28 August 1944

August 28th, 1944 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Weather prevents US Eight Air Force heavy bomber operations from England; 835 fighters, in 3 forces, are dispatched on fighter-bomber and strafing attacks on rail targets in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and GERMANY: 20 fighters are lost.
(1) 174 P-38s, P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs attack transportation targets on the German/French border; they claim 12-1-0 aircraft in the air and 3-0-4 on the ground; 1 P-38 is lost.
(2) 143 P-38s and P-47s hit transportation targets in France, Belgium and the Netherlands; they claim 4-0-0 aircraft in the air and 3-0-2 on the ground; 3 P-47s are lost.
(3) An unknown number of 380 P-51s strafe transportation targets on the French/German border; they claim 3-0-0 aircraft in the air and 5-0-2 on the ground; 16 P-51s are lost.

Mission 588: 6 B-17s drop leaflets in France and the Netherlands during the night.

London: The V1 flying-bomb threat against England is being overcome. Of 94 V1s launched today, only four got through to London. The defence-in-depth tactics are now paying off. The missiles have first to face RAF fighter patrols overt the Channel - and then a belt of anti-aircraft guns on the south coast. Behind this are further hungry fighters. Finally, as they begin their descent, they have to contend with a balloon barrage on the southern outskirts of the capital. Meanwhile, in France, the Allied armies continue to overrun launching sites.

A USAAF Douglas (Model DC-4A) C-54A-1-DC, msn 10276, USAAF serial number 42-72171, crashes into a residential area at 0100 hours local in poor visibility while attempting to land at RAF Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, after a trans-Atlantic flight. All 20 aboard the aircraft and five people on the ground are killed.

Aircraft carrier HMS Implacable commissioned.

FRANCE: U.S. Lieutenant General Leonard T. Gerow, Commanding General V Corps, in a letter to French General Pierre Joseph Koening, Military Governor of Paris, turns over the city to the French.

In northern France, the U.S. First Army crosses the Marne River at Meaux while the U.S. Third Army (Patton) rumbles 50 miles (80,5 kilometres) and closes in on Chalons-sur-Marne and Vitro-le-Francois. Patton's tanks and trucks are only 140 miles (225,3 kilometres) from the French-German border but are running out of diesel fuel and gasoline. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)

Three men from U-262 were killed and 1 more wounded during an air raid on La Pallice. The boat left for its next patrol on 23 August for its traverse to Germany, reaching Flensburg on 5 November.

In southern France, French troops led by General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny eliminate German resistance in Marseilles and Toulon, France's biggest Mediterranean ports, and the German forces surrender. Marseilles's liberation is a godsend for the Allies, who badly need an undamaged French seaport. During the next three months, one-third of Allied supplies and equipment will be offloaded in Marseilles and forwarded to Eisenhower's armies. The German 11th Panzer Division is cut off, south of Montelimar in the Rhone Valley. In attacking to the north they take severe losses from artillery and air strikes. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)

Marseilles: Last week General Schaeffer, the German commander in Marseilles, spurned a French proposal to surrender. Today he capitulated, as his counterpart in Toulon did yesterday; Free French forces under General de Lattre de Tassigny have captured the two great ports of southern France, and with their fall the entire French Mediterranean coast has now been liberated.

Marseilles surrendered after bloody, and often confused, fighting in which the regular French forces and the largely communist local Resistance fighters appeared at times to be waging a private war. Some 4,000 French casualties are feared, but German losses are heavier and about 37,000 prisoners have been taken. The port itself is a mass of twisted metal with 11 sunken ships blocking the main inlet.

The fight for Toulon, ringed by 30 forts, was no less fierce, often taking place in underground galleries built by the French but developed by the Germans. Today Admiral Ruhfuss, the German commander surrendered and agreed to hand over maps of his minefields.

The 11th Panzer Div. is cut off, south of Montelimar in the Rhone Valley. In attacking to the north they take severe losses from artillery and air strikes.

In northern FRANCE, the US Ninth Air Force dispatches B-26s and A-20 Havocs, escorted by fighters, to bomb fuel dumps at Doullens, Barisis-aux-Bois, an ammunition dump at Querrieu, an ammunition and fuel dump at Compiegne/Foret de Laigue, and an alcohol distillery and fuel storage depot at Hamm; fighters escort about 400 C-47 Skytrains on supply and evacuation runs, attack airfields at Bourges and Peronne, support ground forces, and fly armed reconnaissance from Amiens to east of Dijon.

In southeastern FRANCE and ITALY, US Twelfth Air Force B-25s bomb railroad bridges in the Lyon, France area. In Italy, B-26s destroy several airplanes at Villafranca di Verona Airfield and a bridge at Parma; A-20s hit motor transport and other targets of opportunity during the night of 27/28 August, fly armed reconnaissance over the Po Valley and blast a command post southeast of Genoa; fighter-bombers hit vehicles in the Rhone Valley of France, bomb and strafe roads and bridges in the battle area north of the Arno River and hit shipping in Imperia and Savona harbors.

GERMANY: U-3506 launched
U-2522, U-3014 and U-3516 laid down.

AUSTRIA: One hundred fifty five B-17 Flying Fortresses of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy bomb the Moosbierbaum benzine refinery at Vienna without loss.

SWEDEN: British Overseas Airlines Corp. Lockheed 18-56 Lodestar (ex USAAF C-60A-5-LO, s/n 42-56018), msn 18-2491, registered G-AGIH, crashes at Kinnekulle; 4 of the 8 aboard the aircraft survive.

