Yesterday            Tomorrow

August 9th, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: At Weymouth, on the south coast of England, King George VI inspects the 133 warships of the Reserve Fleet immediately prior to its mobilisation.
During the inspection, as a courtesy to the French, Admiral de la Flotte Jean Darlan, Chief of the French Naval Staff is presented to the King.

Ambassador von Dirksen, preparing to depart on leave to Germany, visits the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. Halifax quizzes von Dirksen over the 'sharp tone of the German press concerning Danzig.' Von Dirksen replies that it is the fault of the Polish paper Czas which has published a statement that if there were any attempt to incorporate Danzig into the Reich, Polish troops would open fire on the Free City.

GERMANY: An official warning concerning the Polish attitude to Danzig is sent from Berlin to Warsaw, where it is viewed as an unwarranted interference in internal Polish affairs.

U.S.S.R.: 11.00 p.m. Admiral Drax and his colleagues arrive in Leningrad.

Top of Page

Yesterday                    Tomorrow

Home

Yesterday                Tomorrow

August 9th, 1940 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Battle of Britain:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - aluminium works at Ludwigshaven.
77 Sqn. Nine aircraft. Seven bombed primary.
78 Sqn. Five aircraft. Four bombed primary, one bombed an alternative. One damaged by Flak. One fighter seen but no attack.

RAF Fighter Command: Weather, cloud and rain. Luftwaffe attacked east coast shipping and Dover balloons. 

Heavy raids on Bournemouth and Salisbury, and a mine is dropped on South Shields, Tyneside.

Bombs fall for the first time on Birkenhead, Cheshire. 

KG 26 attack Wearmouth, Northumberland, dropping 14 bombs over shipbuilding and railway facilities and injuring 73 people. Sunderland's shipyards also came under attack before 79 Squadron shot the offender down.

By dawn in total 190 HEs had fallen in 24 hours, killing 7 and injuring 100.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 5; RAF 4.

London: Britain promises Japan that it will pull out of Shanghai and northern China; its manpower is needed elsewhere.

Corvette HMS Erica commissioned.

GERMANY: The 'New British Broadcasting Station' (NBBS) propaganda radio announces that German parachutists would descend on Britain wearing some of the 100,000 British uniforms captured in France or else dressed as miners.

U-703 is laid down.

CHINA: The British withdraw their forces from Shanghai.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Cowichan launched North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Corvette HMCS Saskatoon laid down Montreal, Province of Quebec.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-30 sinks SS Canton.

Top of Page

Yesterday        Tomorrow

Home

Yesterday                Tomorrow

August 9th, 1941 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMS Cowslip commissioned.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Shiant launched.

GERMANY: U-267 and U-360 laid down.

BALTIC SEA: The German submarine U-144 is sunk in the Gulf of Finland north of Dagö, in approximate position 59N, 23E, by torpedoes from the Russian submarine SC 307. All hands on the U-boat, 28 men, are lost.

U.S.S.R.: Army Group South begins attacks along the Bug. 

Canberra: AUSTRALIA now feels increasingly vulnerable to the menace of Japan. Notwithstanding all the crippling trade embargoes imposed on Japan following its move into Indochina, the Australian government is pressing for a definite joint declaration by Britain and the United States which might halt any further Japanese encroachment into south-east Asia.
As another Australian brigade, the 27th is committed to the Far Eastern garrisons, Robert Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, is urging Britain to warn Japan that war will result if it attacks Thailand, with the consequent threat to Singapore. He believes that the war is taking an ominous turn.
 

NEWFOUNDLAND: The RN battleship HMS Prince of Wales, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard, arrives at Placentia Bay escorted by the RN destroyer HMS Ripley [ex USS Shubrick (DD-268)] and Royal Canadian Navy destroyers HMCS Restigouche and HMCS Assiniboine. Churchill is here to meet with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt who arrived in the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) two days ago. Churchill calls on Roosevelt on board USS Augusta and the two confer over lunch and dinner before Churchill returns to HMS Prince of Wales. 

This conference will result in the Atlantic Charter; a statement of principles governing the policies of Britain and America. The other major outcome of this conference is that the military staff of both countries get to know each other and to begin to work together. This conference will last for 4 days.  

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-206 sinks SS Ocean Victor.

Italian submarine Maggiore Baracca was rammed and sunk in the North Atlantic, NE of the Azores, in position 40.15N, 20.55W by destroyer HMS Croome.

