http://www.etherit.co.uk/frame.htm
August 31st, 1944 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force in England flies Mission 594: 6 B-17s drop leaflets in France during the night. During the night of 31 August/1 September, 37 B-24s and C-47 Skytrains fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night.
London: Eisenhower called war correspondents to his London HQ today to praise Montgomery as his “great and personal friend ... and one of the great soldiers of this or any other war”. The supreme commander also outlined the next stage of the Allied drive into Germany, which is flatly opposed to the plan Montgomery has been proposing.
Eisenhower told correspondents that the Allies will advance into Germany in three main columns. Montgomery’s forces will strike at the Germans on the left, Bradley’s Americans will drive forward in the centre, and the Mediterranean forces coming up from the south will move in on the right with Patton’s Third Army. This is the “broad front” approach backed by Eisenhower and opposed bhy Montgomery, who favours a single concentrated thrust on the left, across northern France and Belgium.
Eisenhower has not got enough fuel to allow Montgomery in the north and Patton in the south to advance simultaneously. He dare not hold back Patton, who is immensely popular back home in the US; but he cannot be seen to be rebuffing Monty. So he will let Patton make his advance, and move the US First Army north to stand by Monty’s 21st Army Group. Montgomery’s immediate task, however, is not to attack the Ruhr, but to capture Antwerp. The Allies’ nearest ports are in Normandy. Allied bombs have destroyed the railways. The US “Red Ball Route”, a system of one-way military roads through France solely for the use of supply trucks shuttling between the Normandy beaches and the front, is badly overstretched. Antwerp must be taken if the Allies are to be kept supplied this winter.
Frigates HMS Start Bay and Tremadoc Bay laid down.
Submarine HMS Anchorite launched.
Frigate HMS Montserrat commissioned.
Minesweeper HMS Courier commissioned.
ÉIRE: A RN Fairey Swordfish crashes at Gormanstown Camp, the Irish Army Air Corps base in County Meath.
FRANCE: In northern France, the Canadian 4th Armoured Division drives quickly to Forges and Buchy. The British 11th Armoured Division captues Amiens and seizes the bridge across the Somme River intact. The U.S. XIX Corps captures Chantilly, Creil, Pont Ste Maxence, Verberie and Compiegne. Operations against Brest are temporarily suspended by the U.S. VIII Corps while elements of the U.S. XX Corps establishes across the Meuse at Verdun. In the air, 99 USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs bomb an ammunition dump at Foret d’Arques and gun positions at Ile de Cezembre; fighters fly armed reconnaissance in the Amiens, Saint-Quentin, Albert, and Arras areas, ground forces cover for 3 armored divisions, battleship cover, and also dive-bomb Ile de Cezembre.
In southern France, U.S. troops find Briancon free of Germans and the VI Corps speeds up the Rhone Valley toward Lyon. In the air, USAAF Twelfth Air Force fighter-bombers attack communications targets.
In northern FRANCE, 99 US Ninth Air Force B-26s and A-20 Havocs bomb an ammunition dump at Foret d’Arques and gun positions at Ile de Cezembre; fighters fly armed reconnaissance in the Amiens, Saint-Quentin, Albert, and Arras areas, ground forces cover for 3 armored divisions, battleship cover, and also dive-bomb Ile de Cezembre.
34 8th US Air Force B-17s visually bomb the supply depot at Bricy Airfield in Orleans.
As Allied and Resistance force take control of all the bridges over the Somme, General Eberbach, the commander of the 5th Panzer Army, is taken prisoner in his pyjamas.
The US Twelfth Air Force flies missions in Italy and southeastern France.
GERMANY:
U-1109 and U-2506 commissioned.
U-2343 and U-2521 laid down.
U-2335 launched.
POLAND: 67,000 Jews have been deported from the Lodz ghetto to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau this month.
ITALY: The attack of the British 8th Army against the Gothic Line continues. There are some successes.
West of the 8th Army the US VI Corps follows up on a German withdrawal along the Arno River in Italy. This enables the 442nd RCT minus the 100th Infantry Battalion to reach the Arno. The 100th Infantry Battalion then spearheads the crossing of the Arno and the capture of Pisa for the IVth Corps.
B-25s and B-26s attack railroad bridges in the Po Valley, cutting the bridge at Mira; and A-20s attack targets of opportunity in the Po Valley during the night of 30/31 August and along with fighter-bombers hit communications north of the Arno River. Other fighter-bombers attack communications targets in France as the US Seventh Army pushes toward Lyon.
Lt. Gerard Ross Norton (b.1915), attached Hampshire Regt., advancing alone under heavy fire, silenced three machine-gun posts and 15 riflemen. (Victoria Cross)
HUNGARY: Ninety seven P-51 Mustangs of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy strafe airfields at Oradea and Kecskemet.
ROMANIA: Bucharest falls to the Russian Second Ukraine Front. The Soviet tanks receive a jubilant welcome. The Soviets immediately begin the round-up of members of the ‘Fascist’ Antonescu government.
45 US Fifteenth Air Force P-51s strafe the airfield at Reghin. Fighters claim a record number of 150+ aircraft destroyed on the ground; and starting Operation REUNION (the evacuation of US airmen interned in Romania), 36 B-17s evacuate more than 700 of the 1,100 US airmen from Bucharest (which falls to the Soviet Army today) to Bari, Italy. This operation is the brainchild of Rumanian airmen and civilians who concentrate the Americans at a Rumanian Air Force Base while contacting HQ Fifteenth Air Force in Italy by flying a high-ranking USAAF POW to Italy in a Rumanian Air Force Bf-109. Everyone involved realizes that the operation must be kept secret from both the Germans and the Soviets.
