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Post by emron on Jul 23, 2017 19:46:54 GMT 12
23 July 1940 The British Secretary of War announced that the 1,300,000-strong Local Defence Volunteers were to be renamed the Home Guard. 8,077 Canadian troops bound for Britain departed from Halifax, Nova Scotia on troopships Batory, Antonia, Monarch Of Bermuda, Sobieski, Duchess Of York, and Samaria, escorted by Canadian destroyers HMCS Assiniboine and HMCS Saguenay and British cruiser HMS Emerald. The convoy would arrive safely in Scotland on 1 Aug.
23 July 1942 Japanese troops engaged the Papuan Infantry Battalion at Awala, on the Kokoda Trail, Australian Papua. Fearful that the completion of a Japanese airfield on Guadacanal in the Solomon Islands might signal a renewed enemy advance in the South Pacific and threaten US aid to New Zealand and Australia, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in Washington DC, agreed to Marine deployments to secure the strategic supply and communication lanes (Operation Watchtower) Three RNZAF Hudsons arrived from New Zealand at Plaine des Gaiacs airfield, New Caledonia, under the command of Squadron Leader Grigg, together with several spare crews. They joined 2 others already based there and No. 9 Squadron was officially formed as an operational unit. They took over the dawn and dusk anti-submarine patrols around the coast, from No. 69 Bombardment Squadron, USAAF.
23 July 1944 The 1st Canadian Army (General H. D. G. Crerar) became operational in Normandy, France US 34th Division captured Pisa, Italy.
23 July 1945 The trial of Marshal Philippe Pétain (former Head of State Vichy-France) for collaboration with Nazi Germany, began at Palais de Justice, Paris.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 23, 2017 20:21:03 GMT 12
23 July 1940 The British Secretary of War announced that the 1,300,000-strong Local Defence Volunteers were to be renamed the Home Guard. This rather inspired change of name came from none other than Winston Churchill himself, drawing from his own research for a book he wrote on the American Civil War where a similar body of men was called the Home Guard there. Within days our own New Zealand volunteer civilian force, the Auxiliary Reserve (which had been formed by the RSA in July 1940) was also renamed the Home Guard here. The Minister of Defence, the Hon. Fred Jones, announced in a radio broadcast on the 28th of July 1940 he was planning to form the New Zealand Home Guard from the various Auxiliary Reserve units that had been springing up around New Zealand. The NZ War Cabinet approved he formation of the New Zealand Home Guard on the 2nd of August 1940 as part of the new Emergency Reserve Corps Regulations, which were gazetted on the 17th of August 1940. So we were not far behind at all. When the New Zealand Home Guard officially formed, the Cambridge Auxiliary Reserve Company was the only unit up to full Company strength, and became the Cambridge Home Guard Company. Meanwhile most areas of Auckland and other cities had not even formed units,and many struggled to get organised for months. The Cambridge Home Guard Company later grew to become the Cambridge Home Guard Battalion, just showing how many men readily volunteered for service here considering the small population in the district.
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Post by emron on Jul 24, 2017 23:13:35 GMT 12
24 July 1939 Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov met with British and French representatives to work out a potential agreement against Germany; the plan Molotov proposed was similar to the 1914 alliance in an attempt to contain the German Empire. Less than a month later he would be the Soviet signatory to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the treaty of non-aggression between Nazi Germany and USSR which included a secret protocol that divided territories of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania, into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".
24 July 1940 1,277 French Navy sailors captured by the British on 3 Jul departed Southampton aboard French passenger liner Meknes for repatriation at Marseille in southern France. Despite flying the French flag and displaying other signs of neutrality Meknes was attacked without notice at 2230 hours. German torpedo boat S-27 fired a torpedo at the French ship off the northern Brittany coast in the English Channel and it sank within minutes, killing 416. British destroyers HMS Viscount, HMS Wolverine, HMS Sabre, and HMS Shikari rescued the survivors.
24 July 1942 With the US High Command threatening to withdraw entirely from the European theatre, President Franklin Roosevelt interceded and informed Prime Minister Winston Churchill that he now accepted the British point of view regarding delaying the opening of a Second Front in North West Europe until 1943 or 1944. At the same time he agreed to a proposed Anglo-American landing in French North Africa later in the year. Final vessels of Allied convoy PQ-17 arrived at Arkhangelsk, Russia. Also arriving Arkhangelsk were destroyers HMS Marne, HMS Martin, HMS Middleton, and HMS Blankney that had sailed later. They were carrying ammunition and other war supplies to replenish the escorts for return convoy QP-14 which would sail in September.
