3 August 1939

August 3rd, 1939 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: A secret meeting takes place between Ambassador Herbert von Dirksen (German Ambassador to Great Britain) and Sir Horace Wilson, head of His Majesty's Civil Service, the Prime Minister's closest adviser. Britain was prepared to increase trade with Germany, talk constructively about Germany's need for colonies, take a helpful view of Germany's need for expansion in south-east Europe, announce jointly a co-operative programme to help improve the world economic situation, look seriously at the possibility of limiting armaments (including a possible loan to Germany to offset the financial difficulties limitation would bring), and finally, agree not to intervene in matters concerning the Greater Reich, which would include Danzig. There was only one pre-condition: that Germany and Britain should sign a treaty of non-aggression, in which both sides would renounce unilateral aggressive action as a policy method.

Light cruiser HMS Belfast commissioned.

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3 August 1940

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August 3rd, 1940 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil refineries at Mannheim and Dusseldorf.
77 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Mannheim. All bombed primary.
78 Sqn. Three aircraft to Dusseldorf. One bombed primary, two bombed Mannheim as alternative. Two force landed on return.
RAF Fighter Command: Weather, cloudy, bright intervals. Luftwaffe attacks shipping by day. At night South Wales, Crewe and Liverpool are bombed.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 4; RAF 0.

Dull weather reduces German Channel activity, nuisance sorties include one by a Ju88 which flew so low by Wembury Cliff searchlight site that gunners fired down upon it. Scotland, Tyneside, Humber, Harwich and Crewe had night raids or mining. Swansea had the heaviest raid with 10 HEs being dropped.

The Icelandic trawler Skutull saved 27 shipwrecked men from the Atos which was torpedoed near Scotland. Among these men was a survivor from the Swedish merchant Tilia Gorthon, which was sunk by U-38 on 20 June.
At 1900, the Rad was stopped with gunfire by UA and the crew had to abandon ship after it was discovered that she carried contraband. At 2015 a coup de grâce was fired that broke the ship in two and caused her to sink within 15 minutes.
Minesweeper HMS Romney launched.
Destroyer HMS Quorn commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Union annexes Lithuania which becomes a Soviet Socialist Republic.

BRITISH SOMALILAND: General de Simone crosses the Ethiopian frontier into British Somaliland with 12 Eritrean battalions and four Blackshirt battalions. He has six battalions in reserve.
On the morning of the invasion he spoke to his motor-cycle troops, "as only a valorous soldier can speak", according to one present. "Your task is to be the vanguard, an arduous and difficult work which I know you will carry out to your uttermost. Our end is to reach Berbera and reach it we will."
The British force of five battalions and a camel corps cannot hold out for ever - something of an understatement considering Somaliland's defence budget of just GBP 900.

JAPAN: Tokyo: Japan protests at the US embargo on aviation fuel exports.

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

3 August 1941

August 3rd, 1941 (SUNDAY)

GERMANY: In his Sunday sermon today the Bishop of Munster, Clemens August Graf, courageously spoke out against the Nazi murders of the sick and the old. He said: "It is a terrible doctrine which seeks to justify the murder of innocent people and which allows the violent killing of invalids, cripples, the incurably ill, the old and the weak who are no longer able to work ... once the principle that it is permissible to kill "unproductive" humans has been admitted and applied then we must all pity ourselves when we, too, grow old and weak."

FINLAND: After three days' intense fighting the divisions of Maj. Gen. Laatikainen's II Corps break through Soviet defences in southern Karelia. .

LATVIA: Jelgavia: SS Einsatz-Kommandos under Lieutenant Hamann murder 1,550 Jews.

U.S.S.R.: A German encircling movement closes on Russian forces near Pervomaysk on the Bug.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: HMS Maplin, a fighter catapult ship, scores her first success when a Hurricane launched from her deck shoots down a Focke-Wulf Condor.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Quinte launched.

