December 3rd, 1944 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: King George takes the salute from the Home Guard and orders it to stand down.
Home Guard contingents from all over Britain held their last parade in the centre of London. They marched three miles from Hyde Park where the King took the salute accompanied by the Queen, the Princesses and service ministers. Cheering crowds lined the route.
The march past was led by men of the London District and anti-aircraft gunners who defended London against the Flying bombs. There were 29 sections including the American Home Guard made up of US citizens in London.
In a broadcast tonight King George said "I believe it is the voluntary spirit which has always made the Home Guard so powerful a comradeship .... You have found how men from all kinds of homes and occupations can work together in a great cause. I am very proud of what the Home Guard has done and I give my heartfelt thanks."
USAAF Ninth Air Force fighters fly defensive patrols and armed reconnaissance, hitting rails and bridges and dive-bomb targets in western Germany including the marshalling yard at Grevenbroich. The U.S. 104th Infantry Division is supported as it extends the Inde River, Germany, bridgehead beyond Lucherberg, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division as it seizes Luchem, the U.S. 8th Infantry Division in the Brandenberger Forest-Tiefenbach Creek area, and units of the US XII Corps at Sarre-Union, France, as it checks a counterattack.
NETHERLANDS: In the British Second Army area, with the XII Corps capture of Bierick, across from Venlo, the Second Army finishes clearing west Bank of the Maas River.
FRANCE: In the U.S. Third Army's XII Corps area, a counterattacking German force from Oermingen drives into Sarre-Union before being checked by the 26th Infantry Division defenders of the town.
In the U.S. Seventh Army's XV Corps area, the 44th Infantry Division is delayed by the Germans at Ratzwilier but the 45th Infantry Division takes Zinswilier. The 100th Infantry Division begins a drive on Bitche, passing the 398th Infantry Regiment through the 44th Infantry Division. The VI Corps continues to clear Sélestat.
GERMANY:
In the U.S. Ninth Army area, XIII Corps reaches the Roer River. Flossdorf falls to the 407th Infantry Regiment, 102d Infantry Division. In the XIX Corps area, the commander of 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, is replaced as futile efforts to reduce the Juelich strongpoints continue.
In the U.S. First Army's VII Corps area, 104th Infantry Division extends the Inde River bridgehead eastward beyond Lucherberg. The Germans, having recovered from the surprise of a night crossing, are countering strongly. The 16th Infantry Regiment (--), 1st Infantry Division, assisted by tanks and tank destroyers, seizes Luchem. In the V Corps area, the 8th Infantry Division continues to clear the flanks of main assault in Brandenberger Wald and the Tiefen Creek area, while Task Force Hamberg of the 5th Armored Division, with effective air support, renews the drive down the Kleinhau-Brandenberg highway and seizes Brandenberg. The usually inactive German Air Force appears in strength in the afternoon, about 6o Bf 109s attacking without causing serious damage and at a cost of at least 19 shot down. With the Germans on commanding the ground near Brandenberg, the Americans are precariously situated but no reinforcement is possible since Task Force Boyer of Combat Command R , 5th Armored Division, is temporarily attached to the 28th Infantry Regiment of 8th Infantry Division, and is clearing enemy strongpoint in Vossenack.
In the U.S. Third Army's XX Corps area, the 1st Battalion, 379th Infantry Regiment, 95th Infantry Division, seizes the bridge leading to the Saarlautern--Saarlautern-Roden road, but the bridge cannot be used immediately because of German efforts to destroy it with fire; the 2d and 3d Battalions clear most of Saarlautern; other elements of the 95th Infantry Division move forward to the river line. the 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, clears Creutzwald in a hard battle; the 6th Cavalry Group (Mechanized) and the 2d Ranger Battalion repel counterattacks west of Lauterbach.
During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 183 Lancasters and four Mosquitos to bomb the small town of Heimbach in the Eifel region. probably in support of an American ground attack in this area. The Master Bomber and the Pathfinders could not identify the target and the Lancasters are ordered to abandon the raid. The Mosquitos hit tactical targets.
During the night of 3/4 December, 11 Mosquitos bombed the Hermann Göring steelworks at Hallendorf without loss.
