October 3rd, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Germany resumed its V2 bombardment of Britain today from new launch sites in the Netherlands. Some 35 V2 rockets were fired before 18 September when the Germans withdrew from to sites further east; 44 v2s were then fired from Denmark at East Anglia, but only one caused casualties. Now London is back in range.
Frigates HMS Largo Bay and Loch More launched.
In England, the Eighth Air Force flies 2 missions:
* Mission 662: 1,065 bombers and 753 fighters in 4 forces make PFF and visual attacks against airfields and industrial targets in Germany; 3 bombers and 4 fighters are lost:
- 380 B-17s are dispatched to hit Giebelstadt Airfield (49); targets of opportunity are Nurnberg (256), Ludwigshafen (13), Ulm (11) and others (24). Escort is provided by 260 P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51s; they claim 2-0-0 aircraft on the ground; 4 P-51s are lost.
- 228 B-17s are dispatched to hit a motor vehicle factory at Nurnberg (198); 10 others hit Ottingen Airfield; 3 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 227 P-47s and P-51s.
- 119 B-17s are dispatched to hit the oil refinery at Wesseling (87); targets of opportunity are Cologne (26) and 1 other. Escort is provided by 24 P-47s.
- 338 B-24s are dispatched to hit Gaggenau (139) and Lachen/Speyerdorf (111) visually; secondary targets hit are Offenburg marshalling yard (19) and Pforzheim Airfield (19); targets of opportunity are Speyer Airfield (30) and Lachen (2). Escort is provided by 188 P-38s and P-47s.
* Mission 663: 6 B-24s and 4 B-17s drop leaflets in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium during the night.
On the Continent, the Ninth Air Force dispatches 220+ B-26s and A-20s to bomb targets at Durena and Aldenhoven, Germany, and Arnhem, the Netherlands, are recalled because of weather; fighters fly armed reconnaissance over western Germany, hit railroads west of the River Rhine , and support the US Third Army in the Metz, France area. The IX Air defence Command continues night patrols.
NETHERLANDS: Seven RAF Mosquitoes and 252 Lancaster bombers today breached the sea wall protecting the Dutch island of Walcheren whose heavy guns threaten Allied shipping approaching Antwerp. The intention is to flood the island, most of which is reclaimed polder below sea level. The flooding would submerge some of the gun batteries and also hamper the German defence against eventual ground attack. The target for this first raid is the sea wall at Westkapelle, the most western point of Walcheren. The main bombing force is composed of eight waves, each of 30 Lancasters, with marking provided by Oboe Mosquitos and Pathfinder Lancasters, with the whole operation being controlled by a Master Bomber. The attack goes well and a great mass of high-explosive bombs, mainly 1,000- and 500-pound (454- and 227 kilogram) bombs but with some 4,000-pounder (1 814 kilogram) bombs, force a gap during the fifth wave of the attack. Some of the attackers dropped 21-foot long "Tallboy" bombs, each weighing 12,000 pounds. These penetrate hard targets, then trigger an explosion whose shock waves are as destructive as a direct hit. Later waves widen the breach until the sea is pouring in through a gap estimated to be 100 yards (91 meters) wide. Eight Lancasters of No 617 Squadron which are standing by are not needed and carry their valuable Tallboy bombs back to England. No aircraft are lost from this successful operation.
Over 100 islanders are feared to have died in the raid, either from the bombing itself or when the sea rushed through the breached wall.
FRANCE: Dunkirk: The battling armies agree a truce to enable civilians to be evacuated.
In the U.S. Third Army’s XX Corps area, the 90th Infantry Division begins a limited attack toward Maizires-lPs-Metz to secure a line of approach to Metz from the north and gain experience in attacking fortifications.
GERMANY: US troops cross the river Wurm, and establish a bridgehead across the Siegfried Line.
In U.S. First Army’s XIX Corps area, the 30th Infantry Division reaches Uebach and begins clearing house-to-house resistance and is overtaken there by the 2d Armored Division, which has crossed the Wurm River at Marienberg to expand the bridgehead northward while infantry works south to establish contact with VII Corps. The small bridgehead becomes very congested and neither armor nor infantry is able to get beyond Uebach. The 30th Infantry Division also takes Rimburg castle and woods, the latter in flanking and frontal assaults, but can go no farther; its bridgehead is only 800 yards (732 meters) deep.
During the day, the USAAF Eighth Air Force sent 1,065 bombers and 753 fighters in four forces to make PFF and visual attacks against airfields and industrial targets; three bombers and four fighters are lost: B-17 targets: 456 aircraft bomb the M.A.N. armored vehicle factory at Nurnburg, 87 hit the synthetic oil refinery at Wesseling, 49 hit Giebelstadt Airfield, 25 attack the Ford factory at Cologne, 13 hit Ludwigsburg, 11 each bomb Freudinstadt and the ordnance depot at Ulm, ten bomb Ottingen Airfield, one bombs Katzenelbogen and 14 attack miscellaneous targets of opportunity. B-24 targets are: 144 aircraft bomb the Daimler-Benz armament factory at Gaggenau, 113 hit Speyerdorf Airfield at Lachen, 30 attack the Bf 109 aircraft repair facility at Speyer, 19 hit the marshalling yard at Offenburg and 16 bomb the marshalling yard at Pforzheim.
During the night 3/4 October, 42 Mosquitos of RAF Bomber Command bombed Kassel, five bomb Aschaffenburg, five bombed Handorf Airfield at Munster, three each bomb Pforzheim and the Chemischewerke synthetic oil refinery at Kamen, two hit the marshalling yard at Pforzheim and one bombs Kamen. No aircraft are lost.