U.S.A.: US President Franklin D Roosevelt travels from Washington, DC to the Naval Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut by train. In the evening, he boards the presidential yacht USS Potomac (AG-25) and, accompanied by the tender USS Calypso (AG-35), sets sail to Point Judith, Rhode Island, where the ships anchor for the night.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-401 is sunk southwest of Ireland, in position 50.27N, 19.50W, by depth charges from the RN's destroyer HMS Wanderer and corvette HMS Hydrangea and the Norwegian destroyer HMS St. Albans (I-15) (formerly USS THOMAS (DD-182)). All hands on the U-boat, 45 men, are lost. (Jack McKillop and Rom Babuka)

3 August 1942

August 3rd, 1942 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Begum laid down.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Graemsay launched.

NORTH SEA: The German submarine U-335 is sunk northeast of the Faeroe Islands, in position 62.48N, 00.12W, by torpedoes from the RN submarine HMS Saracen on her first patrol. There is 1 survivor of the 44-man U-boat crew.

GERMANY: U-286 laid down.

U.S.S.R.: The 4th Panzer Army crosses the Don at Tsimlyansky, as Kletskaya comes under heavy attack.
Army Group B continues the attack on Kletskaya, Russia. The 4th Panzer army has crossed the Don and is advancing east around Kotelnikovo. The 1st Panzer Army attacks from the Kuban east toward Stavropol and south toward Maykop.

EGYPT: British PM Churchill and General Brooke arrive in Cairo. They are on an inspection trip which includes the 8th Army. Churchill is disappointed with the results the 8th has so far achieved given the resources furnished.

CHINA: Shantung: Internecine warfare has broken out among Chinese troops in the Shantung/Kiangsu district. Early this evening the pro-Nationalist commander of the North-east Army. Yu Hsueh-chung, fled after an uprising by 3,000 Communist troops of its 111th Division. The Communist coup was engineered by high-ranking officers, including one who had been under arrest for a similar coup two years ago. The 111th, which wants a merger with the Eight Route Army, accuses Yu of not being prepared to fight the Japanese.

NEW GUINEA: USAAF P-400 Airacobras strafe Oivi and Kokoda.

PACIFIC OCEAN: A U.S. submarine sinks a Japanese transport west-southwest of Truk Atoll,
Caroline Islands.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The US 11th Air Force dispatches 3 B-17 Flying Fortresses, 2 B-24s and 1 LB-30 Liberator to fly a bombing and photo reconnaissance mission to Tanaga and Kanaga Islands and also bomb Kiska Island; 4 of the aircraft have mechanical trouble but all return. The USN's Task Force 8, consisting of the heavy cruisers USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and USS Louisville (CA-28); the light cruisers USS Honolulu (CL-48), USS Nashville (CL-43) and USS St Louis (CL-49); and 6 destroyers, sets sail from Kodiak enroute to bombard Kiska.

U.S.A.: Mildred McAffee (Horton) becomes the first woman officer commissioned into the US Naval Reserve.

Aircraft carrier USS Hornet laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Motor tanker Tricula sunk by U-108 at 11.35N, 56.51W.
At 0305, U-552 fired two torpedoes at Convoy ON-115 east of Cape Race in 45°52N/47°15W and observed a hit aft on a tanker and at the bow of a freighter, both vessels stopped. The GS Walden was damaged and the
Lochkatrine was sunk. One crewmember on GS Walden was killed, but the tanker managed to reach port and was repaired.
At 0401, U-553 attacked Convoy ON-115 and damaged the Belgian Soldier. The ship then fell out of the convoy and was sunk by a coup de grâce from U-607 at 0229 on 4 August. 21 men were lost from 53 crewmembers (24 Belgians) and seven gunners.
The Bombay was reported missing after 5 August 1942. At 1654 on 3 August, U-605 torpedoed and sank a steam trawler of 700 tons. This must have been the Bombay.

3 August 1943

August 3rd, 1943 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The Polish cryptanalysts Henryk Zygalski and Marian Rejewski, who first broke the German Enigma code, arrive at Hendon aerodrome, ending a long exile on France, Algeria and Spain.
Birthday of King Haakon VII of Norway. (Glenn Steinberg)

London: The award is gazetted of the George Cross to Lt. Hugh Randall Syne (1903-65), RANVR, of HMS VERNON, who carried out 19 dangerous mine recovery and disposal tasks in 21 months of courageous work.

Minesweeper HMS Brave commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Pickle launched.

GERMANY: Hamburg: Seven square miles of the city are reported to be destroyed after the fourth RAF raid in the recent campaign.

