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August 6th, 1939 (SUNDAY)

ITALY: Fearing Germany will go to war with Poland, the Duce Benito Mussolini, and Count Galeazzo Ciano, his son-in-law and Foreign Minister, discuss possible ways to evade the terms of the Pact of Steel, signed with Germany on 23
May. The pact commits them to aiding Germany, but Italy is 3 years short of readiness for war.

BRITISH EMPIRE: No. 39 squadron (RAF) sets out from Risalpur (North-West Frontier of India) with 9 Blenheims I's on the first leg of its intended transfer to Kallang, Singapore. Due to the British government's concern over the defence of the naval base at Singapore, some units are transferred from the North-West Frontier of India.

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August 6th, 1940 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Fighter Command: Weather, cloudy, windy. Little Luftwaffe activity, some attacks against shipping. Heavy raids on Swansea and Midlothian
Off East Anglia three 85 Sqn. Hurricanes led by Sgt. Geoffrey Allard shot down a Do 17 of III/KG 3..
Losses: Luftwaffe, 1; RAF 1.

London: The first contingent of airmen from Southern Rhodesia arrived in Britain today to add its strength to the increasingly international air force which is waging war on Germany. The men join not only British and Polish pilots but also airmen from Canada, Australia and New Zealand - not to mention volunteers from Ireland and the USA.
Throughout the Empire, towns, islands, colonies and even tribes are donating money for individual planes to the mother country. Soon more airmen will arrive from the colonies to pilot the planes that their fellow countrymen have donated. Already Canada is training hundreds of fighter pilots. More generally, India has 500,000 men under arms; Australasia 225,000; Canada 200,000, and South Africa 80,000.

ASW trawlers HMS Morris Dance, Saltarelo launched.
Rescue tug HMS Prudent launched.
Destroyer HMS Blencathra launched.
Corvette HMS Gentian launched.
Corvette HMS Salvia launched.

GERMANY: U-219, 220, 301, 302, 359, 360, 445, 446, 447, 448, 707, 708 ordered.

FINLAND: The US Army transport American Legion arrives at Petsamo, Finland to embark US citizens that had been living in European countries, e.g., Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Quezon asks the US War Department for a subsidy of $100 per soldier.  This was rejected on the advice of High Commissioner Sayre, who analyzed it as a money-making scheme for the Commonwealth.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Toowoomba laid down.

U.S.A.: The Secretary of State, Cordell-Hull, calls for a massive build-up of arms to dissuade enemy attacks.

In the U.S., Columbia Records cut the prices of its 12-inch (30.48 cm) classical records. The records are priced to sell at US$1 (US$11.76 in year 2000 dollars). Within two weeks, RCA Victor did the same and ended a record-buying slump brought on by disinterested consumers.

Destroyer USS Madison commissioned.

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August 6th, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: ASW trawler HMS Agate lost after grounding off Cromer, Norfolk.

GERMANY: U-187 laid down. U-404 commissioned.
U-589 and U-590 launched.

U.S.S.R.: General Wladyslaw Anders is appointed C-in-C of the new Polish army to be formed in Russia.

JAPAN: Tokyo: Japan proposes concessions to the US in China and Indochina and asking for the end to the freeze on assets by the US. These proposals are rejected. They respond with a request for Konoye to meet with President Roosevelt. The question of this meeting is not resolved until after Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Placentia Bay.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: An executive order transfers the U.S. Coast Guard's Honolulu District from the Treasury Department to the U.S. Navy in the first step toward shifting the USCG to USN control.

CANADA: Minesweepers HMCS Wasaga and Cowichan departed Esquimalt, British Columbia, for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-562 sinks SS RT-70 ex Kapitan Voronin.

At 1900, Soviet dispatch vessel PS-70 was hit by one torpedo from U-652 and sank seven miles off Cape Teriberka. This was the first U-boat success in the Arctic.

ICELAND: USN Task Force 16 consisting of the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41), heavy cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39) and USS Wichita (CA-35) and 5 destroyers delivers US Army troops to Reykjavik, Iceland. Accompanying TF 16 are the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44) and 2 destroyers. The Army troops are in the Army transport American Legion while stores ship USS Mizar (AF-12) and  cargo ship USS Almaack (AK-27) bring supplies and equipment. During the morning, USS Wasp, the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes and their 2 destroyers part company from TF 16 and soon thereafter, the carrier turned into the wind and commenced launching the 30 P-40s and 3 PT-17 Kaydets of the USAAF's 33d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) which land at Reykjavik Airport.

