August 7th, 1944 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF Eighth Air Force in England flies 4 missions:
- Mission 527: 905 bombers and 471 fighters, in 5 forces, are dispatched
to hit fuel dumps and bridges in France but heavy cloud cover forces many aircraft to
return with bombs and other formations to be recalled; 1 bomber and 5 fighters are lost.
Targets hit (number in parenthesis indicates bombers attacking) are:
(1) 71 hit Montbartier and 34 hit St Loubes escorted by 123 P-51 Mustangs;
(2) the primary targets of 224 B-17s, escorted by 96 P-51s, are Nanteuil Bridge (36), Sens
(26), St Florentin (25), Dueny (24), Bourron Marlotte (23) and Paris-St Quen (12) and also
Chartres Airfield (23), Maintenon Bridge (23), Houden marshalling yard (14), Chateaudun
Airfield (11) and Rouglaf (1);
(3) 1 of 182 B-17s hits Montdidier Airfield with escort provided by 90 P-38s and P-51s;
(4) B-24, escort by 34 P-47 Thunderbolts, bomb Andenne Bridge (10), Semuse (8) and targets
of opportunity (8) with the loss of 1 B-24; and
(5) the primary targets of 333 B-24s, escort by 94 P-51s, are Doullens Bridge (37), Saleux
(24), Recques-sur-Course (23), Frevent Bridge (15), Rieme/Ertveld (11) and Langerbrugge
(9) with 12 bombing a factory near Wendelghem and 1 hitting a target of opportunity.
- Mission 528: 1 of 3 B-17s flies a Micro H test mission (Micro H was a radar system which combined the Gee-H and H2X radar functionality for use by pathfinders).
- Mission 529: 271 P-47s and P-51s fly fighter-bomber missions to marshalling yards and railroads north and east of Paris; 3 P-47s and 2 P-51s are lost.
- 5 B-17s fly a leaflet mission over France during the night.
Personal Memory: Today's mission would target a large fuel storage area inside the city limits of Paris almost on the banks of the Seine River in the St. Ouen area. My diary for the mission reads: "Paris, France. (St Ouen). Flak really rough. They tracked us all the way. I was luckier than most as I only got a few holes. Target CAVU except for haze. Carried 38, 100 pound bombs. Over enemy territory two hours and five minutes." I was flying in the number two position off the right wing of the lead plane with 2nd Lt. G. C. Lawrenson in aircraft number 42-102569 which had no nose art. Thirteen planes were able to bomb this target while the rest went to Chartres to bomb an airfield as a target of opportunity. From our bombing altitude of 25,000 feet the visibility was fair, with the target being obscured for a time by a thin layer of clouds. Another group from our wing turned in front of us at our altitude giving us some violent prop wash. Even so, twelve planes of our thirteen did a drop on the primary. One plane in our group didn't drop his bombs because the bombardier forgot to turn on the selector and salvo switches and so returned their 38 bombs to Molesworth. Of course there was a salvo switch at the bombardier's station as well as in the pilot's compartment. But to drop them late would put the bombs well over the MPI and might do serious damage to our friends. We knew that we would on occasion kill some friendly folks but we always tried to avoid this. The bombs that we dropped had no nose fuses and had a one fortieth second fuse at the tail to give them instantaneous ignition. We were carrying 2000 gallons of gas per plane for this five hour and forty five minutes mission. There was intense and accurate flak throughout our seven minute bomb run but they didn't get us tight on target until barely before bombs away at which time we turned to ruin their two-and-a-half Kilometre lead. Of the thirteen planes in our low group we had the five with major damage and five with minor, including mine. Most of my new crews had a very exciting start to their combat tours. As Winston Churchill said during his stint in the Boer war: "Nothing is quite so exhilarating as being shot at and missed." Score: Milk runs 14, Others 17. Dick Johnson One more to go! (Tomorrow). (Dick Johnson)
German V1s have killed over 5,000 people and destroyed 35,000 homes to date.
FRANCE:
The German counter-attack recaptures Mortain. Attacking between the VII and XIV Corps the 2nd and 116th Panzer Divisions launch a strong counterattack with a total of 120 tanks. This is east of Mortain. During their advance the Germans retake Mortain. Allied air attacks assist the ground forces in limiting the German gains, which are also limited by a lack of fuel. (Andreas Broicher)(229)Operation TOTALIZE: Canadian First Army has the objective of seizing Falaise. The attack is south-east of Caen, a combined assault by Canadian infantry and Polish tanks on the SS armoured forces holding up the Allied advance on the Caen to Falaise road. From 2300 hours last night 1,019 aircraft of RAF Bomber Command drop 3,462 tons of bombs in support of TOTALIZE on German positions. Ten Lancasters were lost and Typhoons fired rockets at the Panzers. The USAAF was less accurate and bombed its allies, killing 65 servicemen. (W Jay Stone)
To maintain close a association with ground forces, HQ IX Tactical Air Command and HQ XIX Tactical Air Command of the USAAF Ninth Air Force constitute mobile units to accompany Advance HQ of the US First and Third Armies, respectively, as they advance rapidly to the east; Lieutenant General Lewis H Brereton relinquishes command of the Ninth Air Force to become Commanding General First Allied Airborne Army.
