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1917:     The first underway landing on board a carrier is made by Squadron Commander Dunning landed on HMS FURIOUS. The carrier was steaming at 26 knots into a wind of 21 knots.  (Peter Beeston)

1934:     Paul von Hindenberg dies. He is President of Germany under the Weimar Constitution, thus his death allows the NAZI Party to manipulate German public opinion and the Weimar constitution thus paving the way for Hitler's assumption of full powers and the title of Fuhrer. (Tom Hickox and Jack McKillop)

August 2nd, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: After a lengthy debate the House of Commons votes itself a summer holiday.
The House will rise on Friday and will not expect to return until 21 October.

U.S.A.: Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Roosevelt, warning him of the possibility that Nazi Germany might be attempting to build an atom bomb.
"This new phenomena [atomic energy] would also lead to the construction of bombs. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port, together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air." More...

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August 2nd, 1940 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Battle of Britain:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil refinery at Salzbergen.
10 Sqn. Seven aircraft. Two returned early, five bombed primary. Weather bad, opposition severe.
51 Sqn. Eight aircraft. Seven bombed primary. Weather bad, opposition severe.

RAF">RAF Fighter Command: Weather, fine, drizzle over sea. Luftwaffe attacks shipping off south-east coast. At night South Wales and the Midlands are attacked.

Luftwaffe">Luftwaffe bombs Dundee for the first time, Swansea suffers a heavy raid. Off Harwich Me110s of Erpro 210 sink HM Trawler Cape Finisterre with a direct hit. Gunners aboard the SS Highlander in a convoy off Scotland shoot down one of two He-111s of KG76 which are attacking it. The Heinkel crashes onto the deck to provide a trophy!

Southern England: German bombers drop leaflets detailing Hitler's August peace proposals.

Losses: Luftwaffe, 4; RAF 0.

At 0427, the Alexia in Convoy OB-191 was torpedoed by U-99 in position 55°30N/15°30W and fell out of convoy, where she was shelled by the same U-boat but did not sink.

At 0345, the Lucerna in Convoy OB-191 was torpedoed by U-99 and later shelled, but the damaged tanker reached port and was repaired.

U-99 damaged motor tanker Strinda at 55.10N, 17.16W.

Corvette HMS Peony commissioned.

London: Lord Beaverbrook joined the war cabinet today. The Prime Minister brought Beaverbrook into the government in May, and he has been one of its outstanding successes. Since he became Minister of Aircraft Production - a new post - in May, he has boosted output of fighters for the RAF. In February there was a shortfall: 141 planes produced against a planned 171. In May, however, this had been turned around with 261 planes planned and 325 built. This month's planned output of 282 is expected to be exceeded by up to 200 machines.
The Canadian-born press baron's success has been achieved through force of personality. He has been aggressively cutting through Whitehall red tape and treading on ministerial toes in purloining all accessible supplies for aircraft factories.

River class submarine HMS Thames is believed to have been sunk in a minefield whilst on her homeward passage. All crew of 61 are lost. In conforming with her navigational instructions, HMS Thames would have passed through four minefields. Currently believed to lie around 56 45N 03 26E. (Alex Gordon)(108)

FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: The government sentences General de Gaulle to death in his absence.

GERMANY: Hitler issues war directive number 17 - 

"1. To destroy the RAF and the British aircraft industry, 
2. to disrupt the British food supply, and 
3. to inflict extensive damage on the British merchant and war navy. The intensified air offensive should be launched by August 5."
Thence the Luftwaffe assembles 14 bomber wings, 8 fighter wings, 4 Stuka dive-bomber wings and 3 Me110 fighter-destroyer wings, nearly 1700 aircraft (600 bombers, 700 fighters, 200 Stukas, 200 fighter-destroyers).


MALTA: Operation Hurry: The first delivery of 12 Hurricanes of 261 Squadron flies off the carrier HMS Argus. All aircraft arrive on the island. They are the first Hurricanes to operate in the Mediterranean theatre.
(Mark Horan) In in effort to curb further attacks HMS Ark Royal lays plans for a dawn attack on the Italian bomber bases in Cagliari, Sardinia.