Top of Page

Yesterday        Tomorrow

Home

Yesterday                Tomorrow

August 9th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
 

UNITED KINGDOM: The first aerial victory by a Hawker Typhoon is scored today when a plane of No. 266 Squadron RAF shoots down a Ju-88. (22)

POLAND: Auschwitz: Edith Stein a Catholic nun of Jewish parentage, is murdered in the gas chamber.

U.S.S.R.: In the Caucasus, Maykop, falls to the German 1st Panzer Army and Krasnodar falls to the 17th Army. The retreating Russians have demolished the oil installations at Maykop.

Ukraine, Kiev: The Start Stadium is the site of the so-called Death Match. A team of Ukrainian football players defeat a military team of Germans thought to be from artillery and perhaps Luftwaffe units.

According to local folklore the Germans warned the local team beforehand or at halftime that it had better lose the match. When the Ukrainians ignored the threat and won, key members of the team were killed in retribution.

The final score was 5-3. That much seems widely agreed upon. And four or five Ukrainian players did die within six months of the game, according to various accounts. Were they killed because they won a soccer match? All the participants are believed to be dead. The truth remains elusive. One player who popularized the legend seemed to tell as many versions of the story as there were goals in the match, both burnishing the myth and betraying it. More

INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi is arrested by the British authorities after riots across the country for independence

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US Navy suffered a sharp reverse off Guadalcanal today when a Japanese night attack overwhelmed Allied naval units near Savo Island, sinking three American and one Australian cruiser. The US cruisers lost were the Vincennes, Astoria and Quincy, together with the Canberra, of the Royal Australian Navy. They were all caught by surprise when two radar equipped American destroyers patrolling off Savo Island failed to detect the approach of the Japanese.
Over 1,000 Allied sailors are feared to have died. However, a vital target, the transports supporting the US invasion of Guadalcanal, was untouched. The Japanese attacking force of seven cruisers and one destroyer escaped detection in its high speed dash from Rabaul and suffered very little damage. 

Shortly after 1:00 am the IJN 8th Fleet commanded by Admiral Mikawa, passes Savo Island. His force is prepared for battle and shielded by weather. The US and Australian ships are dulled by the fatigue and trust in radar. 

The Allied naval forces split into two groups and patrol east of Savo Island while the transports and cargo ships remain off Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The northern group consists of the heavy cruisers USS Astoria (CA-34), USS Quincy (CA-39) and Vincennes (CA-44) and 2 destroyers. The southern force consists of the heavy cruisers HMAS Canberra and USS Chicago (CA-29) and the destroyers USS Bagley (DD-386) and USS Patterson (DD-392). At approximately 0140 hours local, the Battle of Savo Island commences. The Japanese task force of 4 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers and a destroyer spotted and reported yesterday by an RAAF Hudson, evades the US destroyer USS Blue (DD-387) and sails down the channel to the west of Savo Island and, after sailing around the southern part of Savo, attacks the southern force.

The destroyer Patterson saw the Japanese force approaching and signalled: "Warning, Warning, strange ships entering harbour." But it was too late. The Japanese commander had given the order "every ship attack": torpedoes were on their way to the unsuspecting Allied ships.
Brilliant flares dropped by Japanese float planes silhouetted the US cruiser Chicago and the Canberra as the Japanese cruisers opened fire.

 HMAS Canberra is hit by a torpedo, possibly from USS Bagley, and Japanese gunfire from IJN Chokai Aoba, Kako, Kinugasa and Furutaka; USS Chicago is also damaged by a Japanese torpedo; and USS Patterson is damaged by gunfire. USS Chicago and USS Patterson return fire and damage a Japanese cruiser however, no alert is sent to the Allied northern force. The Japanese force then divides-inadvertently-into two separate groups and turns generally northeast passing on either side of the three US cruisers. USS Astoria is sunk by the gunfire of 4 Japanese heavy cruisers; USS Quincy is sunk by gunfire of 3 heavy cruisers and a light cruiser and is torpedoed by a light cruiser; and USS Vincennes is sunk by gunfire and a torpedo from a heavy cruiser. The Japanese do not fire does not go unanswered; gunfire from USS Astoria and USS Quincy damages the Japanese flagship while shellfire from USS Quincy damages a heavy cruiser.