Over the battlefield, 380+ A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders bomb bridges at Nogent-sur-Seine and Neuvy-sur-Loire; fighters escort IX Bomber Command aircraft, furnish defensive cover in the Vire, Laval, and Rennes areas, and support ground forces in the assault area.
Totalize also saw the first use of Kangaroo armoured personnel carriers.
Normandy: Capt. David Auldgo Jamieson (b.1920), Royal Norfolk Regt., led a company which, largely owing to his courage and leadership, set up and held a bridgehead under heavy fire. (Victoria Cross)
Eisenhower transfers his headquarters from London to Granville.
The U.S. First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin
Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg.
GERMANY:
U-2328 launched.
U-198 sinks SS Empire Day.
POLAND: Sambor, south-west of Lvov falls to the
Soviet Army.
FINLAND: Three out of four German T-type torpedo boats are sunk by mines while conducting a minelaying operation south from Neugrund. Two Finnish radiomen are lost.
U.S.S.R.: A shuttle mission is flown in accordance with a Soviet request; 55 B-17s and 29 P-51s attack an oil refinery at Trzebina, Poland without loss; the aircraft return to Operation FRANTIC bases in the USSR.
ITALY: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 353 B-17s and B-24s to Germany to bomb 2 synthetic oil refineries at Blechhammer South (B-17s) and Blechhammer North (B-24s); 300+ fighters provide support. In Yugoslavia, 76 B-24s hit Alibunar Airfield and Novi Sad oil facilities; the bombers and fighters claim nearly 30 aircraft shot down.
ROMANIA: Shortly following the meeting between Hitler and Antonescu, at which the Führer admitted to the Romanian dictator that he could not guarantee the air defence of Romania, a secret order is passed down from the Air Ministry, grounding the fighter groups, Grup 7 Vanatori and Grup 9 Vanatori. The Romanian command, no longer able to depend upon sufficient German help, can no longer afford to risk the further loss of its most experienced fighter pilots. (Mike Yaklich)
KURILE ISLANDS:
USAAF Eleventh Air Force dispatches 5 B-24s based in the Aleutian Islands to
bomb Kataoka Airfield on Shimushu Island.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: USAAF Far East Air Force (FEAF) B-24s bomb power plant, AA positions, and barracks area on Yap Island and a phosphate plant on Fais Island.
US Navy Motor Torpedo Squadron 3 is decommissioned.
GUAM: Fierce fighting marks the today's action on Guam.
The jungle and terrain assist the defending Japanese.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA:
In the Aleutian Islands, the USN heavy cruiser USS Baltimore (CA-68) with
US President Franklin D Roosevelt aboard, arrives at Kodiak. FDR then boards the destroyer
USS Cummings (DD-365) and in company with 2 other destroyers, departs Kodiak for
Bremerton, Washington.
In the Aleutians, U.S.
President Roosevelt arrives at NOB Kodiak in the heavy cruiser USS Baltimore
(CA-68) and transfers to the destroyer USS Cummings (DD-376).
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Digby completed refit Digby, Nova Scotia and departed for workups Bermuda
Corvette HMCS Peterborough departed Bermuda for St. John's to join EG C-6
Frigate HMCS Longueuil departed St. John's for Londonderry with convoy HXF-302.
Frigate HMCS Sea Cliff launched.
Destroyers HMCS Qu'Appelle, Restigouche, Skeena, Assiniboine and HMS Albrighton departed Devonport for Operation Kinetic. The aim of Kinetic was to interdict German re-supply shipping into western Channel ports.
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Sea Robin commissioned.
The world's second program-controlled calculator,
the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (popularly called the Harvard
Mark I) is dedicated. This mechanical machine, built by Harvard researcher
Howard Aiken with the support of IBM, weighed 10,000 pounds (4,536 kg), measured
51 feet (15.5 meters) long and 2 feet (61 cm) deep, and contained 750,000 parts.
The machine stored 72 numbers and could perform 3 additions or subtractions a
second. The machine could also perform more complicated functions, such as
calculating logarithms or performing trigonometry.
Although the device quickly excited public interest, the mechanical machine was
eclipsed by the advent of the commercially available electronic computer in 1948.
CUBA: Pan American World Airways Sikorsky S-42 seaplane, msn
4201, registered NC823M and named "Hong Kong Clipper," crashes on
takeoff and sinks at Antilla; 14 of the 31 aboard survive.