August 1st, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Escort carrier HMS Nabob arrives at Scapa Flow and joins the RN Home Fleet.Destroyer HMCS Assiniboine arrives at Londonderry and joins EG 12.
The Eighth Air Force flies 2 missions:
- Mission 508: 1,291 bombers and 432 fighters in 5 forces are dispatched to attack
airfields, bridges and tactical targets in France; 5 bombers and 4 fighters are lost.
(1)
193 B-17s drop 2,281 containers of supplies to French Resistance forces (Operation BUICK)
at four locations in SE France, i.e., Chalon-Sur-Saone, the Savoie area, Haute-Savoie and
west of Geneva; 3 P-51 Mustang groups furnish escort.
(2) 76 B-17s bomb Tours Airfield; 1
B-17 is lost. Escort is flown by 51 P-51s; 2 are lost.
(3) 400 B-17s attack 5 airfields
and a railway bridge in the area south and southwest of Paris; 112 hit Bricy Airfield at
Orleans, 108 hit Chateaudun Airfield, 59 hit Melun Airfield, 58 hit Chartres Airfield, 36
hit Chartres Bridge, 15 hit targets of opportunity, and 12 hit Mondesir Airfield at
Etampes; 3 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 138 P-38 Lightnings and P-51s.
(4) 284
B-24s are dispatched to bomb targets in the Paris environs; bad weather causes 100+
aborts; 66 hit Rouen, 47 hit Melun Airfield, 44 hit Nogent Bridge, 33 hit targets of
opportunity, 29 hit Bricy Airfield at Orleans, 24 hit Montereau Bridge, 12 hit Nanteuil
Bridge, 12 hit Villeroche Airfield, 11 hit Coulommiers Bridge, and 6 hit Chartres
Airfield; 1 B-24 is lost. Escort is provided by 127 P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51s; 2 P-47s
are lost.
(5) 191 B-24s, sent against 8 V-weapon sites in NW France, run afoul of bad
weather which causes multiple aborts; 61 of the planes manage to bomb 3 sites; escort is
provided by 81 P-47s.
- Mission 509: 6 B-17s drop leaflets on France and Belgium during the night.
Submarine FS Doris (ex-HMS Vineyard) commissioned.
FRANCE: The XIX Tactical Air Command, Ninth Air Force, becomes operational in
conjunction with the US Third Army; the Ninth's fighter and fighter-bomber groups (Ninth
Air Force refers to them collectively as fighter-bomber groups) are divided between the IX
and XIX Tactical Air Commands.
About 250 B-26s and A-20s bomb rail bridges at Mezieres-sur-Seine, Maintenon, Les Ponts-de-Ce, Chartres, Cinq Mars-la-Pile, Bouchmaine, Nogent-sur-Loir, and Bourth.
XIX Tactical Air Command fighters carry out armed
reconnaissance and rail bombing missions in the Alencon, Dreux, Chartres, Nogent-sur-Loir,
Le Mans, Sable-sur-Sarthe, Laval and Sille-le-Philippe areas, while IX Tactical Air
Command fighters fly armoured column and assault area cover, and armed reconnaissance in
the battle areas.
The US 12th Army Group, consisting of Patton's Third Army and Hodges First Army is formed
under General Omar Bradley. The 21st Army Group, Montgomery, now
consists of the British 2nd Army, Dempsey, and the Canadian 1st Army, Crerar.
Patton heads for Brittany.
A seven man OSS team (UNION2, with four US Marines) jumps into France. (168)
NETHERLANDS: 13-year-old Anne
Frank makes the last entry in her diary that she has kept for two years while
hiding with her family in Amsterdam. On 4 August, the Grune Polizei raid the
secret annex in the
house Anne and her family are hiding in and they are deported to Germany. Anne
Frank dies in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at age 15.
GERMANY:
U-2503 commissioned.
POLAND:
Warsaw: The Poles have risen against the German occupiers of Warsaw and have taken over
most of the city. The "Home Army", commanded by Lt-Gen Bor-Komorowski, has been
joined by the Communist-led People's Army and armed civilians to drive out the hated
Nazis. The Polish flag is flying from captured government buildings. Fierce fighting
started at 5 pm and has
developed around the General Post Office where the Germans are counter-attacking. The
Poles were encouraged to rise before they were properly prepared by the sound of German
guns east of the Vistula and by a Moscow radio broadcast telling them "the hour of
action has already arrived."
There is no doubt of the Poles' passionate commitment to the freeing of their capital from
the Nazi yoke, but the rising must also be viewed in political terms: the Home Army is
loyal to the government in exile in London, and it intends to be in control of Warsaw when
the Russians arrive with their own Polish Committee of National Liberation. It is
doubtful, however, if the poorly-armed Home Army can hold out for long against the
Germans. Everything depends on the Russians, who are preparing their own assault on the
city. Will they arrive in time? Or will Stalin wait until the Polish Home Army is
defeated?