"Operation Hurry" concludes. After recognizing the need to close significantly closer to Malta to successfully launch the Hurricane Is of 418 Flight on their transit flight from HMS Argus, Force H opts to launch a pre-dawn strike on Regia Aeronautica's airfield at Cagliari, Sardinia by aircraft from HMS Ark Royal. The plan calls for 9 Swordfish of 810, 188, and 820 squadrons to go after the airfield while simultaneously, 3 additional 820 Squadron Swordfish will lay mines in Cagliari harbour. The 0230 takeoff is marred when one Swordfish of 810 Squadron crashes. Most unfortunately for those involved, the strike  planes had difficulty finding their targets until after dawn. Although the harbour is successfully mined and the bombing destroyed 4 Italian aircraft and several hangers, one aircraft is downed by a defending fighter. Back with the fleet, dawn's early light sees the 12 Hurricanes and their 2 Skua II guides depart HMS Argus and, ultimately, arrive safely at Malta. Covered by Ark Royal's Skua II fighters of 800 and 803 Squadrons, the entire force sails past the rock en-route to the UK, where Force H will stay for most of the month. (Mark Horan)

CANADA: Norwegian whalers commissioned as minesweepers (former names retained) HMCS Star VXI, Suderoy IV, Suderoy V and Suderoy VI.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his cabinet have a long discussion in a cabinet meeting concerning "ways and means to sell directly or indirectly" 50 to 60 overage destroyers to the British. Everyone agrees "that the survival of the British Isles under German attack might very possibly depend on their (the British) getting these destroyers." Everyone also agrees that legislation to permit the sale of these ships is necessary.

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August 2nd, 1941 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS P-48 laid down.
Minesweeper HMS Tadoussac, Wedgeport launched.

GERMANY: U-154 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: German forces attack Staraya Russa, south of Lake Ilmen, in their drive toward Leningrad.
US Lend-Lease aid begins for the Soviet Union.

Soviet submarine S-11 of the Baltic Fleet is mined off Soelavain Bay and sunk in the Soela Vain Channel. (Mike Yared)(146 and 147)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Italian submarine Tembien rammed and sunk off Tunis by light
cruiser HMS Hermione.

CANADA: AMC HMCS Prince Henry departed Halifax for Esquimalt.
Minesweeper HMCS Courtenay launched Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

Minesweeper HMCS Minas commissioned.
 

U.S.A.: The first Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin V-1650 aircraft engine is completed.

Light cruiser USS Miami laid down.

Franklin D. Roosevelt"> Roosevelt and his cabinet have a long discussion in a cabinet meeting concerning "ways and means to sell directly or indirectly" 50 to 60 overage destroyers to the British. Everyone agrees "that the survival of the British Isles under German attack might very possibly depend on their (the British) getting these destroyers." Everyone also agrees that legislation to permit the sale of these ships is necessary.

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August 2nd, 1942 (SUNDAY)

POLAND: Unaware of their destiny, lured by German promises of extra bread and jam, many Jewish families are volunteering for deportation "to the east" from the Warsaw Ghetto rail terminus. Others are rounded up by brutal Ukrainian and German SS guards. Resistance is punished by death. Only those working for German factories in the ghetto are spared the transports.

Crammed 200 to a goods van, 60 wagons to each train, many suffocate in the airless heat as the train trundles the 50 miles to Treblinka station. There it waits for Polish rail workers to uncouple the wagons. Franciszek Zabecki, a railman, alleges some appalling atrocities: "One mother threw a small child wrapped up in a pillow from the wagon, shouting "Take it, there's some money to look after it". An SS man ran up, unwrapped the pillow, seized the child by its feet and smashed its head against a wagon wheel. This took place in full view of the mother, who howled with pain ..."

