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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/30.htm

August 30th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 3 missions. (The number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of bombers attacking.)

- Mission 590: 107 B-17s and 108 B-24s bomb 8 V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais area of France; one wing uses GH and H2X methods; escort is provided by 16 P-51 Mustangs without loss.

- Mission 591: Later in the day, B-17s attack the U-boat base and shipyards at Kiel (282), and aircraft plant and other industry in the Bremen area (327); 4 others hit targets of opportunity; escort is provided by 258 P-51s without loss.

- Mission 592: 6 B-17s drop leaflets in France and Belgium during the night.

The prototype Short Seaford (MZ 269), a development of the Sunderland flying-boat makes its maiden flight today. (22)

Corvette HMS Strathroy launched.

FRANCE: General de Gaulle’s Provisional French Government is established in Paris.
Paris: The Free French General Pierre Koenig today took over from an American general as military governor of Paris at Les Invalides. The city had been under American military government since the US 4th Division entered the city along with General Leclerc’s French troops on 25 August. General Koenig said he plans to put some of the French Forces of the Interior FFI Resistance fighters (FFI) into uniform. His priority, he added, is to restore law and order.

Veauvais falls to the British XXX Corps.

The Canadian 2nd Division captures Rouen after suffering heavy casualties. The British XII Corps advances 25 miles (40 kilometres) to Gournay. The U.S. XIX Corps drives rapidly northeast against light resistance reaching positions less than 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Beauvais while the VII Corps captures Laon. Elements of the U.S. Third Army continue their assault on Brest while other units drives east toward the Meuse River and towards Verdun.

In northern FRANCE, about 75 US Ninth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-26s bomb a fuel dump near Arques-la-Bataille, Rouxmesnil-Bouteilles, and gun positions around Ile de Cezembre; weather grounds the fighters.

In southern FRANCE and ITALY, weather grounds US Twelfth Air Force medium bombers; A-20s hit targets of opportunity during the night of 29/30 August and fuel storage while fighter-bombers pound roads and railroads in the Po Valley in Italy and, on armed reconnaissance over the Rhone Valley in France, attack rail lines and motor and horse drawn vehicles, as US Seventh Army elements continue up the Rhone Valley toward Lyon.

GERMANY: SS General Kammler takes over responsibility for the A4 offensive, from General Heinemann’s LXV Army Korps. (Alex Gordon)

Following a failed suicide attempt, General Karl-Heinrich von Stulpnagel, the military governor of France implicated in the 20 July plot, is hanged.

U-3004 commissioned.

POLAND: Lublin: The first war memorial of the conflict is unveiled, dedicated to the unknown Soviet soldier.

ITALY: Allied commander Harold Alexander plans a bluff to crack the Germans’ Gothic Line and liberate northern Italy. Alexander begins with an attack on the eastern end of the Gothic Line. Next week, Americans will attack the western end in an apparent main assault. The British will then make a second attack in the east. Alexander’s three-punch strategy will be a partial success.
The British 8th Army begins attacks on the Gothic Line.
The 5th Canadian Armoured Division under Major General Bert Hoffmeister breaks through the Gothic Line south of Rimini on the Adriatic.

Field Marshal Kesselring, a master of defensive strategy, has assured Hitler that the Gothic Line is impregnable. His boast is about to be put to the test: today the British V and Canadian I Corps, supported by air attacks on the minefields, crossed the Foglia river and, despite heavy casualties, began to attack the defensive position which the Germans believe to be equal to that of Cassino.

Houses have been razed, trees felled and vineyards bulldozed to create killing grounds for a great rash of concrete machine-gun nests, each carefully sited to protect its neighbour. Artillery posts have been blasted into the Apennine rock, and deep minefields planted from the Adriatic in the east to the distant Ligurian Sea.

The US Fifteenth Air Force in ITALY sends 100+ B-24s and B-17s to hit targets in Yugoslavia; the B-17s bomb railroad bridges at Novi Sad and Vranjeco; the B-24s attack bridges at Cuprija. Nearly 100 P-51s strafe airfields at Kecskemet, Hungary and Oradea, Romania.

ROMANIA : Ploesti falls to the Russians. Most of the Romanian oilfields are now in the hands of the Russians.
The Germans must now rely entirely on their much-bombed synthetic oil factories. Ploesti produces five million tons of crude oil a year, refined on the spot and sent to Germany by rail and by barges on the Danube. It has been the target for continual raids by the US Fifteenth Army Air Force flying from Italy. The bombers faced tough opposition, and many aircraft and their crews have been lost, but their attacks cut the refineries’ output to two million tons, and RAF mining of the Danube prevented much of that from reaching Germany.

USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER OF OPERATIONS

BURMA: TENTH AIR FORCE: Several P-47 Thunderbolts bomb and strafe the town of Man Sai.

CHINA: FOURTEENTH AIR FORCE: B-25 Mitchells attack Hengyang, Pailochi, and Hankow Airfields, roads in the Nanyo and Changsha areas, and boats between Changsha and Hengyang, and Kichun and Wuhsueh; in the Kweiyi and Sintsiang areas 33 P-40s claim 58 trucks destroyed, 175 damaged, and at least 100 Japanese killed; 10 P-51 Mustangs hit scattered targets of opportunity in the same areas; 21 P-40s hit barracks, trucks, and a bridge in the Siangsiang and Siangtan region; and 34 P-40s and P-51s attack a variety of targets, including railroad traffic and facilities, occupied areas, and trucks, at Yangtien, between Hengshan and Nanyo, northeast of Ichang, southwest of Hengshan, and near Hengyang.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: A USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberator on armed reconnaissance from the Mariana Islands bombs Yap Island In the Palau Islands, Koror and Malakal Islands are bombed by USAAF Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators.

MARSHAL ISLANDS: US Seventh Air Force Kwajalein Atoll-based B-24s hit Mille Atoll.

PALAU ISLANDS: Koror and Malakal Islands are pounded by US Far East Air Force B-24s.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: US submarine USS Narwhal (SS-167) lands 10-tons of supplies, 2 Filipino officers and 18 men in Dubut Bay in eastern Luzon.

CANADA: Premier Maurice Duplessis’ Union Nationale Party returns to power in Quebec.

Corvette HMCS Fergus launched Collingwood, Ontario.
Frigate HMCS Lauzon commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Parry Sound commissioned.

U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Muir commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Specter commissioned.
Submarine USS Threadfin commissioned.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-194 was commissioned at New Orleans. The first commanding officer was LTJG C. J. Hanks, USCGR. He was succeeded on 9 November 1945, by LT H. S. Squires, USCG. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area including Milne Bay, Segond Channel, Espiritu Santo, etc.

BRAZIL: A Panair do Brasil Lockheed Model 18-10 Lodestar, msn 18-2114, registered PP-PBI, crashes at Sao Paulo in fog killing all 16 aboard.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-548 - One man was missing after crash-diving. [Mechanikergefreiter (A) Walter Heise]
U-482 sank SS Jacksonville in Convoy CU-36.