U-2351, U-2531 and U-3023 laid down. U-2341 launched.
POLAND: Warsaw: The city has fallen. The last shots were fired at 10pm yesterday after a struggle lasting 63 days against the full weight of the Wehrmacht and SS. Attacked by two Panzer divisions, General Bor Komorowski, the commander of the Polish armed forces, had no ammunition, no food and no hope of Russian rescue. He had to surrender.
Surprisingly, the Germans out of respect for the tremendous fight put up by the Poles, have agreed to treat them as prisoners of war rather than franc-tireurs. Some 15,000 Polish fighters died in the uprising along with an estimated 200,000 civilians, killed as the city was torn apart by bombs and shells. The Germans have lost 10,000 dead.
Announcing the surrender last night, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, the Polish prime minister in exile, said: "The cessation of military operations took place after all supplies had been exhausted. The garrison and people were completely starved. Fighting ceased after vain attempts to fight their way out, after the successive fall of the Old Town, the suburbs of Mokotow, Zoliborz and finally, after all the hopes of relief from outside had vanished."
The surrendered fighters are being marched off to their prison camps, but as they go they sing their national anthem and are embraced by the civilian survivors. The spirit of Poland lives on.
ESTONIA: Troops of the Soviet Leningrad Front land on Dagoe (Hiiumaa) Island, off the coast at the entrance to the Gulf of Riga, and begin clearing the island.
ITALY: Bologna: Allied generals had every hope that their armour would move quickly across the flat country of the Romagna now that the Gothic Line has been pierced. It was not to be.
From the moment that the New Zealand Division - the Eighth Army's Corps de Chasse - was stopped by its old antagonists, the German 1st Parachute Division, after 27 separate attacks, it became clear that this would be no easy operation. The Marecchia river was six inches deep when the New Zealanders crossed a week ago. Today it is a roaring, 12-foot deep torrent.
Despite a shortage of infantry - General Mark Clark has reported losses of 55 men a day - the US Fifth Army is less than 20 miles from Bologna.
In the U.S. Fifth Army’s IV Corps area, the Germans withdraw from Mt. Catarelto.
The Fifteenth Air Force is grounded for the eighth consecutive day due to bad weather. Medium bombers of the Twelfth Air Force continue to attack road and rail bridges and fuel dumps in the Po Valley; A-20s, fighter-bombers, and fighters of the XII Fighter Command hit fuel dumps, rail lines, and transportation in the Valley and support US Fifth Army forces in the battle areas in the northern Apennines south and southwest of Bologna and north of the Arno River Valley.
GREECE: German troops evacuate Athens.
CHINA: 23 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s attack Pingnam, trucks and rivercraft in the Wuchou, Samshui, and Canton areas, and bomb Tien Ho and White Cloud Airfields in Canton; 100 P-51 Mustangs and P-40s continue armed reconnaissance over wide expanses of China south of the Yangtze River, attacking rivercraft, road traffic, troops, town areas, and other targets of opportunity; the Hsinganhsien, Pingnam, and Chuanhsien areas are covered exceptionally well.
JAPAN: Two Eleventh Air Force B-24s flying offshore reconnaissance over Onnekotan, Harumukotan, and Shasukotan Islands in the Kurile Islands, also strafe several small vessels.
EAST INDIES: In British North Borneo, USAAF Far East Air Force B-24s of the 5th and 307th Bomb Groups attack oil refineries and oil storage facilities at Lutong for a second time.
In the Netherlands East Indies, USAAF Far East Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit shipping and bomb Sanana on Sanana Island, Moluccas Islands; B-25s attack Kaoe Aerodrome on Halmahera Island and bomb Galela Airfield on Galela Island; B-25 Mitchells and B-24 Liberators over Ceram Island-Ambon Island hit barge and coastal targets of opportunity and pound Taka Airfield in the Moluccas Islands, while fighter-bombers attack Halong seaplane base on Halong Island and Namlea Airfield on Buroe Island and Haroekoe Aerodrome on Haroekoe Island.
NEW GUINEA: On the Vogelkop Peninsula in New Guinea, fighter-bombers again hit Fak Fak and Otawiri. (Jack McKillop and Robert McFaul)
CAROLINE ISLANDS: On Peleliu Island in the Palau Islands, the 7th Marine Regiment gains hold on ridges along east side of the Umurbrogol Pocket.
CENTRAL PACIFIC: Seventh Air Force B-24s from Saipan Island hit shipping in the Bonin Islands while P-47s pound gun positions, buildings, and a wharf on Pagan Island, Mariana Islands.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: USAAF B-24s on special reconnaissance missions bomb the airfield on Iwo Jima.
Submarine USS Seawolf sunk in error in a safety zone for American submarines in the Morotai area, by aircraft from the escort carrier USS Midway and destroyer escort USS Richard M. Rowell. The American forces in the area had just been attacked by a Japanese submarine and Seawolf was apparently mistaken for it. There were no survivors. Destroyer escort USS Shelton Sunk after being torpedoed by Japanese submarine R0-41 off Morotai Island. 13 of her crew were lost.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Harold J Ellison laid down. Destroyer USS Frank E Evans launched.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) direct General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific (SWPA), to seize bases on Luzon, Philippine Islands from which to support future operations. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific Ocean Area and Commander of the Pacific Fleet, is to provide cover and support for the Luzon operation; invade Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, in January 1945 and the Ryukyu Island, with the assistance of SWPA aircraft, two months later.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A Soviet aircraft attacked U-711 in the Arctic Sea, but the U-boat crew was able to drive it off.