The wagons are shunted into the death camp 20 at a time. Whip-wielding Nazi guards sort the human cargo into men, women and children. Forced to strip, the deportees walk naked down a lane to camp's three has chambers. Twenty minutes later, they are all dead. The empty wagons go back to Warsaw to pick up another load. It is estimated that the Treblinka camp is murdering 40,000 Jews a week.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS McKee launched.

CARIBBEAN SEA: Between 0048 and 0109 on 20 Jul 1942, U-66 laid one CGC, two MRB and three TMB mines in the entrance of Port Castries, St Lucia. On 29 July, a USCG cutter was damaged by a mine detonation and on 2 August the HM MTB-339 and MTB-342 were also damaged by mine detonations.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Treminnard sunk by U-160 at 10.40N, 57.07W.
At 0927, the unescorted Flora II was torpedoed and sunk by U-254 60 miles SE of Vestmannaoerne, Iceland. The master, 24 crewmembers, four gunners and one passenger were picked up by the Icelandic trawler Juni and landed at Reykjavik.
At 0612, the unescorted Maldonado was stopped by U-510 with gunfire and sunk by a coup de grâce.

Destroyer HMCS Hamilton sighted and attacked a U-Boat; forcing it to submerge.

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August 2nd, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Air Support Command schedules 4 missions against airfields without loss:

- Mission 12A: 31 B-26B Marauders bomb Merville Airfield, France at 0810 hours.

- Mission 12B: 18 B-26Bs bomb Ft Rouge Airfield at St Omer, France at 0900 hours.

- Mission 13A: An attack on Woensdrecht Airfield, The Netherlands is cancelled.

- Mission 13B is a diversion.

Patrol vessel HMS Kilham launched.
Escort carrier HMS Queen launched
Escort carrier HMS Begum commissioned.

GERMANY: U-855, U-992 commissioned. U-1058 laid down.

POLAND: Treblinka: Sixteen guards have been killed by inmates in an armed uprising, using weapons stolen from the camp arsenal. The revolt started at three o'clock this afternoon, when a prisoner shot at an SS guard whipping one of his co-conspirators. He then gave the signal for the uprising by throwing a hand-grenade.
Earlier today, the inmates sprayed petrol instead of disinfectant around the huts. At the signal, they set fire to them: soon they were blazing. The fire reached the arsenal, which exploded and spread the fire throughout the camp. In the chaos, prisoners used rifles, handguns and grenades to kill sixteen Germans and Ukrainians, including the SS Sergeant Kittner, the chief guard. One hundred and fifty inmates escaped; the rest, about 550 were murdered in the camp.
Thus the spirit of rebellion has spread from the Polish ghettoes into the extermination camps themselves. In a hopelessly uneven struggle, the Jewish action is little more than a last-ditch protest by men who want to die fighting.
Treblinka, designed to exterminate arrivals rather than imprison them, was never meant to hold as many as 700 prisoners. It has been unusually crowded recently because of Himmler's visit this spring, after which he ordered that the hundreds of thousands of corpses buried in huge pits near the camp should be burnt to destroy the evidence of mass murder. Extra manpower has been needed to dig up the bodies and burn them on enormous pyres. The men who rose up are forced labourers who have been cremating their own people.

U.S.S.R.: Znamenskaya is liberated by the Soviet Army.

German General der Infanterie H. Zorn XXXXVI Pz.Korps is killed at Krassnaja. (138)(Russ Folsom)

ITALY: The Italian people are warned of imminent invasion by an Allied broadcast from Algiers. (Glenn Steinberg)

PORTUGAL: Lisbon: The Italian ambassador to Portugal makes contact with Allied representatives, paving the way for peace talks.