POLAND: Warsaw: The Poles, fighting with their customary gallantry, continue to hold out in battered, starving Warsaw against the Wehrmacht while Stalin refuses to help and the Red Army waits on the far side of the Vistula. The Luftwaffe has been brought in to bomb the Poles, and heavy artillery is shelling the city to pieces. So fierce is the bombardment that the Home Army has been forced to abandon its positions in the Old Town and has gone literally underground - into the sewers, from whence its members emerge to attack the Germans. They are hungry, but what they really want are guns.

A new government in HUNGARY takes office. Headed by General Lakatos, they announce their readiness to negotiate with the Russians.

B-24 Liberators of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy attack three targets: 105 bomb the marshalling yard at Miskolc, 103 bomb the Szony Oil Refinery at Komarom, and 84 bomb the Szajol Railroad Bridge at Szolnok. Two aircraft are lost.

During the night of 28/29 August, six RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group mine the Danube River.

ROMANIA: The Third Ukraine Front takes Braila on the Danube. Units of the Second Ukraine Front drive into Transylvania through the Oituz Pass in the Carpathian Mountains.

During the night of 28/29 August, three RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group mine the Danube River.

YUGOSLAVIA: A B-24 LIberator of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy bombs the marshalling yard at Subotica.

During the night of 28/29 August, nine RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group mine the Danube River.

EASTERN FRONT: The 3rd Ukraine Front takes Braila on the Danube. Units of the 2nd Ukraine Front move through the Carpathian Mountains toward Transylvania.
U.S.S.R.: Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: HS "Nord" - by U-boat, close to Beluha Is. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

ITALY: The British Eighth Army continues to gain ground toward the Gothic Line with the Polish 2 Corps reaching the Arzilla River. During the night of 28/29 August, elements of the 8th Indian Division capture Tigliano, north of Pontassieve.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-26 Marauders destroy several airplanes at Villafranca di Verona Airfield and a bridge at Parma; fighter-bombers bomb and strafe roads and bridges in the battle area north of the Arno River and hit shipping in Imperia and Savona harbors.

B-24 Liberators of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attack four targets: 59 bomb the railroad bridge at Ora, 40 bomb the railroad viaduct at Aviso, ten bomb the railroad bridge at Peschiera Del Grade and nine bomb the highway bridge at Zambana. Two aircraft are lost.

During the night of 28/29 August, 50 RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb troop concentrations at Pesano.

The US Fifteenth Air Force in Italy sends 560+ bombers, escorted by P-38s and P-51s, to strike targets in Austria, Hungary and Italy; B-17s hit Moosbierbaum oil refinery and adjacent chemical works in Austria; B-24s hit an oil refinery at Szony and marshalling yards at Miskolc, Hungary; and railroad bridges and viaducts at Szolnok, Hungary; and Zambana, Avisio, and Ora Italy.

FRENCH MOROCCO: British Overseas Airways Corp C-47A-1-DK, msn 11932, registered G-AGIR, crashes at Telmest in the Atlas Mountains south-southwest of Casablanca.

US Seventh Air Force B-24s based on Saipan pound Iwo Jima Island by day and night while Marshall Islands-based B-24s hit Truk Atoll.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: The USN's Task Force 38, with eight fleet carriers and eight light aircraft carriers, sorties from Eniwetok Atoll to attack Japanese bases in the western Pacific in support of the upcoming invasion of the Palau Islands. The aircraft carriers, and their assigned groups, of TF 38 are

- Task Group 38.1 (TG-38.1)

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty One (CVLG-21)

USS Cowpens (CVL-25) with CVLG-22

USS Hornet (CV-12) with Carrier Air Group Two (CVG-2)

USS Monterey (CVL-26) with CVLG-28

USS Wasp (CV-18) with CVG-14

- TG 38.2

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-8

USS Cabot (CVL-28) with CVLG-31

USS Independence (CVL-22) with Night Light Carrier Air Group Forty Two [CVLG(N)-42]

USS Intrepid (CV-11) with CVG-18

- TG 38.3

USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-15

USS Langley (CVL-27) with CVLG-32

USS Lexington (CV-16) with CVG-19)

USS Princeton (CVL-23) with CVLG-27

- TG 38.4

USS Enterprise (CV-6) with CVG-20

USS Franklin (CV-13) with CVG-13

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) with CVLG-51

Palau Islands: US Far East Air Force B-24s hit the airfield on Koror Island, and the seaplane base on Arakabesan Island.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS St Pierre commissioned. A/S towing vessel HMCS Brentwood assigned to HMCS Cornwallis.

U.S.A.: Brigadier General Haywood S Hansell, Jr assumes command of the XXI Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force, at Peterson Field, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Brigadier General Lauris Norstad succeeds Hansell as Chief of Staff of the Twentieth Air Force.

Submarine USS Blueback commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Johnnie Hutchins commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Inflict commissioned.
Destroyer USS Hank commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-859 sank SS John Barry.

The USN's Task Force 38, with 8 fleet carriers and 8 light aircraft carriers, sorties from Eniwetok Atoll to attack Japanese bases in the western Pacific in support of the upcoming invasion of the Palau Islands.

The aircraft carriers, and their assigned groups, of TF 38 are:

- Task Group 38.1 (TG-38.1)

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty One

(CVLG-21)