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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/03.htm

August 3rd, 1944 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: “We must make it a pleasure and a profit to be at school. Now we will develop the child’s real bent.” Thus R A Butler, the Minister of Education, hailed his far reaching Education Act when it received the royal assent today. England and Wales will after the war have a national system of free secondary education for all children up to 15 and part-time tuition for pupils leaving school before 18, with teaching according to aptitude.

The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 2 missions.

- Mission 512: 672 bombers and 352 fighters, in 3 forces, are dispatched to hit rail and other targets in the French/German border area and oil dumps and bridges southeast of Paris; 6 bombers and 6 fighters are lost.

(1) Of 345 B-17s, 106 hit the Merkwille Oil Refinery, 68 hit Strasbourg marshalling yard, 62 hit Saarbrucken marshalling yard, 54 hit Mulhouse marshalling yard, 16 hit the Croix de Metz Airfield at Toul, 11 hit a railroad near Saarbrucken and 6 hit targets of opportunity; 6 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 175 P-51 Mustangs; 6 P-51s are lost. (2) Of 155 B-17s, 38 hit Troyes Bridge and 36 hit the La Roche Bridge at Joigny; escort is provided by 96 P-51s. (3) Of 172 B-24s, 27 hit Conches Airfield, 12 hit Melun marshalling yard, 11 hit Etampes Mondesir Airfield and 3 hit targets of opportunity; escort is provided by 47 P-47 Thunderbolts.

- Mission 513: 482 bombers and 178 fighters, in 3 forces, are dispatched to oil installations and dumps in the Brussels, Paris and Lille areas and CROSSBOW (V-weapon) sites in the Pas de Calais; 2 bombers are lost. (1) 112 B-17s and 117 B-24s hit V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais; 1 B-24 is lost; escort is provided by 43 P-51s. (2) Of 76 B-24s, 62 hit Brussels/Vivorde, 10 hit Ghent/Terneuzen and 1 hits a target of opportunity; escort is provided by 33 P-47s. (3) Of 159 B-24s, 49 hit Harnes, 28 hit Courchelettes, 22 hit Pas de Calais V-weapons sites, 10 hit Lille/Marquette, 10 hit Lille/Sequedin and 8 hit Ghent marshalling yard; 1 B-24 is lost; escort is provided by 90 P-51s.

- 133 P-38s and P-47s fly fighter-bomber missions against rail traffic in the Metz-Strasbourg-Saarbrucken area; 1 P-47 is lost.

Corvettes HMCS St Thomas, Napanee and Woodstock departed Londonderry with convoy ONF-247.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: German mini-submarines attack invasion shipping, sinking the British destroyer HMS Quorn.

FRANCE: US 1st Army troops capture Mortain.

Destroyer HMS Quorn is torpedoed in Seine Bay, either by a Niger or Marder human torpedo which caused her to break into two amidships, and both ends to sink rapidly although partly above water. There are 130 casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)

The US Ninth Air Force dispatches 180+ A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders to bomb rail bridges, overpasses, and junctions at Mantes-la-Jolie, Chartres, La Chenaie and Merey, fuel dump at Maintenon, and alternate rail targets in northern France; fighters escort IX Bomber Command bombers and a few C-47 Skytrains, provide cover for ground forces, and fly armed reconnaissance over wide areas of northern and western France The US Fifteenth Air Force in Italy sends 600+ bombers to hit targets in Germany; B-17s and B-24s hit industry in the Friedrichshafen area, including chemical works, fabric works, and 2 aircraft factories; B-24s also bomb communications targets in the Brenner Pass area, attacking Avisio viaduct and bridges at Ora and San Michele all’Adige; fighters fly about 300 sorties in support; the bombers and fighters claim 18 enemy aircraft shot down; 11 US airplanes are destroyed.

Paris: General Dietrich von Choltitz takes up his appointment as military governor of Paris.

GERMANY: U-1065 launched.
U-2516 laid down.
U-2325 commissioned.

POLAND: Soviet forces cross the Vistula at Baranow. Crossings over the Vistula River are seized by Konev south of Sandomierz which is 110 miles south of Warsaw.

U.S.S.R.: Baltic Fleet, Ladoga Lake and Chudskoe Lake Flotillas: MS “N127” (ex-BP “N32”) - mined close to Mantsinsari Is. (?) on Ladoga Lake . (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

ITALY: The USAAF’s Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy dispatches 600+ bombers to attack targets in Germany; B-17s and B-24s hit industry in the Friedrichshafen area, including chemical works, fabric works, and 2 aircraft factories; B-24s also bomb communications targets in the Brenner Pass area, attacking Avisio viaduct and bridges at Ora and San Michele all’Adige; fighters fly about 300 sorties in support; the bombers and fighters claim 18 enemy aircraft shot down; 11 USAAF airplanes are destroyed.

BURMA: Most of the Japanese garrison slips away from pursuing Chinese and US troops as Myitkyina falls in the Burma Theatre. This railhead and Japanese base on the Upper Irrawaddy has fallen after a ten-week siege.

Yet for General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell it has been a sour ten weeks. In the first failed assault two Chinese battalions got lost and started fighting each other, and the US forward commander, Brigadier Frank Merrill, had a heart attack. His men, “Merrill’s Marauders”, were in such bad shape that some cut away their trouser seats - their numbers were so low that they could not afford their dysentery to divert them from the battle. When the “Marauders” had to stop fighting, Stilwell refused help from the British 36th Division and, speaking of the need “to keep an American flavor”, brought in a battalion of US engineers from the Burma Road: untrained in combat, they were slaughtered almost to a man.

On 1 August, the day that Stilwell was promoted to four-star general, the 4,500 Japanese escaped the encircling forces, who entered the town only to find a suicidal rearguard of 187 wounded.

NEW GUINEA: US forces push towards the Torricelli mountains.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: US Far East Air Force (FEAF) B-24s bomb Yap Island and islands in the Woleai Atoll group.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: A U.S. submarine sinks a Japanese auxiliary netlayer in the Molucca Sea.

GUAM: US ships blast concentrations of Japanese troops on Mount Santa Rosa.

AUSTRALIA: Frigate HMAS Barwon launched.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: US President Franklin D Roosevelt arrives at Adak Island in the heavy cruiser USS Baltimore (CA-68).

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Monnow commissioned.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Alfred A Cunningham launched.
Destroyer USS Vogelsgang laid down.

Submarine USS Spot commissioned.

Submarine USS Springer launched.