24 July 1943 The first operational use of "Window" radar jamming took place during Operation Gomorrah when 746 RAF planes dropped 2,300 tons of explosive on Hamburg. The city burned in a major firestorm that killed a significant number of civilians.
24 July 1944 American troops landed on Tinian, Mariana Islands. The British bombing of Kiel, Germany that began on the previous day ended before dawn. The damage was extensive, causing the city to have no running water for 3 days, the trains and buses were out of commission for 8 days, and gas service was out for nearly 3 weeks.
24 July 1945 US President Harry Truman informed Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that the United States had successfully constructed atomic weapons. Stalin showed surprise, but in fact had already learned this through the Soviet intelligence network. General Henry Arnold, head of the USAAF, was presented with a top-secret memorandum specifying possible targets recommended for attack with atomic bombs.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 24, 2017 23:34:41 GMT 12
That must have been so rotten for those French sailors in 1940.
Why were the US High Command threatening to pull out of Europe? Did I miss something?
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Post by emron on Jul 25, 2017 0:29:12 GMT 12
After the United States entered World War II, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff pressed for an invasion of mainland Europe via the English Channel "as soon as possible", i.e. the early part of 1942. Operation Sledgehammer was the Allied plan for a cross-Channel invasion of Europe, as the first step in helping to reduce pressure on the Soviet Red Army by establishing a Second Front. Essentially, Allied forces were to seize the French ports of either Brest or Cherbourg during the early autumn of 1942 along with areas of the Cotentin Peninsula, and then amass troops for a breakout in the spring of 1943, and as such, was a contingency alternative to Operation Roundup, the original Allied plan for the invasion of Europe in 1943. The operation was eagerly pressed for by both the United States military and the Soviet Union. The British were, however, reluctant, as it was felt that other places had a higher priority, the time was not right and insufficient men and landing craft were available. This perception was reinforced by the failure of the smaller Dieppe Raid, in August 1942. Churchill pressed for a landing in North Africa in 1942. U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall suggested instead to Roosevelt that the U.S. abandon the Germany-first strategy and take the offensive in the Pacific. Roosevelt "disapproved" the proposal saying it would do nothing to help Russia. With Roosevelt's support, and Marshall unable to persuade the British to change their minds, in July 1942 Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, was scheduled for later that year.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 25, 2017 1:12:09 GMT 12
Thanks Ron, the British were absolutely right, the Allies would have been slaughtered if they'd tried to make a seaborne invasion in 1942. - There were not enough landing craft - There were not enough RAF heavy bombers to support the invasion - The US heavy bombers were a complete shambles and only just feeling their way into the war - Whilst the RAF had proficient ground attack Army Co-op squadrons they were using Hurricanes and P-40's and Apaches, but the Typhoon and Spitfire were not settled into that role that they later commanded; and the USAAF were not up to speed at all on supporting troops then - Mosquitoes were only just coming into their stride - there were no special tanks (the funnies) to aid seaborne invasion, one of the huge failings at Dieppe - The British and Empire armies were fully engaged in North Africa and Burma, something would have been lost had they been brought back to Britain to invade France. Italy and Germany would probably have won the Mediterranean. - The Fleet Air Arm were still flying Martlets and Fulmars and the likes - The US Army would have all died on the beach given the absolutely poor training, lack of experience and completely useless leadership that had (as witnessed in North Africa later)
The whole thing would have been a second Dunkirk only I doubt the Army could have been saved a second time. Thank goodness the British had enough experience to persuade the Yanks it was a really, really bad idea.
By June 1944 the Allies had - Far more heavy bombers supporting the invasion before and after the landing by day and night - A very good ground attack force for close support with the Army - Excellent landing craft, far more ships and special tanks to aid landing on a beachhead - The Mulberry harbour - Far better intelligence and deception plans in place - A second front in Italy diverting German attention away from France - Far more Germans on the Eastern Front fighting the Russians, and thus not in Northern France - More experienced Armies who'd been through Africa, Sicily and Italy learning a lot of valuable lessons along the way - A lot more men trained for every role then they'd have had at their disposal in 1942 - Monty and Ike
And it was still very touch and go even then in June 1944. Churchill was still very worried about the plan and they seriously were in a position where if anything broke down on the Allied side the whole lot could have easily failed too. Luckily it worked. I really doubt they'd have had the same outcome in 1942.