As the P-40's and the trainers droned on to Iceland, Wasp heads home for Norfolk, her three escorts in company. Also at Reykjavik, Iceland, are detachments of USN Patrol Squadrons 73 (VP-73), with PBY-5A Catalinas, and VP-74, with PBM-1 Mariners; both squadrons, which are serviced by the seaplane tender, destroyer USS Goldsborough (AVD-5), begin routine air patrols over the North Atlantic on this date.

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August 6th, 1942 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Britain renounces the 1938 Munich agreement.

Winston Churchill burst in on his top military adviser, Sir Alan Brooke, to announce his new idea for reorganizing the Middle East Command and reassigning its commander to lesser duties. (Laura Driuss)

Destroyer HMS Milne commissioned.
Frigate HMS Exe commissioned.

GERMANY: At a conference to Reich commissioners in Berlin, Göring  put on record his attitude towards the occupation. "France could have quite another agricultural yield altogether if messieurs les paysans were compelled to work harder. Besides, the French population is so stuffed with food that it's a scandal ... I shout myself hoarse that I consider, when all's said and done, that occupied France is a conquered country. In old days things were simpler, there was plundering, whoever conquered a country could do what he liked with its wealth. Now they do things more humanely. For my part I go plundering .... Collaboration, it's only Monsieur Abetz who does it , not me! The collaboration of Messieurs les Français I see in only one light: let them deliver whatever they can until they can't deliver any more: if they do so voluntarily I'll say I'm collaborating; if they stuff their mouths all the same, then they aren't collaborating. The French must realise what's what. You'll object that there's Laval's foreign policy. Monsieur Laval pacifies Monsieur Abetz and I'm willing to allow Monsieur Laval the right to go into a Maxim's forbidden other Frenchmen. As for them, they've got to learn their lesson right now. Their cheek is unimaginable."

U-546 laid down.
U-641 and U-642 launched.
U-634 commissioned.
U-905 and U-907 ordered.

During training in the Baltic U-612 collided with U-444 killing two men from U-612, which sank to the seabed. The boat was later raised and used for training. [Obermaschinist Wilhelm Merz, Maschinenobergefreiter Gerhard Ehrlich] (I WO Herbert A. Werner described the loss in his book Iron Coffins).

U.S.S.R.: The 17th Army of Army Group A captures Tikhoretsk, Russia. 

LIBYA: US Army Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s hit the harbour at Tobruk.

EGYPT:  Cairo: General Harold Alexander is appointed C-in-C Middle East; Lt-Gen William "Strafer" Gott succeeds Ritchie as commander of the Eighth Army.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF 11th Air Force dispatches 3 B-24 Liberators, 2 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 10 P-38 Lightnings to provide air coverage for USN tenders to Nazan Bay, Atka Island; photo reconnaissance is flown over Attu Island.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Kenora commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: - U-210 (Korvkpt Rudolf Lemcke CO) is sunk in the North Atlantic south of Cape Farewell, Greenland, in position 54.24N, 34.37W, by ramming, depth charges and gunfire from the RCN destroyer HMCS Assiniboine (A/LCdr John Hamilton Stubbs RCN, CO). 37 of the 43 crewmen on the U-boat survive. The 6 crew members lost include KptLpt Lemcke. The survivors are picked up be HMCS Dianthus and Assiniboine. HMCS Assiniboine's OS Kenneth William Watson, RCN of Revelstoke, British Columbia is killed. U-210 was a VIIC type U-boat, built by F. Krupp Germaniawerft, AG, Kiel, launched 23 Dec 41, commissioned 21 Feb 42, in service 6 months with no record of sinking any ships. At the time U-210 was a member of the Wolfpack, group "Steinbrick". U-210 was one of 18 U-boats attacking the 30-ship Sydney to Liverpool convoy SC-94, which was being escorted by Assiniboine and six corvettes. At 1125, Assiniboine visually detected a surfaced U-boat and a running battle ensued in heavy but intermittent fog. After firing several salvoes from her main armament contact was lost. At 1851, visual contact was re-established and Assiniboine engaged at short range with small-calibre weapons and then rammed. U-210 returned a heavy fire of 37mm and 20mm rounds that resulted in one Canadian sailor's loss, and thirteen others wounded. The U-Boat was eventually hit in the conning tower by a 4.7-inch round, which killed all of the bridge staff. The First Watch Officer dove the boat but soon resurfaced and re-engaged with 20mm guns. Assiniboine responded with 4.7-inch gunfire, circled the wallowing submarine and rammed again. The First Watch Officer had been wounded, so the Engineering Officer gave the order to abandon the boat and she sank about two minutes later. Assiniboine was heavily damaged during the ramming of U-210 and had to detach from the convoy. Her withdrawal, the largest and most capable of the escorts, undoubtedly reduced the effectiveness of the escort force and contributed to higher losses. Moreover, her damage could not be repaired and the ship returned to service until Jan 43, during which time eleven major convoy battles were fought in the North Atlantic. The destruction of one inexperienced U-boat was in no way equal compensation, neither for the disastrous losses from the convoy nor for the extended inoperability of a high-value escort. Although Cdr Stubbs received a DSO for his part in the action, his decision to ram was based on the erroneous notion that is was better to destroy a U-boat than to ensure the safe arrival of the convoy. During the action the return fire from the U-boat was heavy, a number of 40mm hits on Assiniboine ignited a petrol storage outside the wheelhouse, CPO Max Leopold Bernays, the coxswain, remained at his post executing some 141 helm orders given during the Ops.