BALTIC SEA: U-738 lost two men overboard in the Baltic Sea. [Bootsmaat Heinz Richter, Matrosengefreiter Josef Häseling].

U.S.S.R.: Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: SKR "Priliv" (ex-RT-5 "Krab") - by aviation, close to cape Set-Navolok (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

ITALY: Labour unrest begins, leading to strikes in Genoa, Turin, and Milan. (Glenn Steinberg)

On the ground in Sicily, US forces continue east along the north coast toward the Furiano River. At Troina, further inland, the enemy continues firm resistance.

Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.

In the air, USAAF Ninth Air Force B-25s bomb Adrano and its highway approaches; and 300+ P-40s, the largest Ninth Air Force total to date, attack harbours and shipping at Milazzo and Messina, and give direct support to British ground forces in the Catania-Bronte area. Northwest African Tactical Air Force light bombers hit tactical targets; and fighters, light and medium bombers hit shipping in the Straits of Messina and at Milazzo and attack Adrano and Biancavilla and gun emplacements and bridges in the area.

Submarine HMS Unruffled sinks Italian merchantman Citta di Catania (3355 BRT).

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Aleutian Islands: USAAF's 11th Air Force flies six attack missions, 2 of which abort, are flown to Kiska Island by B-24s, B-25 Mitchells, P-38 Lightnings, and P-40s of the US Eleventh Air Force; numerous targets hit and strafed include installations at North Head and South Head.

U.S.A.: The USS RANGER Carrier Air Group Four (CVG-4) is reformed.

Minesweeper USS Harlequin laid down.

Minesweeper USS Harlequin laid down.
Destroyer USS Colhoun laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Durant launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two German submarines are sunk by US aircraft:

- U-572 is sunk northeast of Trinidad, in position 11.35N, 54.05W, by depth charges from a USN PBM-3 Mariner of Patrol Squadron Two Hundred Five (VP-205) based at NAS Guantanamo, Cuba. The submarine was on the surface and the U-boat crew shot the aircraft down during the bombing run; all hands on the aircraft and all hands on the submarine, 47 men, are killed.

- U-706 is sunk at 0630 hours local in the Bay of Biscay northwest of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 46.15N, 10.25W, by depth charges from a USAAF B-24 of the 4th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) based at St Eval, Cornwall, England. There are 15 survivors of the U-boats 57 man crew. This submarine was earlier attacked by a Canadian Hampden patrol aircraft from RCAF 415 Squadron.

U-66 was caught by Avenger and Wildcat aircraft from the escort carrier USS Card on 3 August and 3 men were killed and 8 more wounded, including the commander. [Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve Kurt Schütze, Matrosengefreiter Erich Lorenz and Mechanikergefreiter (T) Heinz Nitsch].

3 August 1944

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.

3 August 1945

August 3rd, 1945 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Attlee appoints 19 new ministers, including Aneurin Bevin as health minister.

FRANCE: The battle-cruiser STRASBOURG, scuttled in 1942, is refloated.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: All ethnic Germans and Hungarians are deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship.

BURMA: Organized Japanese resistance comes to an end as the Allies win the "Battle of the Breakthrough"; of 10,000 Japanese troops defending the Pegu Yoma range, 8,300 are dead.

KURILE ISLANDS: 4 USN PB4Y-2 Privateers based in the Aleutians bomb Torishima Island and 11 small enemy craft are attacked in a bay north of Otomari Zaki on Onekotan Island.

JAPAN: US Twentieth Air Force 90+ VII Fighter Command P-47s and P-51s from Iwo Jima fly nearly 100 effective sorties throughout the Tokyo area, hitting airfields, rail installations, and trains.

B-29s drop mines to seal off all of Japan's main ports, leaving the country totally blockaded.

Mines previously laid by Twentieth Air Force B-29 Superfortresses sink two freighters and a transport and damage three other vessels.

CANADA: Armed yacht HMCS Husky paid off Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Minesweeper HMCS Fort Frances and HMC ML 117 and 119 paid off.

MARTINIQUE: Pan American World Airways Sikorsky S-43 seaplane, msn 4306, registered NC15066, sinks on landing at Fort de France; 10 of the 14 aboard survive.

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