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Post by emron on Jul 25, 2017 21:52:50 GMT 12
25 July 1937 Japanese 20th Division clashed with Chinese troops at the city of Langfang, China, major rail junction between Beiping and Tianjin. This was the first major battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
25 July 1939 The British Admiralty placed an order for 26 Flower-class corvettes under the 1939-40 Naval Estimates.
25 July 1940 German battleship Gneisenau completed its torpedo damage repairs and departed Trondheim, Norway for Kiel, Germany for more thorough repairs. She was escorted by cruiser Nürnberg and destroyers Galster, Lody, Jacobi, and Ihn; torpedo boats Luchs, Jaguar, Kondor, Iltis, and T.5 would join the convoy overnight near Stavanger, Norway. German aircraft attacked shipping and naval bases at Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, and Portland in Britain. Also on this day, aircraft and torpedo boats attacked convoy CW8 in the Dover Strait, sinking 5 vessels and killing 9 men. By the end of the day, 21 German aircraft and 6 British fighters were lost. The British claimed that 25 German aircraft were shot down on this day, which was the highest daily claim yet.
25 July 1942 Japanese submarine I-169 sank Dutch ship SS Tjinegara, sailing as U.S. Army Transport 42, 74 miles southwest of Nouméa, New Caledonia at 2330 hours. All 36 crew survived but the 477 horses and mules aboard were unable to be saved.
25 July 1943 After he was voted against by the Grand Council of Fascism, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini was arrested by Carabinieri at the order of King Victor Emmanuel III. He would be replaced by Marshal Pietro Badoglio. 25 July 1944 The preliminary test of the RaLa Experiment was performed by scientists of the Manhattan Project. It was the first in a series of experiments attempting to create a spherical implosion to detonate a nuclear weapon. Operation Cobra, the US breakout operation in France, began. Canadian troops attacked south of Caen. 25 July 1945 The final wartime shipment of uranium-235 left the Clinton Engineer Works in Tennessee, reaching Tinian, Mariana Islands by C-54 transport aircraft 3-4 days later. This specific shipment of uranium-235 was used for the Little Boy bomb destined for Hiroshima, Japan.
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Post by emron on Jul 26, 2017 23:01:28 GMT 12
26 July 1940 British submarine HMS Thames detected the convoy sailing with German battleship Gneisenau 50 miles southwest of Stavanger, Norway; it was bound for Kiel, Germany. Thames fired a torpedo at Gneisenau, but it hit torpedo boat Luchs instead, sinking her immediately. Thames was never heard from again; it remains uncertain whether she was lost during this action or may have hit a naval mine soon after. She was reported overdue on 3 August 1940.
26 July 1941 German aircraft bombed Moscow. Many bombs fell near the Kremlin, and the images were captured on film by journalist Margaret Bourke-White. Roderick Carr was named the commanding officer of No.4 Group RAF.
26 July 1942 After dark, Operation Manhood was launched by the British 8th Army in an attempt to decisively defeat the Axis offensive in Egypt by striking at Miteirya Ridge. German 6th Army broke through the lines held by Soviet 62nd Army and 64th Army west of Stalingrad, Russia.
26 July 1943 Marshal Badoglio replaced the Fascist government in Italy and began negotiations with the Allies in secret. One of his first actions as the head of state was to dissolve the Fascist Party.
26 July 1944 Leutnant Alfred Schreiber, flying a Me 262A-1a jet fighter, damaged a Mosquito aircraft crewed by Flight Lieutenant Albert Wall and navigator Albert Lobban No. 544 Squadron RAF. This was the first air-to-air combat involving a jet aircraft. Although the Mosquito aircraft would ultimately make an emergency landing at Fermo, Italy, Schreiber received a victory for the engagement because he had observed a large piece broken off from the British aircraft and was convinced that the aircraft could not have flown for long; the piece he observed was actually just the outer hatch door.
26 July 1945 The Potsdam Ultimatum was issued, threatening Japan with "utter destruction" if it did not surrender unconditionally.