 In the morning, HMAS Canberra is deemed beyond salvage and is later sunk by the destroyers USS Ellett (DD-398) and USS Selfridge (DD-357) south of Savo Island at 09 15S, 159 40E. There are 84 survivors. The Japanese make a big mistake and withdraw rather than attack the transport and cargo ships. The Americans also have a large problem. Since the 3 aircraft carriers withdrew yesterday, and there are no aircraft on Guadalcanal and 4 heavy cruisers have been sunk, the surface vessels have no air or surface support and all are withdrawn leaving the 17,000 Marines and sailors ashore with only half of their supplies.

During the day the Marines consolidate their lines and defences on Guadalcanal. Admiral Turner continues unloading supplies and men until he departs at sunset. He leaves promising aircraft for the still uncompleted Henderson Field by the 11th.

Despite a 50-foot (15.24 meter) gash in her side, the USN destroyer USS Jarvis (DD-393), which was severely damaged by a torpedo yesterday off Guadalcanal, is considered seaworthy and ordered to proceed under cover of darkness to Efate, New Hebrides. Apparently unaware of the order, her captain, decided to steam to Sidney, Australia, for immediate repairs.

Unnoticed by her own ships, USS Jarvis departed Tulagi at 0000 hours local and moved slowly westward through "Ironbottom Sound" and between Savo Island and Cape Esperance. At 0134 hours she passed 3,000 yards (2,743 meters) northward of Rear Admiral Mikawa's cruisers, steaming to meet the Americans at the Battle of Savo Island. Mistaking her for a cruiser of the New Zealand Achilles-class, they fired torpedoes, and destroyer Yunagi later engaged her briefly, all without effect. The destroyer, continuing to retire westward, had little speed, no radio communications, and few operative guns; but she refused aid from the destroyer USS Blue (DD-378) upon being sighted at 0325 hours. After daybreak, a scout plane from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) sighted her 40 miles (64.4 km) off Guadalcanal, trailing fuel oil and down by the bow. That was the last time Americans saw her.

The Japanese, however, still mistaking Jarvis for an escaping cruiser, dispatched 31 planes from Rabaul to search out and destroy her. Once discovered, the badly damaged destroyer was torpedoed and, according to Japanese records, "split and sank" at 1300 hours on 9 August with the loss of all hands.

In support of operations in the Solomon Islands, USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Allied Air Forces bomb shipping and airfields at Rabaul, New Britain Island and Gasmata Island off the southern coast of New Britain Island. (Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon(108))

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: 6 USAAF 11th Air Force bombers fly armed reconnaissance over Kiska and Attu Islands and then bomb Kiska.

U.S.A.: Nazi saboteurs plough arrows into a field in Long Island indicating the whereabouts of Mitchell Field air base.

The German submarine U-98 sows mines at the mouth of the St Johns River east of Jacksonville, Florida.

The 15-minute radio show "Our Secret Weapon," sponsored by Philco, debuts on CBS on Sundays at 1900 hours Eastern Time. The most outrageous lies transmitted by the Axis shortwave radio stations were read and then countered by Rex Stout the author of the Nero Wolfe detective stories. For example, when the Germans claimed that the best major league baseball players were all German, Stout replied, "They've got the facts, no getting away from it. Take the six leading batters in the major leagues -- Williams, Gordon, Wright, Reiser, Lombardi, Medwick. Some bunch of Germans. Also the great German prize-fighter, Joe Louis." The show remained on the air until 8 October 1943.

During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series commences with "British Commandos, Origins, Training, Eval." (William L. Howard)

 

CARIBBEAN SEA: Apprentice Donald Owen Clarke (b.1923) died after rowing for two hours to pull a full lifeboat away from his torpedoed tanker, despite severe burns to his hands - which had to be cut free - face and legs. (George Cross)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-130 sinks SS Malmanger.                  
U-155 sinks SS San Emiliano.                       
U-176 sinks SS Radchurch in Convoy SC-94.
U-752 sinks SS Mendanau.

Top of Page

Yesterday        Tomorrow

Home

Yesterday                Tomorrow

August 9th, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: New Zealand fighter pilot Johnny Checketts of 611 Sqn RAF, shoots down three Messerschmitt Bf109s in a single action. This will result in him being awarded the DSO.

In England, the USAAF VIII Air Support Command Missions 16A and 16B. 72 B-26B Marauders are dispatched to the Ft Rouge Airfield at St Omer, France; clouds prevent bombing and only 1 aircraft hits the target at 1904 hours.
Escort carrier HMS Empress commissioned.