AUSTRIA: Fifty USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers attack the Vienna Southeast freight depot with the loss of one aircraft. Other targets hit are: 11 bomb the South marshalling yard (M/Y) at Villach; nine bomb the industrial area at Linz; six hit the Main M/Y at Innsbruck; four bomb the M/Y at Klagenfurt; three other aircraft hit targets of opportunity. P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs escort the bombers and fly reconnaissance and reconnaissance escort.
HUNGARY: Soviet forces of the Second Ukrainian Front overrun Miskoic, a key point in the Germans defense line northeast of Budapest and important centre of war industries.
YUGOSLAVIA: During the day, RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb two targets: 31 hit a highway at Podgorica and six attack a highway bridge at Bioce.
During the night of 3/4 December, 19 RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group drop supplies to partisans.
ITALY: The British Eighth Army opens an offensive toward Bologna with three corps abreast. The Polish II Corps, which is to secure the left flank of the army by clearing the foothills to the left of V Corps, jumps off at 2300 hours. V Corps attacks along Highway 9 toward the Santerno River. The Canadian I Corps, in the Adriatic coastal sector, continues toward Ravenna and the Santerno River with the Canadian 1st Division on the left and the Canadian 5th Armoured Division on the right, The Canadian 1st Division enveloping and taking Russi and the Canadian 5th Armoured Division seizing Godo, on the Russi-Ravenna road, during the night of 3/4 December.
Weather hampers USAAF Twelfth Air Force operations and many missions are aborted; medium bombers score effective hits only on a bridge east of Mantua; A-20 Havocs bomb lights throughout the Po Valley. During the night of 3/4 December, A-20 Havocs again bomb targets of opportunity in the Po River Valley.
GREECE: Today, a civil war breaks out in Athens as communist guerrillas battle democratic forces for control of a liberated Greece. During the German occupation, various Greek resistance forces gave battle, but two stood out as particularly important: a communist-backed resistance movement called the National Popular Liberation Army (ELAS), and a liberal, democratic movement called the Greek Democratic National Army (EDES). While both of these factions operated from different ideological frameworks, they nevertheless occasionally cooperated in fighting the common German enemy. By early 1944 though, the communist-backed ELAS had taken to the hills to create a provisional government, rejecting the legitimacy of both the Greek king and his government-in-exile. It also disregarded the one remaining rival for ultimate political supremacy in Greece, the EDES. When the Germans were forced to withdraw in October 1944, victorious British forces brought together the communist and democratic factions in order to establish a coalition government. But this government collapses after the communist ELAS refuses to disband its guerrilla forces. So war breaks out between the communists and the democrats-with the ELAS taking control of most of Greece, with the exception of Athens and Salonika. The British fight against the communists with the EDES, which begins to move more and more to the right politically as it struggles for survival and support. By February 1945, the ELAS is forced to surrender and disband its guerrilla army. In March 1945, a general election is held, and the democrats, now also royalists, win control of the government. The communists refrain from voting altogether, preferring to bide their time. When a plebiscite elects the Greek king back to his throne in September 1945, the communists emerge from underground-and civil war breaks out again. By this time, Britain, fed up and exhausted, leaves the negotiation for peace to the United States, which employs the Truman Doctrine of giving massive amounts of foreign aid to governments pledged to democracy in order to keep them out of the communist/Soviet orbit. It takes time, but eventually the rejuvenated--and well-funded--Greek democrats are victorious.
CEYLON: Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Theatre, agrees to permit the Chinese 22d and 38th Divisions to move from Burma to China to defend Kunming.
CHINA: The Japanese 11th Army halts its unauthorized drive into Kweichow Province toward Kweiyang as its supplies run out.
Five USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators place delayed action bombs near the Pengpu bridge; four B-25 Mitchells and ten P-51 Mustangs bomb a storage area at Sintsiang. Fighter-bombers on armed reconnaissance blast trucks, railroad targets, warehouses, shipping and other targets of opportunity at Loyang, Yuncheng, Hei-Shih Kuan, Wuhu, and particularly in areas around Shihhweiyao and from Hengyang to Siangtan and Lingling.