USS Indianapolis delivered components of the atomic device to Tinian, Mariana Islands. After major repairs and an overhaul, heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis received orders to proceed to Tinian Island, carrying parts and the enriched uranium (about half of the world's supply of Uranium-235 at the time) for the atomic bomb Little Boy, which would later be dropped on Hiroshima. Indianapolis departed San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 16 July 1945, within hours of the Trinity test. USS Indianapolis set a speed record of 74-1⁄2 hours with an average speed of 29 knots (54km/h; 33mph) from San Francisco to Pearl Harbour, which still stands today. Arriving at Pearl Harbour on 19 July, she raced on unaccompanied to Tinian arriving 26 July.
The results of the 5 Jul 1945 election in the United Kingdom were declared, yielding a Labour Party victory over Winston Churchill's Conservative Party, 394 seats to 188. Churchill was replaced as Prime Minister by Clement Attlee.
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Post by emron on Jul 28, 2017 0:32:41 GMT 12
27 July 1929 The “Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field" and the "Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War” were signed in Geneva, Switzerland at the Diplomatic Conference convened by the Swiss Federal Council.
27 July 1942 Light cruiser USS Boise had sailed on 22 June to escort a convoy to Auckland. On return to Pearl Harbour she was tasked to conduct a raiding cruise in Japanese waters to create a diversion, including generating bogus radio traffic, to give the impression that a strike force was heading for Japan. This was to draw attention away from US preparations for the invasion of Guadalcanal. Boise departed Pearl Harbour 27 July and was expected to begin this raid on the Japanese sampan patrol line guarding approaches to Honshu about 750 miles (1,210 km) east of Tokyo on 5 August. She completed the raid on 8 August.
The initial hours of the Allies Operation Manhood offensive in Egypt near El Alamein were successful, but British tanks failed to follow up, thus the subsequent Axis counterattack at dawn inflicted heavy casualties on the exposed forward positions at Deir el Dhib and at Ruin Ridge. This marked the end of the First Battle of El Alamein, during which there were 13,250 Allied and 17,000 Axis casualties.
27 July 1943 After nightfall, a repeated bombing of Hamburg, Germany by 787 RAF aircraft created a fire storm in which an estimated 42,000 people perished, most of them by carbon monoxide poisoning when all the air was drawn out of their basement shelters. The fire storm, in which the heat and humidity of the summer night was a contributory factor, raged for three hours until there was nothing left to burn.
27 July 1944 While flying on a combat mission with the 433rd Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group, US 5th Air Force, civilian aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was only there officially to demonstrate effective ways of increasing the range of the P-38 fighter, accounted for a Japanese Ki-51 aircraft near Ceram Island (now spelled Seram), Dutch East Indies.
27 July 1945 The Japanese replied to the Allies threat to utterly destroy Japan if the appeal, made on 21 July 1945, was rejected. Japan refused to surrender and their reply stated that Japan was determined to fight tooth and nail for every inch of her sacred soil.
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Post by emron on Jul 29, 2017 10:46:12 GMT 12
28 July 1942 The construction of the American fighter strip at Espiritu Santo was completed. This would provide forward cover for the major naval base established at Efate but more importantly positioned to bring the southern Solomon Islands within fighter range. US Navy with 1st Marine Division including 1st Parachute Battalion began a four-day amphibious landing exercise at Koro Island, Fiji.
28 July 1944 US Marines captured the old US Marine Corps parade ground on Guam, Mariana Islands. Elsewhere on the island, Lieutenant General Takeshi Takashina, commanding the 19,000 Japanese garrison on Guam, was killed by machine gun fire.
28 July 1945 137 American P-47 aircraft based in Ie Shima, Okinawa attacked targets in Kyushu, Japan. On the same day, 471 B-29 bombers attacked smaller Japanese cities in the home islands with incendiary bombs. Finally, from the sea, US Navy TF 38 struck Inland Sea between Nagoya and northern Kyushu, sinking battleship Haruna, battleship-carrier Ise, heavy cruiser Aoba, and light cruiser Oyodo, and damaging carrier Katsuragi and carrier Hosho.
A B-25D bomber crashed into the 79th and 80th floor on the north side of the Empire State Building in New York at 0940 hours in a weather related accident. The air crew of 3, along with 11 people in the building, were killed; the damage was estimated to be about US$1,000,000.
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Post by emron on Jul 29, 2017 21:00:30 GMT 12
29 July 1883 Benito Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
29 July 1921 Adolf Hitler formally became the head of the Nationalsozialistische Deutches Arbeiter Partei (NSDAP), or the Nazi Party.