GERMANY: Kreisau, Silesia: Count Helmut von Moltke convenes a group of German dissidents, who declare their desire to overthrow the Nazi regime.
Some 20 high-ranking individuals have banded together to form a group dedicated to the overthrow of National Socialism in Germany. Calling themselves the Kreisau Circle, after the Kreisau estate belonging to a leading member, Count Helmuth James von Moltke, they have now drawn up a list of principles for post-Nazi reform.
Among the points in this draft document are: "1. Justice, which has been trampled on, must be restored ... 2. Freedom of belief and freedom of conscience will be guaranteed ... 3. Destruction of totalitarian direction of conscience and acknowledgement of the inviolability of human dignity as the foundation for an order of peace and justice ...4. The basic unit for peaceful co-existence is the family... 5. work must be so designed that it arouses the desire for personal responsibility rather than stultifying it..."

DENMARK: Eric Scavenius, the Prime Minister, refuses to accept German demands that alleged saboteurs should be sent to Germany for trial.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Simoom attacked Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi off La Spezia. The torpedoes missed the cruiser but hit and sank the destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti.

TURKEY: Ankara: Hungary and Britain reach a secret agreement; Hungary will not fire on Allied aircraft flying to Italy, and the Allies will not bomb Hungarian targets.

 

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The USAAF's Thirteenth Air Force dispatches10 B-25 Mitchells, with fighter cover, to bomb Vila on Kolombangara Island. Shortly thereafter 22 B-24s strike the same target.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, 1 USAAF B-24 Liberator of the Eleventh Air Force flies photo reconnaissance over various Kiska Island sites.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMS Coquette ex HMCS Bowmanville laid down Toronto, Ontario.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS De Haven laid down
Destroyer escort USS Gunason laid down
Destroyer escort USS Liddle launched
Destroyer escort USS Newman launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-664 is sunk 570 miles (917 km) west of the Azores, in position 40.12N, 37.29W, by depth charges from 2 USN TBF Avengers of Composite Squadron One (VC-1) in the escort aircraft carrier USS Card (CVE-11). 44 of the 51 crewman on the U-boat survive.

Top of Page

Yesterday        Tomorrow

Home

Yesterday   Tomorrow

August 9th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies 3 missions.

Lt.Col. John Murphy (359th FG) on 9 August 1944 (page 187) engaged and shot down a Me 163 (confirmed) while his wingman 1/Lt. Cyril Jones, claimed a second one (which isn't confirmed, but surely damaged). (77)

Minesweeper HMS Mandate launched. Boom defence vessel HMS Preventer launched.

FRANCE: Rapidly-advancing allied forces capture St. Malo and Angers, but Canadian forces get bogged down north of Falaise.  The Canadian II Corps continues to attack along the Caen-Falaise road. The German attacks around Mortain are running out of steam. The US XV Corps heads from Le Mans toward Argentan to assist the Canadians.

French Resistance fighters kill a number of German soldiers in a battle in Saint-Julien-de-Crempse in the southwest region of Dordogne. In retaliation, the Germans round up all males from the village between the ages of 18 and 80, 17 in total, and execute them. (Pierre Sauvey, AP)

Paris: Laval reaches Paris with  a plan to revive the parliamentary democracy of the Third Republic and represent Vichy as a German enforced interruption to normality.

The USAAF Ninth Air Force sends close to 400 B-26s and A-20 Havocs to attack an ammunition dump in Foret de Blois, shipping at Brest, and other targets, including rail bridges at 10 locations in northern and western France; fighters escort IX Bomber Command aircraft, cover ground forces, and fly armed reconnaissance in the wide areas of northern France (around Paris, as far south as Orleans, and as far northeast as Reims and Chalons-sur-Marne).

GERMANY: Berlin: The chief defendants of the 20 July attempt on Hitler's life are
tried by Roland Freisler's People's Court and condemned to death.
They are hanged two hours later.

FINLAND: By this day the battle of Ilomantsi has ended. The troops of Finnish 14th div, 21st and Cavalry brigades have surrounded and destroyed the Soviet 176th and 289th divisions. The men of the divisions are able to escape through the woods, but all the heavy equipment are left behind.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-352 was commissioned at New York with LTJG E. B. Drinkwater, USCG, as commanding officer. She departed New York on 10 September 1944, towing QS-19 for the Southwest Pacific where she operated during the war. On 28 November 1945, she was turned over to the US 6th Army at Nagoya, Japan. 

