August 12th, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The shuttle-bombing mission flown by US Eighth Air Force from UK-USSR-Italy-UK is completed; of the 72 B-17s taking off from Fifteenth Air Force bases in Italy, 3 have various problems; the others bomb Francazal Airfield, Toulouse, France and then proceed to the UK; 62 P-51 Mustangs (part of the shuttle-mission force) and 43 from the UK provide escort; no aircraft are lost; 70 B-17s and 58 P-51s land in the UK; 5 B-17s and 6 P-51s, either left in Italy or returning there during this mission, subsequently return to the UK.
The Eighth Air Force also flies two missions:
- Mission 545: 577 bombers and 436 fighters, in 2 forces, are dispatched to make visual
attacks on the Metz marshalling yard and airfield in central and eastern France; 3 bombers
and 3 fighters are lost (number in parenthesis are the number of bombers attacking the
target).
(1) 276 B-24s are dispatched to hit airfields at Mourmelon (75), Laon/Athies
(63), Laon/Couvron (61) and Juvincourt (52); 3 B-24s are lost.
(2) 301 B-17s are
dispatched to hit airfields at Chaumont (72), Buc (67), La Perthe (58) and
Etampes/Mondesir (12);and 69 hit the Metz marshalling yard. The 2 forces above are
escorted by 386 P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs; they claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft;
3 P-51s are lost.
- Mission 546: 6 B-17s drop leaflets in France during the night.
- 486 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s attack transportation targets in the Paris and Brussels areas; they claim 18-0-0 aircraft; 1 P-38s, 5 P-47s and 7 P-51s are lost.
- 220 P-47s and P-51s attack transportation targets in northeastern France; 2 P-51s are lost.
Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., a pilot assigned to the USN's Bombing Squadron One Hundred Ten (VB-110) based at NAF Dunkeswell, Devonshire, England, volunteers to serve as pilot aboard a worn-out Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator loaded with explosives and equipped with terminal radio control systems. The concept was that the pilot and co-pilot would take off in the aircraft and place it on the correct heading toward the target. Once locked under positive radio control by an accompanying mothership (a Lockheed PV-1 Ventura on this occasion), the pilot and co-pilot would bail out of the aircraft. The explosive-laden bomber would then be guided into its target by the accompanying plane.
The death of Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (USNR).
Lt. Kennedy was commissioned as a Naval Aviator in May, 1942.
He flew Caribbean patrols until September, 1943 when he was transferred to England. He and his crew finished their rotation in May, 1944. They stayed though July, 1944 as they felt "D-Day" was important. The balance of the crew was rotated to the US.
Lt. Kennedy chose to stay in England because he had heard of a new and special assignment for which volunteers had been requested which would require another month of the most dangerous type of flying.
The Secret mission on which he lost his life was described by a fellow officer after it was declassified: Lt. Kennedy, regarded as an experienced Patrol Plane Commander, and a fellow-officer, an expert in radio control projects, was to take a "drone" Liberator bomber loaded with 21,170 pounds of high explosives into the air and to stay with it until two "mother" planes had achieved complete radio control over the "drone." They were then to bail out over England; the "drone," under the control of the "mother" planes, was to proceed on the mission which was to culminate in a crash-dive on the target, a V-2 rocket launching site in Normandy. The airplane ... was in flight with routine checking of the radio controls proceeding satisfactorily, when at 6:20 p.m. on August 12, 1944, two explosions blasted the "drone" resulting in the death of its two pilots. No final conclusions as to the cause of the explosions has ever been reached.
More information: http://www.jpkf.org/BIOG.HTML
(Tom Hickcox)
Frigate HMS Tobago commissioned.
EIRE: An RAF Sunderland crashes at Caskelard, County Donegal.
FRANCE:
The US XV Corps occupies Alençon and halts the German offensive towards Avranches. It then advances towards Argentan to meet the German 116th Division.North-West FRANCE: With Brittany sealed off and its ports besieged, Patton has swung the bulk of his Third Army eastwards towards the Seine. Le Mans has fallen and Alençon, to the north, fell today.
The Allied plan is to put Patton's XV Corps in place at Argentan, opposite the Canadian First Army, now driving on Falaise, and trap the remnants of General Paul Hausser's II SS Panzer Corps, ten of whose divisions have disintegrated.
On Hitler's orders, Hausser has launched a counter-attack at Mortain, east of Avranches. In a bid to gain tactical surprise, the Panzers advanced without the usual artillery bombardment and overran two US infantry companies before pressing on to within nine miles of Avranches.