LITHUANIA:
Soviets take Kovno and isolate the Baltic states from East Prussia. Kaunas falls to the
Third Belorussian Front.
Soviet forces enter the Suwlaki triangle, a part of Lithuania which had been
appended to East Prussia in 1939 as part of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. (Henry
Sirotin)
FINLAND: President Ryti resigns, FM Mannerheim replaces him.
Mikko Härmeinen adds: Today the Parliament formally acknowledges President Ryti's
resignation, tendered on 29 July. Prime Minister Edwin Linkomies acts as a provisional
President of the Republic, and he immediately receives a proposal that Marshal Mannerheim
is to be elected as President by a special law without elections. The law is passed by the
Parliament as fast as possible, and it comes into force on 4 Aug.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet destroyer Doblestnyj commissioned.
CHINA: 90+ Fourteenth Air Force P-40s and P-51 Mustangs on armed reconnaissance hit trucks, troops, supplies, and river shipping in and around Hengyang, Leiyang, Sinshih, Hengshan, Liling, Changsha, and Siangyin; the airfield and railroad yards at Hengyang are also bombed.
TINIAN:
US forces have captured Tinian, the second of the three Allied island objectives in the
Marianas, as Japanese resistance crumbled today on the island's southern cliffs after
Marine reinforcements broke through.
In a crucial cliff top battle yesterday, more than 600 Japanese screamed the death-charge
cry of "Banzai" as they launched a final, suicidal dawn assault to try to force
a Marine unit off a toehold gained on the mile-wide escarpment. The remnants of Japan's
9,000 man defence force had retreated there after being fooled by a decoy landing that let
40,000 marines land almost unopposed on Tinian's north-west coast nine days ago. An
estimated 9,000 Japanese have died in the battle. US losses are 394 dead and 1,961
wounded.
BIAK ISLAND: 433d Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group: All missions had been cancelled due to weather but the weather was good over the Palau Islands and Colonel MacDonald asked Charles Lindbergh and two other pilots if they wanted to hit targets of opportunity on the islands. Upon arrival, the four strafed a ship and soon spotted three enemy aircraft above them. Two were immediately shot down by Colonel MacDonald and another pilot. Lindbergh noticed that the third Japanese aircraft was diving on a P-38 and by the time he turned back to aid the American, the Japanese pilot turned his attention (and aircraft) towards Lindbergh The Japanese aircraft was a Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter, Allied Code Name ZEKE. The Zeke got on Lindbergh's tail and started shooting it up The three other Americans tried to drive the Zeke off with deflection shots and eventually set the Japanese aircraft on fire.
Colonel MacDonald reported that as Lindbergh backed toward his aircraft, he could see Lindbergh crouching in front of the plane's armour plane, waiting for the bullets to hit, as he "commended his soul to God."
All four P-38s returned to Biak.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The U.S. Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas (AAFPOA) is activated at Hickam Field with Lieutenant General Millard Harmon as Commanding General. Harmon is to be responsible to Lieutenant General Robert C Richardson, Jr, Commanding General US Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas (USAFPOA), for logistics and administration, and to Admiral Chester W Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA), for operations of USAAF air units, including the Seventh Air Force but excluding the Twentieth Air Force. Harmon also is Deputy Commander of the Twentieth Air Force and is responsible directly to General Henry H "Hap" Arnold in all matters affecting the Twentieth in the POA.
CANADA: Patrol Vessel HMCS Renard paid off.
U.S.A.: Two motion pictures are released in
the U.S. today.
"The Pearl of Death," a mystery based on Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons," is
directed by Roy William Neill and stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and
Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. The plot has Holmes looking for a bust of Napoleon
containing a pearl before the owners are killed by the villainous
"Creeper."
"Wilson," a biography of Woodrow Wilson, the
28th U.S. President, is directed by Henry King and stars Alexander Knox as
Wilson, Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald as Mrs. Wilson, Thomas Mitchell,
Cedric Hardwicke as Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and Vincent Price; Reed Hadley
appears in an unaccredited role. The film is nominated for ten Academy Awards
including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Knox); it wins five
technical awards.
In the U.S., the top pop songs today are (1) "Amor" by Bing Crosby;
(2) "I'll Be Seeing You" by Bing Crosby; (3) "Long Ago and Far
Away" by Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest; and (4) "Is You Is Or Is You
Ain't (Ma' Baby)" by Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five.
During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series continues with "Index to Intelligence Publications." (William L. Howard)
Destroyer escort USS Lloyd E Acree commissioned.
Coast Guard-manned Army FS-371 was commissioned at Sturgeon Bay WI with LT H. E. Melton, USCG, as commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area including Leyte, Mindoro, Pearl Harbor, etc., during the war.
ICELAND: Reykjavik: 1407 Flight RAF operating lifeboat carrying Hudsons, is redesignated as 251 Squadron.