- U-578 is last heard from today while in the Bay of Biscay. All hands, 49 men, are lost.

At 1719, the unescorted Rozewie was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-66 and sank in ten minutes. The master was taken prisoner by the U-boat. At 1438 the same day, U-155 had unsuccessfully attacked the Rozewie with 20 rounds from the deck gun, but was forced to break off the attack when the ship returned fire with her armament of one 152-mm gun and three machine guns. U-155 did not fired a torpedo because the ship was too small.

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August 6th, 1943 (FRIDAY)

Troina, Sicily falls to the US 1st Division. The "Big Red One" has had a bitter, tough fight. They then push through the town and one mile (1.6 km) to the east before opposition halts them.

US troops are unable to cross the Furiano River as fierce resistance continues.

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August 6th, 1944 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF Eighth Air Force in England flies 2 missions.
- Mission 524: 1,186 bombers and 740 fighters, in 5 forces, are dispatched to attack oil refineries, aircraft, ordnance and other factories in Germany and V-weapon sites in France; 24 bombers and 8 fighters are lost.
(1) Of 414 B-17s, 126 hit Brandenburg assembly plants, 74 hit Genshagen, 69 hit Brandenburg munitions industry, 12 hit Stendal Airfield and 8 hit targets of opportunity; 11 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 168 P-51 Mustangs; 2 P-51s are lost.
(2) Of 154 B-17s, 83 hit Berlin aircraft engine factories, 45 hit Berlin diesel factories, 7 hit targets of opportunity and 4 hit Nordholz Airfield; 5 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 107 P-51s; 1 P-51 is lost.
(3) In an Operation FRANTIC mission, 75 B-17s hit Rahmel aircraft factories at Gdynia, Poland and proceeds to bases in the USSR. Escort is provided by 154 P-51s; 4 P-51s.
(4) Of 445 B-24s, 72 hit Hamburg/Schulau oil refinery, 62 hit Hamburg/Rhenania-Ossag oil refinery, 61 hit Hamburg/Rhenania oil refinery, 58 hit Kiel naval installations, 54 hit Hamburg/Deutsche oil refinery, 33 hit Hamburg/Eband oil refinery, 32 hit Hamburg/Schlieman oil refinery, 23 hit Hemmingstedt and 4 hit targets of opportunity; 8 B-24s are lost. Escort is provided by 196 P-38s and P-47 Thunderbolts.
(5) 24 B-24s hit 2 V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais area. Escort is provided by 24 P-47s.

- Mission 526: 7 B-17s drop leaflets in France during the night.

- 36 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions in France; 1 B-24 is lost.

FRANCE: Von Kluge launches a counter-attack towards Avranches, as Allied forces cut off the Breton Peninsula.
Montgomery issues an order for the destruction of the German army west of the Seine and north of the Loire.
The US 4th Armored Division advances on Lorient, France. Vire is liberated by the US 29th Division.

