be killed or tortured if taken prisoner. Fear of the consequences of surrender rather than any elevated sense of the samurai code of bushido motivated them to fight to the death.
Many are clearly affected by Japanese propaganda that never fails to call their American opponents subhuman "brutes" and "wild beasts", and depicts Roosevelt and Churchill as horned demons. One typical issue of a popular Japanese magazine portrays Americans as bestial degenerates, sex-obsessed, fiercely racist and capable of killing deformed children by bashing their heads against walls, a fear reinforced among Japanese by the recent US sinking of a hospital ship.
CANADA: HMC ML 126 completed.
Frigate HMCS Sea Cliff launched Lauzon, Province of Quebec.