Top of Page

Yesterday    Tomorrow

Home

Yesterday                Tomorrow

August 9th, 1945 (THURSDAY)

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Allies' steel ring around Japan snapped tight last night as Russia entered the Pacific War. Moscow announced its declaration of war on Japan at midnight. Ten minutes later and nearly 5,000 miles away a vast Soviet army, assembled in secret over the last three months, invaded Manchukuo (as Japan renamed Manchuria), intent on dividing the province and surrounding the Kwantung Army. By this morning Russian columns had made rapid progress as Soviet aircraft bombed strategic points behind Japanese lines.

At Yalta, Stalin had promised Roosevelt that Russia would join in the attack on Japan three months after the end of the war in Europe. And he has kept his promise, perhaps helped by the US decision to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese mainland.

In Moscow, Mr. Molotov, the Soviet foreign affairs commissar, said that the Soviet Union had declared war because Japan was the only great power preventing peace. He said that it was in the interests of shortening the war and bringing peace to the world that Moscow acceded to the Allied request made at Potsdam to join the war. He said that the Russians had been asked to mediate by Japan, but that proposal had lost all basis when Japan refused to surrender unconditionally.

Japanese ambassador Sato receives the Soviet declaration of war from Molotov and, while en route back to the embassy, glumly tells an aide, "The inevitable has now arrived." (p. 191)(226)

The Soviet strike force, commanded by Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky, is numerically superior and includes experienced troops from the European front. It has 1.2 million troops, backed by 3,900 aircraft, 5,500 tanks and 26,000 field guns. Japan's Kwantung Army has 780,000 troops, 1,000 aircraft, 1,155 tanks and 6,620 field guns.

JAPAN: A second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. This bomb is a plutonium type. About 40,000 people die immediately.

US President Truman broadcasts about the atomic bombs and their use on Japan. 

The Red Army attack Japanese Forces in Manchuria with an army of 1.5 million soldiers. The Japanese defence lines are soon smashed. 

Vice Admiral Hoshina, Chief of Military Affairs Bureau for the Naval Ministry, discussed the worsening situation with Vice Admiral Onishi, the Navy Vice Chief of Staff. Onishi replies that there were "ample chances of victory for Japan." He minimizes the importance of the atom bomb and the Russian invasion, the dwindling resources. He stresses the effectiveness of "special attacks" and the suicide weapons. 

Hoshina then sees Navy Minister Yonai. Yonai comments "I have given up the war."

During the morning (before the emperor had heard or digested news of the Nagasaki bomb), Hirohito has a meeting with Koichi Kido, Keeper of the Privy Seal. During the meeting the emperor says, "The Soviet Union declared war against us, and entered into a state of war as of today. Because of this it is necessary to study and decide on the termination of the war." (p.198)(226)

The Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, meets at 10:30 this morning. The SCDW is known as the Big 6 of the Japanese Cabinet. PM, FM, War Minister, Navy Minister, Army CofS, Navy CofS. They are notified of the Nagasaki bomb. By 1:00 pm they are still unable to agree on acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. The Military refuses to negotiate on the continuing existence of the Emperor system, disarmament and occupation.

At the Japanese cabinet meeting this afternoon, PM Suzuki is able to set the stage for an Imperial Conference with the Emperor. The military are not aware that it will be tonight. The discussion is deadlocked over two proposals. The FM proposal is to accept the Potsdam Declaration. The military have added 
1) A guarantee that the imperial family will continue to reign. 
2) Disarmament of the armed forces by Japan herself. 
3) Trial of war criminals by Japan herself. 
4) Occupation of Japan to be limited to the minimum time and places.

The USAAF Twentieth Air Force flies 2 missions.

    - Special Mission Number 16, the world's second atomic attack, is flown. At 0349 hours local, Major Charles W. Sweeney, Commanding Officer of the 393d Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), pilots the Martin-built, Boeing B-29-35-MO Superfortress, s/n 44-27297, Number 77, later renamed BOCKS CAR, off the runway at North Field, Tinian Island, Mariana Islands; at 2-minute intervals, 2 observation B-29s follow, Captain Frederick C. Bock in GREAT ARTISTE and Major James I. Hopkins in Number 91; on board the GREAT ARTISTE is William L. Laurence, a reporter for The New York Times who had been chosen at the inception of the Manhattan Project while RAF Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, Winston Churchill's official representative, is aboard Number 91. 