Destroyer HMCS Haida sinks German minesweeper M486 off Ile d'Yeu. Haida suffered 2 Killed in the action detailed below:

On the night of 5-6 August 1944, four Tribal Class Destroyers were southbound in the bay of Biscay when they detected a small convoy, also on a southerly course, presumably headed for Spain. HMS Tartar, HMS Ashanti, HMCS Haida and HMCS Iroquois manoeuvred to a favourable position and attacked, sinking six of the seven ships, including the escort. Returning northward, ships were detected leaving St. Nazaire and the order was given: "All guns loaded". Able Seaman Michael KERWIN was a member of the crew of HMCS Haida's 'Y' Mounting, twin 4.7 inch, on the quarterdeck. Unknown to anyone, the right gun was still hot from the previous action. Before the breech was fully closed, the charge ignited, blew back the breech, which collapsed the tray and there was a cordite fire. As OOQ Torpedo Tubes, Lloyd I JONES thought the ship had been hit. The port side was impassable due to the fire but the starboard side was free. At 'Y' Mounting, two were killed and eight wounded. One of the wounded was AB KERWIN, who also suffered burns and temporary blindness. However, he heard the gun trainer, AB Jack (Guns) BURNETT, calling for help from the forward part of the gun shield and he plunged through dense smoke and flames, found his shipmate and hauled him to safety. In due course, he was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. It must be added that Chief Stoker Harold D. Richard RCN did a marvellous job with a fire hose, which he brought into operation almost immediately. With the spray nozzle going, he soaked everyone and had the cordite fire out in short order. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. The wounded were carried to the Sick Bay. The good ammunition was passed to the forward guns and the burnt cordite cartridges kicked overboard.

Normandy: Cpl Sidney Bates (b.1921), Royal Norfolk Regt., charged a group of Germans threatening his section. He forced them off, but was fatally wounded and died two days later. (Victoria Cross)

The USAAF Ninth Air Force dispatches A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders to hit bridges, fuel and ammunition dumps, and a locomotive depot at Beauvais, Beaumont-sur-Sarthe, Courtalain, Foret de Perseigne, and Blois; fighters escort IX Bomber Command and furnish cover to ground troops in the Vire, Rennes, and Redon areas.

U-471 (Type VIIC) is bombed in dry dock in Toulon, at position 43.07N, 05.55E, by bombs from American B-24 Liberator aircraft. Raised in 1945 and returned to service as French Millé from 1946. Stricken 9 July, 1963 as Q339.

U-952 (Type VIIC) is sunk on 6 Aug 1944 in Toulon by US bombs.

U-969 (Type VIIC) is destroyed in Toulon, France by bombs from US B-24 aircraft.

U-736 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the Bay of Biscay west of St. Nazaire, at position 47.19N, 04.16W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Loch Killin. 28 dead, 20 survivors were taken into captivity. (Alex Gordon)

VICHY FRANCE: Pétain reacts to the execution yesterday of the 28 prisoners in the Santé. He writes to Laval: "For some months, many reports have informed me of the Milice's sinister action. On separate occasions I have discussed this with you in the hope that improvement would result in the many activities of this political police. This has not been so. On the contrary .... Proofs of collusion between the Milice and the German police are daily provided. I have learned, sometimes from the highest departmental authorities, that French prisoners are denounced and handed over to the German police. I must stress the deplorable effect on the population, which might understand the arrests carried out by Germans themselves but can never condone the fact of Frenchmen delivering their own compatriots to the Gestapo and working in co-operation with them... I cannot pass over in silence torture inflicted upon often innocent victims in places which, even in Vichy are less like prisons of the French state than Bolshevik Chekas. Such is the tragic situation which it is my duty to point out to you."
Darnard replied to Pétain: "In the course of these four years I have received compliments and congratulations from you. You encouraged me. And today, because the Americans stand at the gates of Paris, you start to tell me that I shall be  a stain on the history of France? It is something which might have been though of earlier."

GERMANY: Hitler appoints Himmler as Special Commissioner for A-4 (rocket) affairs. This appears to have been due to Hitler's distrust of the army after July 20 assassination attempt. (Alex Gordon)

U-3510 laid down.