29 July 1940 40 German Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacked Dover Harbour in southern England at 0730 hours, escorted by 40 Bf 109 fighters. British fighters from No. 41, No. 43, No. 56, and No. 64 Squadrons shot down 8 German dive bombers and 7 fighters and anti-aircraft guns shot down 2 German dive bombers, while 2 Spitfire fighters and 1 Hurricane fighter were shot down.
29 July 1942 200 Japanese troops supported by a Type 92 light howitzer attacked Kokoda airfield in Australian Papua at 0230 hours. After suffering 7 killed, the remaining 70 Australian defenders fell back toward Deniki. The Japanese suffered 12 killed and 26 wounded in this engagement. To the north, a Japanese convoy landed troops at Buna.
29 July 1944 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 20th USAAF flying from advanced airfields near Chengdu in China attacked the Showa steel works at Anshan in Liaoning, northeastern China. During the raid B-29 bomber 42-5256 piloted by Captain Howard R. Jarrell was struck by a shell and badly damaged. Unable to make the 1,500 mile journey home, Captain Jarrell decided to try to reach Vladivostock in the USSR. Intercepted by Soviet Yak-9 fighters the crippled bomber was forced to land at the small strip at Tavrichanka where the aircraft and its crew were interned by the Soviet authorities in accordance with the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact. Its crew were released with the end of the Russo-Japanese entente, following the Soviet declaration of war against Japan, two days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and in accordance with the Yalta agreement. The B-29 was kept for use in the development program of the Tupolev Tu-4.
29 July 1945 A tokko “special attack” Japanese biplane trainer aircraft crashed into destroyer USS Callaghan off Okinawa, Japan. Callaghan was to be the last American warship to be sunk by special attack (kamikaze) aircraft in the war.
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Post by emron on Jul 30, 2017 21:29:06 GMT 12
30 July 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Navy Women's Reserve Act into law which etablished the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service program (WAVES).
30 July 1944 Leaders of US Navy ComAirSols (Commander Air Solomons) were given a demonstration of unmanned Interstate TDR-1 drones. Four of them flew from their base in the Russell Islands and each was guided by it's own controller aboard a TBM Avenger. All four delivered their 2,000-pound bomb on or near the target ship Yamazuki Maru which was beached at Guadalcanal, although 2 of them failed to detonate.
30 July 1945 American battleships USS South Dakota, USS Indiana, and USS Massachusetts ended a two-day bombardment of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Battleship HMS King George V also participated in the bombardment and it was to be her final combat action of the war. Meanwhile, carrier fighters from USS Ticonderoga attacked airfields, railroads, and tactical targets in the Kobe-Osaka region. USS Yorktown (Essex-class) launched raids on the Tokyo area.
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Post by emron on Jul 31, 2017 21:44:25 GMT 12
31 July 1917 The third battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele) began. It was a British offensive designed with the aim of breaking through the German trench lines to the German submarine bases in Belgium and to relieve pressure on the collapsing Russian army in the east. Neither of these objectives was achieved. For much of the three months battle successive attacks by Gough’s Fifth army and Plumer’s Second army foundered in terrain that had been turned into a swamp by intensive artillery bombardment, thus precluding the use of tanks. The limit of the British advance was five miles, at a cost of 250,000 casualties.
31 July 1940 While German Army and Navy leadership continued to disagree over the plans for the invasion of Britain (with Admiral Erich Raeder convincing Adolf Hitler to delay the invasion until mid-Sep 1940), the Luftwaffe moved forth with its plans and began to shift the main target from English Channel shipping to RAF airfields in southern England. Although 77 RAF aircraft were destroyed and 43 were damaged (along with 67 airmen killed and 23 wounded), aircraft production during the month was greater than aircraft lost.
31 July 1942 USAAF began a 7-day bombardment against Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Meanwhile, the Allied invasion force (75 warships and transports with 16,000 men on aboard) departed for Guadalcanal from Fiji.
31 July 1944 British VIII Corps launched Operation Bluecoat towards Vire River in Normandy, France. Meanwhile, US 4th Armored Division captured Avranches and 20,000 prisoners of war in 6 days.