SPAIN: A Telegram of Don Juan de Borbon y Battenberg, Infante of Spain, Count of Barcelona, to Generalissimo Francisco Franco. He demands the restoration of the monarchy. (Glenn Steinberg)

A Canadian 'Hampden' patrol aircraft from RCAF 415 Squadron attacked and damaged U-706, Kptlt. Alexander Von Zitzewitz, CO, in the Bay of Biscay north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 46.15N,
010.25W. An immediate subsequent attack by an American 'Liberator' patrol aircraft from USAAF 479 Squadron sank the submarine. There were 15 survivors from her crew of 57 men, including the commanding officer.
U-706 was a medium-range, Type VIIC submarine, built by HC Stülcken, at Hamburg. She was commissioned on 16 Mar 42. U-706 conducted three patrols and compiled a record of three ships sunk for a total of 18,650 tons. Kptlt. Von Zitzewitz was her only commanding officer. Alexander Von Zitzewitz was born in 1916, at Kassel. He joined the navy in 1936.
His first wartime duty was as the Flag Lieutenant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Torpedo Boat Force from Jun to Nov 39. He was transferred to the staff of the C-in-C Destroyers, where he remained until Mar 40. Next, he served as the gunnery officer in the 1934A-class destroyer Friedrich Eckholdt. From Jul to Sep 40 he was in charge of a Destroyer Crew Holding Division before being assigned as the Gunnery Officer and First Watch Officer of the 1936A-class destroyer Z-23 in Sep 40. Kptlt. Von Zitzewitz transferred to the U-boat force in Jun 41 and completed his conversion training in Oct. After two months of preparation with the 3rd U-Flotilla, he underwent his U-boat Commander's Course between Nov 41 and Jan 42. He was assigned to commission U-706 on 16 Mar 42, at the age of 25. Alexander Von Zitzewitz was among those lost when U-706 was sunk NW of Cape Ortegal.
He was promoted to KKpt posthumously.

On the ground in Sicily, US ground forces push slowly west while British troops gain control of Regalbuto and fight indecisively in the streets of Centuripe.

U.S. General George S. Patton, Commanding General Seventh Army, slaps U.S. Army Private C.H. Kuhl in a hospital on Sicily.

In the air, Northwest African Tactical Air Force fighters, and light and medium bombers hit trucks, a dump and road junction in northeastern Sicily, docks and shipping at Milazzo, Messina and in the Reggio di Calabria, Italy area, and targets of opportunity (mainly motor transport) from Barcellona south to Adrano. Ninth Air Force P-40s attack shipping in the Straits of Messina and off Milazzo.  

EGYPT: Cairo: B-24 Liberator bombers flying from bases in North Africa carried out a daring long-range raid at tree-top height on the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti yesterday afternoon. Brigadier-General U G Ent, the Commander of the US 9th Army Air Force, who led the raid, said on his return: "When we had finished with Ploesti I doubt whether the axis will be getting anything like its usual 18,000 tons a day out of the place for a long time to come. "You can't fly a plane without gasoline and this afternoon we went a long way towards cutting the Axis from the source of fuel for their planes and mechanized forces."
"We were first over our target. Our bombs hit what we wanted to get. We found the sky full of AA fire. They were shooting everything at us, including I believe, buck shot from shot-guns."
The Liberators replied with their heavy machine guns as they roared over the flak batteries dropping high explosive, incendiary and delayed action bombs which were exploding hours after they had left.
This operation had been minutely planned, with single Liberators making dummy runs at low level on targets in Sicily and Italy. On the information gained from these flights it was decided to risk the strong concentration of flak at Ploesti and try to take out the oilfields in one heavy surprise attack at low level.
It was reasoned that such an attack could be mounted before the enemy fighters could be brought into action. The results have not justified this theory. The oilfields have been hard hit, but at a crippling cost - 56 Liberators lost, including seven that landed in Turkey, out of the 177 that took part.

INDIAN OCEAN: At 2225, U-196 attacked Convoy CB-21 about 100 miles NE of Memba Bay, Tanganyika and reported one ship sunk and one left burning and in a sinking condition. However, only the City of Oran was hit. The vessel was later scuttled by gunfire of tug HMS Masterful. The master, 75 crewmembers and ten gunners were picked up by the tug and landed at Mombasa.