U-3002 commissioned.

POLAND: The German begin the deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz to Auschwitz.

ITALY: Allied forces cross the Arno River into the northern part of the city of Florence.

60 fighters of the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force take off from Operation FRANTIC bases in the USSR, attack Craiova marshalling yard and other railroad targets in the Bucharest-Ploesti, Romania area, and land at Italian bases. Close to 700 B-17s and B-24s, operating against targets in south-eastern France, attack oil storage at Le Pouzi, Le Pontet, and Lyon, railroad bridges at Le Pouzin, Avignon, Tarascon, Rambert, and Givors, marshalling yards at Portes-les-Valences and Miramas, and submarine pens at Toulon sinking the German submarines U-471, U-952 and U-969; 43 P-38s dive-bomb airfields at Orange/Plan de Dieu, and Valence; P-38s and P-51s fly about 200 sorties in support of bombing missions.

INDIAN OCEAN: Empire City in Convoy DKA-21 was torpedoed and sunk by U-198 east of Mocimboa, Portuguese East Africa. Two crewmembers and ten gunners were lost. The master, 47 crewmembers and ten gunners landed at Pekawi, Portuguese East Africa.

GUAM: 1 regiment of the US 77th Division takes heavy casualties repelling a Japanese counterattack on Guam.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: The Yap Island supply area is bombed by USAAF Far East Air Force B-24s.

With air support provided by USN carrier-based aircraft of Task Groups 58.1 and 58.3, USN cruisers bombard Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands and Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Bumper launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Heyliger, Joseph E Connolly, Milton Lewis and Sutton launched.
Aircraft carrier USS Bennington commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-736 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay west of St. Nazaire, in position 47.19N, 04.16W, by depth charges from the RN frigate HMS Loch Killin. 19 of the 47 crewmen survive. 

Corvette HMCS Hawkesbury arrives Bermuda for workups.

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August 6th, 1945 (MONDAY)

CHINA: USN Task group 95.3 (Vice Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf) carrier-based aircraft from 3 escort aircraft carriers (USS Lunga Point, Makin Island and Cape Gloucester) attack Japanese shipping in Tinghai Harbor. The escort aircraft carriers are covering a cruiser force operating in the East China Sea.

JAPAN: The world's first atomic attack takes place. At 0245 hours local, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Commanding Officer of the 509th Composite Group, pilots the Martin-built, Boeing B-29-45-MO Superfortress, s/n 44-86292, named ENOLA GAY ( after Tibbets' mother), off the runway at North Field, Tinian Island, Mariana Islands; at 2-minute intervals, 2 observation B-29s follow, Major Charles W Sweeney's GREAT ARTISTE and Captain George W Marquardt's Number 91. 

ENOLA GAY is carrying a uranium fission bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," with a yield in the area of 12,500 tons (11,340 metric tons) of TNT. The bomb has several inscriptions scribbled on its casing, one of which reads, "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis" (the heavy cruiser that transported the bomb casing to the Marianas and was subsequently sunk). Seven B-29s had been designated for the mission. One was a spare that was to stand by at Iwo Jima where there were facilities for unloading and reloading the bomb in case of an abort.

Three were weather planes that had been dispatched in advance of the attack to determine weather conditions over the three proposed targets, i.e., Hiroshima, the primary; Kokura, the secondary; and Nagasaki, the tertiary. 
The Twentieth Air Force, with other missions scheduled, would provide air-sea rescue service, but no plane except those on the mission was to approach within 50 miles (80.5 km) of the target from 4 hours before to 6 hours after the strike, even for rescue purposes. Thereafter 2 photo reconnaissance F-13 Superfortresses were to take photographs. The ENOLA GAY and the two observation aircraft rendezvoused at Iwo Jima and began to
climb to bombing altitude. At 0710 hours, the "bomb commander and weaponeer," Commander William B. Parsons, USN, and his assistant, Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, armed the bomb. At 0815 hours, Tibbets received a weather report from the aircraft over Hiroshima: "2/10 lower and middle, and 2/10 at 15,000 feet (4,572 meters)" thus sealing the city's doom. The initial point (IP) is reached at 0911 hours and at 0915 hours (0815 hours Japan time), the atomic bomb is released over Hiroshima at 31,600 feet (9,632 meters); it explodes 50 seconds later at an altitude of 1,900 feet (579 meters); 80+% of the buildings are destroyed and over 71,000 people (Japanese figures; US figures say from 70,000 to 80,000) are killed. After an uneventful return flight, ENOLA GAY lands on Tinian at 1458 hours local, followed within the hour by the 2 observation B-29s.