31 July 1945 Operation Struggle: British midget submarine XE3, crewed by Lieutenant Ian Fraser, Acting Leading Seaman James Magennis, Sub-Lieutenant William James Lanyon Smith, (of New Zealand), and Engine Room Artificer Third Class Charles Alfred Reed, attacked Japanese shipping at Singapore, sinking heavy cruiser Takao. Fraser and Magennis would later be awarded the Victoria Cross for this sinking, while Smith would receive the Distinguished Service Order and Reed the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.
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Post by emron on Aug 1, 2017 21:39:56 GMT 12
1 August 1914 Germany declared war on Russia while its troops violated the neutrality of Luxembourg.
1 August 1940 Operation Hurry: British carrier HMS Argus set sail for Malta with 12 Hurricane fighters as reinforcements. She was escorted by Force H with battlecruiser HMS Hood, battleship HMS Valiant, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruisers HMS Arethusa and HMS Enterprise, and 10 destroyers. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean fleet departed Alexandria, Egypt to conduct diversionary maneuvers in the area of Crete, Greece.
1 August 1942 The United States Navy Task Force 1, consisted of 7 battleships (USS New Mexico, Idaho, Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, Colorado, Pennsylvania) and 10 destroyers, set sail for the Hawaiian Islands, where it would remain to patrol the area during the Guadalcanal invasion.
1 August 1943 USAAF bombed the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, during Operation Tidal Wave. 177 B-24 Liberator bombers inflicted heavy damage but at a high cost. 30% of the raid force, 53 aircraft and 660 aircrew were lost. Americans captured the Munda airfield on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
1 August 1944 Soviet forces captured Lithuania, cutting all roads between Germany and the Baltic States. Two brand-new Allied armoured divisions, the 4th Canadian and 1st Polish, arrived in Normandy, France. They were tasked with executing the final great break-out from the British sector to trap and destroy the German armies in Normandy or send them reeling back to the Seine. Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front under Konstantin Rokossovsky arrived in the suburbs of Warsaw, Poland. Seeing the arrival of friendly forces, the Polish Home Army rose up against German occupation troops.
1 August 1945 In the biggest air raid yet over Japan, 820 Superfortress bombers dropped 6,632 tons of high explosive bombs and incendiary bombs on four cities, bringing the total number of Japanese cities incinerated to 56.
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Post by emron on Aug 2, 2017 21:43:35 GMT 12
2 August 1914 German troops crossed the frontier into France.
2 August 1917 Squadron Commander E. H. Dunning achieved the first RNAS landing on a ship under way at sea when, in a Sopwith Pup, he touched down on the deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Furious.
2 August 1934 German President Paul von Hindenburg died; Hitler seized dictatorial powers as Führer, which was the combination of president, chancellor, and chief of armed forces.
2 August 1939 In a letter written by Leó Szilárd and signed by Albert Einstein, the two physicists urged US President Franklin Roosevelt to allocate funding for atomic weapons research.
2 August 1940 French military court sentenced General de Gaulle to death in absentia. US President Roosevelt and his cabinet discussed the process under which the transfer of 50 or 60 destroyers to the United Kingdom could be conducted. Operation Hurry: 12 British Hurricane fighters were launched from carrier HMS Argus southwest of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea and flew about 300 miles to Malta; they were to form the new No. 261 Squadron. , Meanwhile the escorting carrier HMS Ark Royal(sailing with battlecruiser HMS Hood, cruiser HMS Enterprise, and 4 destroyers) launched an attack consisted of 8 Swordfish torpedo bombers on the Italian airfield at Cagliari, Sardinia, destroying several aircraft and deploying several mines.
2 August 1942 Aircraft of US Marine Observation Squadron 251 began to arrive at the newly completed airfield at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.
2 August 1943 The Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express aircraft, 41-24027 owned by the USAAF and operated by a United Airlines crew, was transferring Japanese men, women and children of the Consular Corps, to exchange for Allied POWs. It took off from Whenuapai Aerodrome at 2:20am, with rain and fog conditions at minimums for departure, but crashed shortly after. Three of the five crew (United States nationals) and eleven of the twenty-five passengers (eight Japanese and three Thai nationals) were killed. Two additional passengers died later from injuries. US Navy torpedo boat PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant (jg) John F. Kennedy, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer Amagiri in the Blackett Strait between Kolombangara and Arundel in the Solomon Islands. Overnight, Hamburg, Germany suffered its ninth and final raid in eight days as 740 RAF bombers attacked; 30 of the bombers were shot down. By this time Hamburg had lost as many civilians as Britain had in the entire air war.