CHINA: Chungking: Chiang Kai-shek is appointed president of the National Government, following the death yesterday of Lin Sen.
 

SOLOMON ISLANDS: US forces on New Georgia have advanced to the airfield. The Japanese have decided not to reinforce. Their concentration is now on Kolombangara Island.

US Thirteenth Air Force dispatches 12 B-25s, 6 B-17s and P-40s to pound the shores of Bairoko harbour; and B-24s, B-25s, P-40s and US Marine F4U Corsairs hit a supply area on the west side of Webster Cove.

At approximately 0215 hours local, Motor Torpedo Boats 109, 162 and 169 are due east of Gizo Island heading south at low speed. The IJN destroyer HIJMS Amagiri is sighted travelling northward at high speed on a collision course; the ship is approximately 700 yards (0.4 miles/ 640 meters) away. PT-162 attempts to fire its torpedoes but they do not fire and the PT boat turns southwest to avoid a collision after getting within 100 yards (91.4 meters) of the destroyer. The destroyer then rams PT-109 followed by an explosion and a large flame which died down a little, but continued to burn for 10 or 15 minutes; two crewman are killed but 11 survive including the captain, Lieutenant (jg) John F. Kennedy, USNR. PT-169 stopped just before the warship hit PT-109, turned toward it and fired two torpedoes when abeam at 150 yards (137 meters) range. The destroyer straddled PT-169 with shell fire, just after it collided with PT-109, and then circled left toward Gizo Island at increased speed and disappeared. The 11 survivors of PT-109 are finally rescued by a PT boat on the night of 6/7 August. (Jack McKillop &Glenn Steinberg)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USN's Task Groups 16.6 and 16.17 commence a preinvasion bombardment of Kiska Island. 
TG 16.6 under Rear Admiral Wilder D. Baker consists of the heavy cruisers USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and USS Salt Lake City (CA-25); the light cruisers USS Detroit (CL-8), USS Raleigh (CL-7), USS Richmond (CL-9) and 5 destroyers. 
TG 16.17 under Rear Admiral Howard F. Kingman consists of the battleships USS Idaho (BB-42) and USS Tennessee (BB-43) and 4 destroyers. 

TG 16.6 bombards Gertrude Cove, the Main Camp, western Little Kiska Island and south Head with 1,261 rounds of 8-inch (203.2 mm), 6-inch (152.4 mm) and 5-inch (127 mm) shells. TG 16.17 bombards North Head and the submarine base with 1,051 rounds of ammunition including 120 rounds of 14-inch (255.6 mm) shells. Unknown to the Americans, the Japanese have already evacuated the island.

    In the air, the USAAF's Eleventh Air Force dispatches 8 B-24 Liberators, 9 B-25 Mitchells, and 8 P-38 Lightnings to attack Kiska in 2 waves, bombing and strafing North Head, and coast guns on Little Kiska Island, scoring several hits.

U.S.A.:  Speed of Sound Broken - The Army announces that Lt. Col. Cass Hough, 36, Plymouth, Mich., recently travelled faster than the speed of sound - or more than 780 miles per hour in both Lightning and Thunderbolt fighters.

(This is now thought to have been due to faulty airspeed indicators. They were not calibrated for this speed, and anyway both aircraft would have reached terminal velocity before this speed or broken up.) (AE)

Destroyer escorts USS Delbert W Halsey, Ely laid down.
Frigate USS Orlando laid down.
Minesweeper USS Nimble laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Lansing launched.
 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-106 is sunk north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 46.35N, 11.55W, by depth charges from a Sunderland of the Royal Air Force's No. 228 Squadron and a Sunderland Mk III of the Royal Australian Air Force's No 461 Squadron. Both squadrons are based at Pembroke Dock, Wales. 36 of the 58 crewmen on the U-boat survive.

Six men on U-218 were wounded during an attack from an RAF 547 Sqn Wellington. The boat was damaged and had to abort its mine-laying mission and arrived in Brest 6 August.