The force of the explosion was unlike anything ever seen. Birds burnt up in mid-air. People died in a myriad of ways: their skin peeled off, their brains, eyes and intestines burst, or they burnt to cinders standing up. 

A Jesuit priest reported: "In the Hakushima district, naked, burnt, cadavers are particularly numerous. Frightfully injured forms beckon to us and then collapse." A history professor said "I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. Hiroshima had disappeared." President Truman, on board the cruiser USS AUGUST on his way back from Potsdam, said: "This is the greatest thing in history." It is not the most devastating air attack of the war. The March fire raids on Tokyo have had a larger effect. 

The Japanese Army refuses to automatically acknowledge the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima. They send an investigation team to find out the cause and possible defences. This report will not be received until August 12.

Although there is tremendous destruction and death, it is still less than the firebomb raid on Tokyo during the predawn hours of 10 March 1945 when 279 B-29s dropped 1,665 tons (1,510 metric tons) of incendiaries on the Tokyo urban area from 4,900 to 9,200 feet (1,494 to 2,804 meters) destroying 267,171 buildings, about 25% of the total in the Tokyo area, rendering over 1 million persons homeless, killing 83,793 and wounding 40,918.

In Japan:

- Almost 100 USAAF Twentieth Air Force fighters from Iwo Jima attack airfields and military installations at 6 locations throughout the general area around Tokyo.

- Okinawa-based USAAF Far East Air Force aircraft pound targets on Kyushu; 

150+ P-47s and A-26 Invaders fight bad weather to hit the primary, Miyakonojo; 170+ B-24s, B-25s, and P-47s hit Kagoshima as a secondary target; and 60+ B-25s and P-51s attack shipping and ground targets of opportunity in the Tsushima Strait area and in the northern Ryukyu Islands.

P-51s operating in the area between Kyushu and Korea bomb an airfield and strafe numerous targets of opportunity on Saishu Island and P-47s bomb Anjo on Tanega Island. Other aircraft, operating individually or in pairs, hit various targets of opportunity on the southern Korea coast, in the Inland Sea, southern Honshu, western Shikoku Island, throughout the northern Ryukyu Islands, and in the Shanghai, China area.

USN carrier-based aircraft of Carrier Air Group Ten (CVG-10) in USS Intrepid (CV-11), bomb buildings and gun positions on Wake Island while the ship is enroute from Pearl Harbor to join USN forces off Japan. This is the Eighth Wake Raid.

GUAM: Admiral Fraser invests Admiral Nimitz with the Order of the Bath.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Submarine USS Bullhead, CO Edward R. Holt, Jr., is sunk by aircraft off Bali. All hands are lost.

Off the Malay Peninsula, the USN submarine USS Bugara (SS-331) comes across the RN submarine HMS Sleuth and four Japanese junks. In a display of Anglo-American cooperation, the Americans assist the British by sinking two of the enemy craft by gunfire in position 06.51N, 101.44E.

U.S.A.: Major Richard Ira Bong is killed when the jet engine of the Lockheed P-80A-1-LO Shooting Star he is flying flames out at low altitude and the aircraft crashes. The accident occurred at Van Nuys Metropolitan Airport, Los Angeles, California. He was assigned to the 412th Fighter Group which was conducting tests and engaging in experimental work with the Bell P-59A and P-80. 

Bong shot down 40 Japanese aircraft in 146 combat sorties over New Guinea and the Philippines while flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning making him the top American ace of all time. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his World War II exploits and presented by General Douglas MacArthur. After returning to the U.S., Bong had been assigned to the 412th Fighter Group, the P-80 test unit. Had he lived seven more weeks until September 24th he would have turned 25. (Drew Halevy, Jack McKillop, Rob George, Forest Garner)

Destroyer USS Leonard F Mason laid down.
Destroyer USS Arnold J Isbell launched.
U-2513 and U-3008 are transferred to the USA.
Escort carrier USS Palau launched.

The top pop songs today 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.

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