"Ultra" intercepts, however, had alerted the Americans to the counter-attack. As the Panzers moved up they were hit by a swarm of fighter-bombers and a strong infantry and artillery defence. The Germans collapsed in disorder. The massive forces deployed in the Fuhrer's directive for Operation Luttich did not exist. Of 1,400 Panzers assembled for the Normandy campaign, fewer than 150 remain, along with 30 self-propelled guns. Von Kluge's Army Group B's best move now would be to retreat to the Seine and save the bulk of its forces. This course Hitler has rejected.
Paris: A letter is sent by the French national railway, S.N.C.F. (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), demanding payment of 200,000 Francs from the regional government of Haute-Garonne in southern France for transporting Jewish detainees from concentration camps to the border with Germany. The letter warns that interest will be charged if the payment is not made on time. (Peter Kilduff)
Destroyers HMCS Qu'Appelle, Assiniboine, Skeena, Restigouche and HMS Albrighton while engaged in Ops Kinetic, an attack against a German convoy in the English Channel attempting to resupply an isolated German garrison on an island in Audierne. Three German armed trawlers were sunk. During this action, Qu'Appelle and Skeena collided and had to be escorted by Restigouche to Devonport for repairs. After the landings in Normandy, the naval power required to support Operation NEPTUNE was freed to exert offensive power along the European coastline. Operation KINETIC was a typical example of the use of offensive sea power to deny the enemy the ability to use the sea for their own purposes.
One man from U-963 was killed during an air attack on the base at Brest, France and another man was so severely wounded that he died a day later. [Bootsmaat Albrecht Sekula, Maschinenobergefreiter Helmut Laskosky].
Nancy: Laval arrives to bring Edouard
Herriot, former president of the Assemblée, from his nursing home, so that he might help
revive the Third Republic. Herriot has no desire to save Laval and nothing comes of the
endeavour.
GERMANY:
U-2504 is commissioned.
U.S.S.R.:
Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: MS
"T-114" (ex-AM.141
"Alchemy") and MS
"T-118" (ex-AM.145
"Armada") - by U-boat, close to Belii Is., in Karsk Sea (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
ITALY: The liberation of
Florence is complete.
The US Fifteenth Air Force dispatches almost 550 fighter-escorted
B-17s and B-24s to attack targets in France and Italy; the B-17s bomb gun positions in the
Savona, Italy area; B-24s attack gun positions in the Genoa, Italy and the Marseille,
Toulon, and Sete areas of France; 100+ P-51s strafe radar installations and other
coast-watching facilities along the southern French coast; these strikes are preparatory
to Operation DRAGOON, the invasion of southern France.
560 men, women and children in the Tuscan village of Sant' Anna are massacred in the early hours by Heer troops retreating to the Gothic Line. The Nazis defence is that this is an anti-partisan sweep. One of those responsible is SS captain Erich Priebke who is also responsible for the murder of 335 men and boys in the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome.
INDIAN OCEAN: - U-198 is sunk near the Seychelles, in position 03.35S, 52.49E, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Findhorn and the Indian sloop HMIS Godavari. All hands, 66 men, are lost.
KURILE ISLANDS: 4 B-24s and 2 F-7A Liberators of
the US Eleventh Air Force over Paramushiru and Shimushu Islands, hit targets which include
shipping in Higashi Banjo Strait and buildings and runway on Suribachi; enemy fighters
give battle; the B-24s score 3 kills and 13 probables and damaged; 6 more B-25s fly an
uneventful shipping sweep and take photos over Shimushiru Island.
US Seventh Air Force B-24s based on Saipan Island hit shipping, a
seaplane base, and the airfield on Chichi Jima Island, Bonin
Islands.
U.S.A.: US President Franklin D Roosevelt concludes his inspection of naval facilities in the Pacific and departs Puget Sound, Washington for Washington, DC.
Minesweeper USS Mirth commissioned.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-191 was commissioned on 12 August 1944, at New Orleans with LTJG ER Holden, USCGR, as commanding officer. She has assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: - U-981 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay at La Rochelle, in position 45.41N, 01.25W, by an air-laid mine (field "Cinnamon") and depth charges from an RAF Halifax Mk II of No. 502 Squadron based at St David's, Pembrokeshire. 40 of the 52 U-boat crewmen survive.
U-365 sinks SS Wedemeyer,
T-114 and T-118 in Convoy BD-5.