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August 2nd, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)

- Mission 510: 319 bombers and 158 fighters, in 2 forces, are dispatched to attack oil and supply dumps and bridges in the Paris area (number in parenthesis indicates number of bombers attacking); 2 bombers and 2 fighters are lost. 

(1) Targets for 156 B-17s are Paris/Gennevilliers (51), Paris/Dugny (38), Mery-sur-Oise (37), Bernay marshalling yard (12), Courtalain rail junction (7) and targets of opportunity (4); 2 B-17s are lost. 

(2) Targets for 163 B-24s are bridges at Neuvy-sur-Loire (36), Nogent-sur-Seine (31), Mantereau (28); 26 hit Sens oil depot; airfields at St Dizier (12) and Creton (3); and Pacy-sur-Armancon (10). The two forces above are escorted by 132 P-51 Mustangs; 2 P-51s are lost.

- Mission 511: 517 bombers and 249 fighters are dispatched in 2 forces to attack CROSSBOW (V-weapon) sites and bridges in France; 3 bombers and 5 fighters are lost. 

(1) 77 B-17s hit V-weapon sites, and rail bridges at   Jussy (31), Aulnoye (21), Beautor (21) and Crocal de St Quentin (11); 3 B-17s are lost. 

(2) 182 B-24s hit V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais area, 22 hit Thennes Bridge, 12 hit Peronne Rail Bridge, 11 hit Achiet Airfield and 8 hit targets of opportunity. Escort for the 2 forces above is provided by 236 P-51s; 5 are lost.

- 49 P-38s, 183 P-47 Thunderbolts and 51 P-51s fly fighter-bomber missions against rail and road transport in the Paris-Amiens-Brussels-St Quentin area; 1 P-51 is lost.

- 42 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: US Far East Air Force B-24s bomb the airfield on Yap Island.

PACIFIC OCEAN: A USN submarine attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks an army cargo ship.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Loch Morlich (ex HMS Loch Morlich) commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Guelph arrived New York after Bermuda workups.

U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Haas commissioned.
Destroyer USS Van Valkenburgh commissioned.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-188 was commissioned at New Orleans with LTJG A. R. Freedy, USCGR, her first commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, Maijuno, Eniwetok, Guam, Saipan, etc. On 3 October 1945, the commanding officer was relieved of all responsibilities and accountabilities for the vessel, Coast Guard crew was replaced by an Army crew.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-184 was commissioned at New Orleans. Her first commanding officer was LT E.G. Berdaw, USCGR. He was succeeded by LT Juan R. Root, USCGR, who in turn was succeeded by LTJG Henry P. Hancock, USCGR, on 12 September 1945. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-261 was commissioned at New York with LTJG L. W. Conover, USCGR, as first commanding officer. On 9 September 1944, she departed New York for the Southwest Pacific where she operated during the war.
 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer escort USS Fiske was part of the hunter-killer Task Group 22.6 formed around the escort carrier USS Wake Island and was detached together with the destroyer escort USS Douglas L. Howard to investigate a visual contact about 800 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. The surfaced U-804 quickly dived and fired at 1536 three Gnats on the approaching ships. The first missed, but after 3 minutes the second hit the USS Fiske on her starboard side amidships and the third struck her after 4 minutes 30 seconds, breaking her in two. The survivors, among them 50 wounded men abandoned ship and were picked up by destroyer escort USS Farquhar, which took them to Argentia for medical attention and then to Boston.

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August 2nd, 1945 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Plymouth: Truman has lunch with King George VI on board the battleship HMS RENOWN on his way back to the US.

Minesweeper HMS Mystic commissioned.
Submarine HMS Springer commissioned.

GERMANY: The Potsdam Conference ends.
Germany will be disarmed, divided and deprived of the power to make war by the decisions announced here today by the "Big Three" Allied powers. The conference's report was signed by President Truman, Marshal Stalin and Clement Attlee, who succeeded Winston Churchill as prime minister after the British general election results were announced during the conference.