GREECE: Dimitry Statharos and about 20-30 men of ELAS ambush a German Truck column in Stavros, Veria (Greece). Dimitry and one other man are positioned in the church tower and armed with captured MP-40’s. The other men come out of alleys and side roads, attacking with rifles and grenades they take the convoy by surprise. Most of the Germans are killed, a few are taken prisoner and the trucks are destroyed.
Another attack is recorded for the same day on a truck convoy in Verria , there is a possibility that this attack is the same as the one mentioned above. The key difference is that this possible second attack was on a truck convoy which carried a group of Greek members of Poulos-Verband, the Greek anti-communist volunteer battalion, which was in the process of relocating its Headquarters to Krya Vrisi just south east of Thessaloniki due to an increasing guerrilla presence in Verria. (Steven Statharos)
ALGERIA: Algiers: The French provisional government moves to Paris.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER OF OPERATIONS
BURMA: TENTH AIR FORCE: 6 B-25 Mitchells bomb targets of opportunity at Katha and 3 hit bridges at Bawgyo and Hsenwi.
CHINA: FOURTEENTH AIR FORCE: 12 B-24 Liberators bomb Takao harbor, damaging the dock area and claiming 2 tankers sunk; 14 B-25s attack Tien Ho, White Cloud, Kai Tek, and Hengyang Airfields; 8 B-25s attack numerous trucks south of Sintsiang and near Sinshih, hit roads south of Nanyo and damage a freighter near Sinshih; and 60+ fighter-bombers attack trucks, barracks, supplies, rivercraft, bridges and troops in or near Sinshih, Changsha, Yangtien, Hengyang, Nanyo, Siangtan, Teian, and Shihhweiyao.
EAST CHINA SEA: USN submarine USS Seawolf (SS-197) sinks a Japanese army cargo ship and a merchant cargo ship about 180 nautical miles (333 kilometers) south-southeast of Shanghai, China, in position 28.30N, 123.05E.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: USN Submarine USS Redfish (SS-272) lands supplies and evacuates people from Palawan Island.
NEW GUINEA: In Dutch New Guinea, the operations on Noemfoor and Sansapor are declared at an end.
BONIN AND VOLCANO ISLANDS: The USN’s Task Group 38.4, Under Admiral Davison, consisting of the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Carrier Air Group Twenty (CVG-20), USS Franklin (CV-13) with CVG-13 and the light aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) with Light Carrier Air Group Fifty One (CVLG-51) plus supporting ships, launches aircraft against Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands and Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. The strikes are intended to neutralize Japanese installations there and provide a diversion in advance of planned operations in the Palau, Morotai, and Philippine areas. Off Iwo Jima, F6Fs from USS Franklin sink a merchant ship and an auxiliary minesweeper. The strikes are repeated on 1 and 2 September.
MARIANA ISLANDS: (Seventh Air Force): Saipan-based P-47s strafe gun positions at the airfield on Pagan Island. Pagan Islands are bombed by single B-24s.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: One USAAF Seventh Air Fore B-24 Liberators bombs Yap Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: U.S. submarines attack a Japanese convoy bound for Manila, Philippine Islands.
In Luzon Strait south of Formosa, USS Barb (SS-220) sinks an auxiliary minesweeper in position 21.21N, 121.11E; and an army cargo ship in position 21.14N, 121.22E.
USS Queenfish (SS-393) sinks an army tanker in position 21.21N, 121.06E. USS Sealion (SS-315) sinks a minelayer in position 21.05N, 121.26E.
In the air,
(1) PBY Catalinas sink small Japanese cargo vessels off Ceram, Netherlands East Indies (NEI);
(2) RAAF Mitchells sink small Japanese cargo vessel off north coast of Alor Island, NEI;
(3) U.S. aircraft sink a guardboat off Halmahera Island, NEI; and
(4) U.S. aircraft sink a merchant cargo ship off Iwo Jima in position 24.46N, 141.19E.
CANADA:
Frigate HMCS Lasalle arrives Bermuda for workups.
Patrol vessel HMCS San Tomas paid off and returned to owner.
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Surfbird launched.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-181 was commissioned. Her first commanding officer was LT K.M. Baker, USCGR. He was succeeded by LTJG L. Treatman, USCGR on 17 September 1945, and he by LT Martin S. Hanson, Jr. USCGR, on 1 November 1945. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area, including Biak.
Anti-Aircraft cruiser USS Flint commissioned.
Destroyer minelayer USS Henry A Wiley commissioned.
Interesting news from the Riviera front on Page 8. The FFI is pulling off some rather significant actions.
Imagine the score-settling and reprisals going on all over France as the Germans surrender or pull out. There are probably hostilities dating back to the French Revolution or even the religious wars flaring up again, just like in North Carolina whenever public order breaks down.
This rescue of captured US flyers would be a fabulous movie! Maybe it was and I missed it...
“45 US Fifteenth Air Force P-51s strafe the airfield at Reghin. Fighters claim a record number of 150+ aircraft destroyed on the ground; and starting Operation REUNION (the evacuation of US airmen interned in Romania), 36 B-17s evacuate more than 700 of the 1,100 US airmen from Bucharest (which falls to the Soviet Army today) to Bari, Italy. This operation is the brainchild of Rumanian airmen and civilians who concentrate the Americans at a Rumanian Air Force Base while contacting HQ Fifteenth Air Force in Italy by flying a high-ranking USAAF POW to Italy in a Rumanian Air Force Bf-109. Everyone involved realizes that the operation must be kept secret from both the Germans and the Soviets.”