Number 77 is carrying a plutonium implosion weapon, nicknamed "Fat Man," with a yield in the area of 22,000 tons (19,958 metric tons) of TNT. The bomb is 10 feet 8 inches (3.25 meters) long and 5 feet (1.52 meters) in diameter Six 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. Two were weather planes that had been dispatched in advance of the attack to determine weather conditions over the two proposed targets, i.e., Kokura, the primary and Nagasaki, the secondary. Major Sweeney reaches the rendezvous point, Yakujima off the south coast of Kyushu, at 0909 hours and was joined by Captain Bock at 0912 hours. Bock spotted the second observation aircraft but lost contact; after circling for 45-minutes waiting for Major Hopkins' aircraft, which had the cameras to document the mission, Sweeney and Bock head for Kokura where the weather had closed in. The crew spent 50 minutes making three runs from different directions over the city without getting a
glimpse of the target and at this point, the flight engineer reported that the 600 US gallons (2,271 litres) in the bomb bay auxiliary tanks could not be transferred to the wing tanks. 

Aircrews near Nagasaki when the bomb exploded said that it went up in a roar of smoke and flame visible for 250 miles. A huge yellow and orange fireball shot 8,000-feet into the sky and then turned into a whirling ten-mile-high column of black smoke. It spread out until it blotted out targets which B-29s were bombing 50 miles away. Fires were still ablaze last night over a ten-square-mile area.

Here are some additional anecdotes about the Nagasaki A-Bomb mission flown on 9 August 1945. This mission could properly be described as SNAFU, an acronym meaning "situation normal, all fouled up." Or, you could replace the word "fouled" with another word beginning with the letter "f."

In the bomb bay of the B-29, the black box containing the electrical switches that armed the bomb had a red light. As long as the light blinked in a regular rhythm, it meant that the bomb was properly armed. If it blinked irregularly, something was malfunctioning. As the B-29 was en route from to the primary target Kokura, the red light suddenly began to flash wildly. The two "weaponeers" aboard the aircraft frantically removed the black box's cover to search for the trouble. Quickly tracing all the
wiring, they found the problem: the wiring on two small rotary switches had been reversed somehow. They quickly hooked them properly. It could have been worse. If it had been the timing fuses, they would have had less than one minute to find the trouble before the a-bomb might have gone off.

As the B-29 left Nagasaki after dropping the a-bomb, the fuel was dangerously low. Major Sweeney changed course for Okinawa with everyone on the flight deck watching the fuel gauges on the flight engineer console. Sweeney had pulled the props back to a range-extending low rpm and leaned out the fuel mixture controls as far back as he dared while he descended;
he figured they would land about 50 miles (80.5 km) short of the island. Even when they spotted Yontan Field, it still seemed likely they would have to ditch short of the runway.

While Sweeney flew, the co-pilot called the tower for landing instructions. He received no reply. He broadcast a Mayday while the crew fired every emergency flare on board. No one seemed to pay any attention. In desperation, Sweeney took the mike and shouted, "I'm coming straight in!" 
"Someone must have gotten the message," Olivi, a third pilot aboard, recalled, "because when we lined up on the approach, we could see emergency equipment racing out to the runway. We had only enough gas for one pass, so if we didn't make it, we were going to end up in the ocean.

"Sweeney came in high and fast--too fast. Normal landing speed for the B-29 was about 130 mph (209 km/h). We used up half the strip before we touched down at about 150 mph (241 km/h), a dangerous speed, with nearly empty gas tanks.

"As we touched down, the plane began to swerve to the left and we nearly plowed into a line of B-24s parked along the active runway. Sweeney finally brought the plane under control, and as we taxied off the runway the No. 2 engine quit. Ambulance, staff cars, jeeps, and fire engines quickly surrounded us and a bunch of very jittery people debarked, very glad to be
safe on the ground." 

What Olivi did not mention was that the airplane used up all of the runway trying to come to a halt. Sweeney stood on the brakes and made a swerving 90-degree turn at the end of the runway to avoid going over the cliff into the ocean. Beser, the RCM specialist, recalled that two engines had died, while "the centrifugal force resulting from the turn was almost enough to
put us through the side of the airplane." 