A council of foreign ministers is to be established to continue three-power co-operation, though much in the deliberations and the atmosphere of the conference suggested that this will be difficult.

The Big Three propose that cartels, as well as war industries, in Germany are to be broken up. Going some way to accept the controversial proposal of the US treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau Jr, the powers propose that the German economy should "give primary emphasis to agriculture" and "domestic industries."

There is a striking difference between the treatments proposed for Italy and Germany. Italy is to be offered a peace treaty. The Germans are to be convinced "that they cannot escape responsibility for what they have brought upon themselves". Allied reparations will be paid from German assets and major war criminals will be speedily brought to trial. Germany will lose territory to Poland and Russia.

Franco's Spain, "having been founded with the support of the Axis powers", will not be allowed to be a member of the United Nations. The signatories sent a message thanking Mr. Churchill for his contribution not only to the earlier stages of the conference but also to the war itself.

JAPAN: On Shimushu Island in the Kurile Islands, 5 US Eleventh Air Force B-24s visually bomb Kataoka Naval Base and 1 radar-bombs Kokutan Zaki and returns to base (600 miles or 966 km) on 3 engines.

B-29s attack Nagasaki and virtually annihilate Toyama, claiming to have sunk 26 ships.

Okinawa: Bad weather due to a typhoon cancels all Far East Air Forces missions against Japan.

While on routine patrol, the crew of a US Navy PV-1 Ventura of Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Fifty Two (VPB-152), based on Peleliu, spots a large oil slick with 30 survivors in the water. Further examination of the area reveals another group of 150 survivors. An immediate call for assistance is made, with PBY Catalinas and the high speed transport USS Bassett (APD-73) soon enroute to rescue the men. This is the remainder of the crew of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), sunk by the Japanese submarine HIJMS I-58, which had sunk without sending an SOS on 30 July, with the majority of the ship's crew dying of exposure and shark attacks. The searches continue until 8 August.

The 316 survivors of the crew of the USS INDIANAPOLIS have been telling harrowing tales of their sinking. She was torpedoed at midnight three days ago and sank so quickly that many of the crew of 1,196 were trapped below decks and the radio officer could not send an SOS.

The chances of any of the missing 880 men being alive in the shark-infested Philippine Sea are remote.

SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC: Two USN destroyers, USS Charrette (DD-581) and USS Conner (DD-582), make radar contact with a ship which they track through the night, finding in the morning that it was the Japanese hospital ship Tachibana Maru. A search party from USS Charrette boards the ship and finds able-bodied troops and arms and ammunition in boxes marked with red crosses; the troops are made prisoners of war. A prize crew of 80 marines and sailors is placed aboard the Japanese ship and it is taken to Naval Advance Base Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies arriving on 6 August.

Off the Malay Peninsula, the USN submarine USS Bugara (SS-331), on her third war patrol, encounters a Japanese schooner manned by a Chinese crew being attacked by Malay pirates; the pirates fire at the submarine and then attempt to escape. The sub crew takes off the Chinese crew, sinks the schooner with gunfire and then pursues the pirates and disposes of them.

MARIANAS ISLANDS: Lieutenant General Nathan F Twining relieves Lieutenant General Curtis Emerson LeMay as Commanding General, Twentieth Air Force; LeMay is reassigned to the US Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF) as Chief of Staff.


CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Hamilton (ex HMS and USS Kalk) sold for scrapping in Baltimore.

U.S.A.: The top pop songs are (1) "The More I See You" by Dick Haymes; (2) "Dream" by The Pied Pipers' (3) "Sentimental Journey" by Les Brown and his Orchestra with vocal by Doris Day: and (4) "Oklahoma Hills" by Jack Guthrie.

1999:     The death of TSgt Bobby Austin: October 24, 1924 - August 2, 1999.  He entered the Marines in 1942 and served as a navigator of a Marine R4D and was honourably discharged in November 1945.  A member of the WWII List! Semper Fi!!

Bobby's logbook and pictures are online at:

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