2 August 1944 US VIII Corps moved west along Brittany coast from Avranches, France. The Soviet-sponsored 1st Polish Army established a bridgehead over the Vistula River south of Warsaw, Poland.
2 August 1945 Survivors of the USS Indianapolis disaster discovered. After delivering the atomic weapon components to Tinian on 26 July. heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was then sent to Guam where a number of the crew who had completed their tours of duty were replaced by other sailors. Leaving Guam on 28 July, she began sailing toward Leyte where her crew was to receive training before continuing on to Okinawa to join Vice Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's Task Force 95. At 00:14 on 30 July, she was struck on her starboard side by two Type 95 torpedoes, one in the bow and one amidships, from the Japanese submarine I-58, under the command of Mochitsura Hashimoto. The explosions caused massive damage. Indianapolis took on a heavy list, and settled by the bow. Twelve minutes later, she rolled completely over, then her stern rose into the air, and she plunged down. Some 300 of the 1,196 crewmen went down with the ship. With few lifeboats and many without lifejackets, the remainder of the crew were set adrift. Because she was sailing under radio silence and unescorted Navy command had no knowledge of the ship's sinking until survivors were spotted three and a half days later. At 10:25 on 2 August, a PV-1 Ventura from VPB-152 flown by Lieutenant Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn and copilot Lieutenant Warren Colwell spotted the men adrift while on a routine patrol flight. Gwinn immediately dropped a life raft and a radio transmitter. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once. Of the 880 who had survived the sinking, only 321 men came out of the water alive; 317 ultimately survived. Her sinking led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 3, 2017 11:29:21 GMT 12
Does anyone know where the exchange was planned for of to take place the Japanese and Thai people? And did they later go ahead with the exchange of the surviving members of the group?
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Post by davidd on Aug 3, 2017 14:26:18 GMT 12
A good question Dave. I know that all the authorities concerned with the planned swap were very worried about what the Japanese would make of all this. David D
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Post by emron on Aug 3, 2017 23:03:23 GMT 12
Once the surviving internees had recovered from their injuries they were transferred to Australia aboard TSS Wahine sailing from Wellington to Sydney three months later. They were accompanied by NZ policewoman Edna Pearce who had supervised the camp at Pukekohe where the women and children had been interned prior to the accident. I don't think that the intended exchange for prisoners ever took place and they probably remained interned in Australia for the duration of the war as were many others from around the region.
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Post by emron on Aug 3, 2017 23:11:17 GMT 12
3 August 1914 Germany declared war on France.
3 August 1940 Italian General Guglielmo Nasi led an invasion force of 25,000 troops into British Somaliland from Abyssinia.
3 August 1942 The Japanese discovered that a new US airfield was being built on the coast of Milne Bay in Australian Papua.
3 August 1943 Tanks of the US Marine Corps 9th Battalion joined the American offensive on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
3 August 1944 Hitler ordered a counterattack east of Avranches, France to regain the coast. A two-month siege by US and Chinese forces at Myitkyina in Burma finally succeeded in capturing it.
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Post by emron on Aug 4, 2017 22:01:16 GMT 12
4 August 1914 The United Kingdom declared war on Germany.
4 August 1938 The first Supermarine Spitfire fighter went into service with 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford. The squadron reported good performance, but the fighter had leaks and the engine was difficult to start.
4 August 1943 US Marine Corps squadron VMF-214, flying Corsair fighters, provided top cover for another squadron's strafing mission against the Japanese anchorage at Faisi, Shortland Islands, Solomon Islands. VMF-214 pilots claimed 3 Japanese aircraft shot down plus 2 probables.
4 August 1944 Anne Frank and her family were arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
USAAF Mission 515: The first combat mission under Operation Aphrodite is flown using 4 BQ-7 “baby” drones (remote-controlled B-17) each carrying 9000kg Torpex H.E. TV images were transmitted to the controller aboard accompanying CQ-4 (B-17) mothership. Targets are Mimoyecques, Siracourt, Watten, and Wizernes V-weapon sites. 1 drone crashes soon after takeoff killing the launch pilot, the remainder fail to hit their target. Escort is provided by 16 P-47s and 16 P-51s.
4 August 1945 In a public statement, Douglas MacArthur announced that "a mighty invasion force is being forged", referring to the seemingly impending invasion of the Japanese home islands.
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