The flight engineer, before refilling the tanks, estimated that there were exactly 7 US gallons (26.5 litres) left in them.

While their Superfort was being gassed, Sweeney and the Navy weaponeer Ashworth commandeered a jeep and went to the base communications centre to send a report to Tinian. They were refused permission to send such a message without the commanding general's personal permission. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle had been newly sent to Okinawa to oversee the arrival of Eighth Air Force units from Europe to prepare them for future combat.

Doolittle, not privy to any of the A-bomb plans or operations, listened intently as Sweeney and Ashworth explained what had happened. Both men were nervous about telling a three-star general that they did not believe the bomb had hit the target directly. As they talked, Doolittle pulled out a map of Japan where they pointed out the industrial area over which they thought the bomb had exploded. Doolittle said, reassuringly, "I'm sure General Spaatz will be much happier that the bomb went off in the river valley rather than over the city with the resulting much lower number of casualties." He promptly authorized the communications section to send Sweeney's coded after-action report. (NOTE: IMHO, Doolittle was always a "class" act!)

Sweeney and his crew, thoroughly exhausted, took off for Tinian after a three-hour layover, and arrived there about midnight.

- Mission 322: During the night of 9/10 August, 95 B-29s bomb the Nippon Oil Refinery at Amagasaki; 2 others hit alternate targets.

In Japan:

- US Far East Air Force (FEAF) B-25 Mitchells over Kyushu Island, bomb airfields at Kanoya, the town of Noma, shipping in Beppu Bay, bridges, factories, and oil storage at Tsurusaki, and shipping, coastal villages, and communications targets in the Tsushima Strait area; A-26 Invaders and A-20s hit Kanoya Airfield and the industrial areas of Kushikino, Minato, and Shimahira; B-24s over western Honshu Island bomb the airfield at Iwakuni; 200+ P-47s and P-51s hit numerous targets on Shikoku and Kyushu Islands, and in the Ryukyu Islands including airfields, barracks, harbour installations, bridges, shipping, vehicles, and various factories and storage facilities.

-USN carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 attack Japanese shipping and airfields in northern Honshu and Hokkaido; 9 ships are sunk.

-USN Rear Admiral Shafroth, with SOUTH DAKOTA, INDIANA, MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON, SAINT PAUL, and (apparently) QUINCY and CHICAGO, again bombarded Kamaishi. The ships fired 803 16-inch and 1383 8-inch rounds. (Keith Allen) 

A USN force consisting of the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62), light cruiser USS Biloxi (CL-80) and 4 destroyers shell Wake Island while they are enroute from Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii to Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Japan: Lt. Robert Hampton Gray (b.?), RCNVR, led a raid on a destroyer. He sank it, but was shot down and killed. (Victoria Cross)

HMS Formidable 1841 RN Sqn, a. Corsair aircraft #KD658, Lt (A) Robert Hampton "Hammy" GRAY RCNVR led an aircraft attack on Japanese shipping in Onagawa Wan, on the island of Honshu Japan, in diving to attack, shore batteries, and ships, opened fire on the aircraft, GRAY attacked a Destroyer, and oblivious to concentrated fire made straight for his target. His aircraft was hit a number of times, and caught fire, GRAY pressed on to within 50 feet of the Destroyer and released his bombs, scoring at least one direct hit and possibly more, the Destroyer sank almost immediately, Lt GRAY failed to return to his ship, giving his life. b. Corsair aircraft #KD548, Lt (A)(SB) Gerald Arthur "Andy" Anderson RCNVR, Lost, Hit "round-down" during recovery, following an attack against Japanese targets at Onagawa and crashed into the sea, (reputed to be last Canadian naval aviation casualty of WW.II) "Round-down" is a RN expression for the aft end of the flight deck. It is usually rounded off in a bull nose and that gave rise to the term. Anderson, returning from the stress of combat flying may have misjudged his landing pattern and came over the stern a little short in altitude. His aircraft impacted on the "round-down". Perhaps he was wounded in action; perhaps caught by a wind over the deck or a rising stern. A Corsair aircraft demanded a continual banking turn on final to keep the deck in sight just off the long large nose nacelle.
 

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Wentworth completed tropicalisation refit Shelburne, Nova Scotia.

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

Hospital ship USS Solace commissioned.

Top of Page

Yesterday        Tomorrow

Home