August 10th, 1944 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF Eighth Air Force in England flies 4 mission.
- Mission 537: 175 B-24 and 249 fighters are dispatched against fuel dumps and bridges southeast of Paris; 38 hit Clamecy Bridge, 31 hit Joigny, 31 hit Pacy-sur-Armencon, 26 hit Sens, 23 hit St Florentin and 13 hit targets of opportunity; 1 B-24 is lost. Escort is provided by 238 P-51 Mustangs; 3 P-51s are lost.
- Mission 538: 138 fighters are dispatched to hit rail targets in central and eastern France; 5 fighters are lost.
- Mission 539: B-17s drops leaflets on Brest, France.
- Mission 540: 4 B-17s drop leaflets in France and Norway during the night.
- 583 fighters are dispatched to hit rail targets in France; they claim 19 Luftwaffe aircraft; 2 P-38s and 4 P-51s are lost.
USS Foote (DD-169), was commissioned as HMS Roxborough (I-07) and USS Maddox (DD-168), commissioned as HMS Georgetown (I-40) on 23 Sep. 1940. They are transferred to Russia Roxborough as Doblestnyi and Georgetown as Zhostkion. They were part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. With their sister ships that were transferred earlier this year will be returned to the RN in 1949. (Ron Babuka)
Minesweeper HMS Felicity commissioned.
FRANCE: Vimont, south of Caen, falls to the Canadian 1st Army. St. Malo and Dinard are liberated by the forces under General Middleton.
The US XX Corps liberates Nantes.
German forces in the Mortain area withdraw slightly bowing to US pressure and the threat to their rear areas.
France, the USAAF's Ninth Air Force sends almost 200 B-26 Marauders and
A-20 Havocs to bomb rail bridges and embankments in wide areas around Paris; fighters
escort bombers, support ground forces, give defensive cover, and fly armed reconnaissance
in battle areas and around Amiens, Paris, Cambrai, Meaux, Dijon, and Troyes.
The German submarine U-608 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay near La Rochelle, in position
46.30N, 03.08W, by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Wren and by depth charges from
an RAF Liberator of No. 53 Squadron based at St Eval, Cornwall, England. All 52 crewmen of
the U-boat survive.
Paris: Railway workers join the general strike.
"Strike to push the Boche back." Obeying that order, the cheminots of Paris -
the predominantly communist railway workers - went on strike today, paralysing the capital
and disrupting the entire network.
The strike is seen as a flexing of muscles by the communist wing of the Resistance, both
against the German garrison and to make sure it is not ignored by the Allies when the
future of a liberated France is decided. The stoppage of the railways was almost total, in
spite of strict German decrees forbidding strikes. Some communist pickets turned doubters
away from work at pistol point.
The strike is a bold move because the new German military commandant, General Dietrich von
Cholitz, has the power of life and death over French civilians, and the strike threatens
the German high command's reliance on the railways. Paris is the hub of the French rail
network.
On 14 July, Bastille Day, posters appeared on the walls of Paris in the name of the
communist Front National, calling Parisians to arms. The posters urged every man and woman
to kill a German, a Milicien or a traitor.
The new communist leader in the resistance goes by the name of "Colonel Rol".
This is the nom de guerre of Henry Tanguy, a French communist who fought for the
Republicans in Spain.
German administrative staff begin to leave Paris. Archives are packed, papers from
the military government are burned, civilian staff assemble at dawn at railway stations to
leave.
GERMANY: Rastenburg: To combat the Allies air superiority, Hitler orders all 2,000 of the Luftwaffe's fighter aircraft to the Western front.
U-2326
launched.
U-2388 laid down.
ITALY: Polish II Corps soldiers reach the Cesano river.
The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy sends 450+ B-17s and B-24s, with fighter escort, to bomb 6 oil refineries in the Ploesti, Romania area. 45 Eighth Air Force P-51s in Italy during an Operation FRANTIC mission are dispatched with Fifteenth Air Force aircraft to escort a troop carrier evacuation mission.
U.S.S.R.: Submarine USSR P-2: Taken out from front-line boats and finished operations in WWII.
INDIA: The US XX Bomber Command based in India flies 2 missions during the night of 10/11 August.
- 24 B-29 Superfortresses, out of Chengtu, China, bomb the urban area of Nagasaki, Japan and 3 others hit targets of opportunity; the B-29s claim 1 fighter shot down, the first such claim (except probables) by the B-29s.
- 31 B-29s, staging through China Bay, Ceylon, bomb oil refineries at Palembang, Sumatra, 8 mine the Moesi River nearby, and 3 hit targets of opportunity and a secondary target; the first attack, from Ceylon to Sumatra, is the longest single-stage combat flight (about 3,900 miles or 6,276 km) by B-29s during the war.
The US Army 475th Infantry Regiment is activated at Ledo from personnel of the 5307th Composite Unit ("Merrill's Marauders). Merrill's Marauders is disbanded today and its assets are transferred to the 475th. (Stuart Kohn)(240, 241, 242, 243 and 244)
GUAM:
The Allied conquest of the Marianas was completed today as US forces overran Pati Point on
north-east Guam, the last outpost of Japanese resistance on the US protectorate which it
has taken three weeks of fierce fighting to recapture. Isolated groups are holding out in
the jungle. The last of these survivors will hold out until 1972.
With effective Japanese resistance now ended, US engineers are working to turn Guam,
Tinian and Saipan - the first of the Mariana Islands invaded seven weeks ago - into
"unsinkable aircraft carriers" for B-29
Superfortresses capable of bombing Tokyo
1,600 miles away.
Japanese losses on Guam are now thought to be a little over 10,000 dead out of an original
force of 18,500, with 1,250 taken prisoner. US losses are 1,744 dead and 5,790 wounded.
These losses include marines fighting in northern Guam's dense jungle who were hit by
their own artillery. The turning point came 15 days ago when two counter-offensives
intended to break the US beach-head on the west coast failed.
NORTHERN PACIFIC: In the Kurile Islands, 4 USAAF
VOLCANO ISLANDS: US Seventh Air Force B-24s, flying their first mission from Saipan Island, pound Iwo Jima Island, beginning the USAAF's neutralization campaign of that island.
Eleventh Air Force B-25s, based in the Aleutians, spot 2 patrol boats 75 miles (121 km) east-southeast of Shimushu Island while on a shipping sweep; one is sunk, the other is damaged.
CANADA: HMCS Loch Alvie (ex HMS Loch Alvie) commissioned.
U.S.A.: Baseball: Boston Braves pitcher Charles "Red" Barrett throws only 58 pitches as the Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-0. Barrett was 9-16 on the year for the Braves who finished in 6th place.
The last Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express, cargo aircraft, is delivered to the USAAF">USAAF. (Ron Babuka)
Destroyer USS Gearing laid down.
Submarine USS Blower launched.