BURMA: In the British Fourteenth Army's XXXIII Corps area, the East African 11th Division establishes a bridgehead across the Chindwin River at Kalewa, where bridging is undertaken under fire. The Indian 20th Division secures a bridgehead across the river to the north in the Mawlaik area, crossing a brigade and uses Kalewa site for crossing the rest of the division.
Thirty two USAAF Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts continue close support of ground forces attacking Bhamo; 18 others damage road bridges at Hay-ti and Tonbo and six attack several railroad bridges in northern Burma; and four drop delay-fuse bombs on the Myitson ferry landing. Over 30 fighter-bombers hit troop and equipment concentrations, fuel and other supplies, artillery, ammunition dumps, and general town areas in or near Hopaw, Loipao, Man Kat, Namhpai, and Indaw and nine strafe targets of opportunity along the Shwebo-Wuntho rail line. During the night of 3/4 December, four B-25 Mitchells destroy a train on the Tangon railroad bridge and attack several other targets of opportunity.
USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighter-bombers on armed reconnaissance attack targets of opportunity at Wanling.
JAPAN: The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command flies Mission 10: 86 Mariana Island-based B-29 Superfortresses are dispatched to attack the Musashino aircraft plant and docks and urban areas in Tokyo; 60 B-29s bomb the primary target and 15 hit alternate targets; they claim 10-11-18 Japanese aircraft; five B-29s are lost.
EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, major USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberator strikes include raids against Malimpoeng and Mandai on Celebes Island while B-25 Mitchells attack four airfields on Halmahera Island.
NEW GUINEA: USAAF Far East Air Forces A-20 Havocs attack Point Noejew, Dutch New Guinea.
BONIN, KAZAN AND VOLCANO ISLANDS: Seventeen USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands; seven others, escorting a photographic aircraft over the Bonin and Kazan Islands, bomb Haha Jima and Iwo Jima. During the night of 3/4 December, B-24 Liberators on snooper missions continue to bomb Iwo Jima.
TERRITORY OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the U.S. Sixth Army's X Corps area, Troop G of the 112th Cavalry Regiment (Special) tries unsuccessfully to scale the steep slopes of a ridge southeast of Limon. Troop A makes contact with the 126th Infantry Regiment west of Hill 1525 without incident. In the XXIV Corps area, at a commanders’ conference, Major General Archibald V. Arnold, Commanding General 7th Infantry Division, orders the division to clear the region south of the Talisayan River, including Hills 918. 380, and 606, beginning on 5 December.
USAAF Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers hit a storage area at Palompon on Leyte Island and airfields near Masbate Island.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, a platoon of the Australian 9th Battalion, 7th Brigade, 3rd Division attacks the village of Sisivie, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Torokina but is forced to withdraw.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN hospital ship USS Hope (AH-7), fully illuminated in accordance with the dictates of the Geneva Convention, is followed by a Japanese submarine during the morning and is then attacked by Japanese torpedo planes but not damaged, 125 nautical miles (231 kilometers) east of Mindanao, Philippine Islands.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Admiral Nimitz orders Vice-Admiral John H. Hoover, ComForwardArea (Saipan)to give the highest priority to the installation of an MEW (Microwave Early Warning) radar set on Saipan to combat Japanese intruder raids.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Alder Lake launched Midland, Ontario.
Frigate HMCS Victoriaville arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Light cruiser USS Atlanta (CL-104) commissioned. The USN now has 39 light cruisers in commission.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1163 sank SS Revoljucija in Convoy KB-35.
SS Cornwallis (5,458 GRT) Canadian merchantman torpedoed and sunk in Gulf of Maine in position 43.59N, 068.20W, by U-1230, Kptlt. Hans Hilbig, CO. There were 5 survivors from her crew of 48 men. Cornwallis had been proceeding independently while enroute from Barbados to Saint John, New Brunswick. U-1230 was a long-range Type IXC submarine built by Deutsche Werft AG, at Hamburg. She was commissioned on 26 Jan 44. U-1230 conducted one patrol and compiled a record of one ship sunk for a total of 5,458 tons.