19 August 1939

1934: GERMANY: A plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer.

August 19th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Nevile Henderson notes that while Churchill is inspecting the defences of France,
Chamberlain is still fishing in Scotland. However, Lord Halifax and his advisors agree that the Prime Minister should be enabled to stay on holiday.
Halifax sends a telegram to Mussolini and at the same time begins to draft a letter for Chamberlain to send to Hitler.

Destroyers HMS Quilliam and Tickham laid down.
Corvettes HMS Abelia and Alisma laid down.
Corvettes HMS Hollyhock, Sunflower, Apostolis and Hyacinth launched.
Submarine HMS Urge launched.
Destroyer HMS Liddledale launched.

Tug HMS Guardsman is commissioned.

LUXEMBOURG: The Chamber of Deputies grants the Grand Duchess and her cabinet full executive and legislative powers for the duration of the impending war.

GERMANY: U-104 commissioned.

POLAND: Warsaw: Colonel Beck replies to French Pressure with 'un "non" catigorique.

U.S.S.R.: After two further meetings with von der Schulenberg, Molotov suddenly produces a draft Russo-German pact and invites Ribbentrop to Moscow on the 26th or 27th.
An Economic agreement is signed.

19 August 1940

August 19th, 1940 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Churchill is again on the radio, broadcasting about the Battle of Britain. He praises the RAF fighter pilots in saying: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

RAF Bomber Command:
4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - power station at Schornewitz.
51 Sqn. Ten aircraft. One returned early, nine bombed primary, one FTR. [Hitherto, it had not been possible to determine whether missing aircraft had actually reached a target and bombed, but the improvement in W/T procedure eliminated this.]

Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Cloudy conditions limit operations. But at 15:15 Two Ju88s of KG51 scored hits with eight bombs on the Admiralty oil depot at Llanreith oil farm, Pembroke, instantly causing a huge conflagration which blazed for several days. Another Ju88 of III/KG 51 struck at Bibury grass airfield, killing an airman and damaging two Spitfires of 92 Squadron. Flt. Lt. T.S. Wade [later Hawker's Chief Test Pilot] and Plt. Off. J.A. Paterson gave chase and disposed of the raider in the Solent. Wade had to crash-land his Spitfire though.

Intruders also raided East Anglia. 23 bombs fell on residential property in Chelmsford, killing two and injuring five.

Other raids hit Dover Castle, Shoeburyness, Canterbury and Deal Royal Marine Infirmary.

Three cannon armed Spitfires of 19 Squadron destroyed a 7/KG 2 Co17Z off Essex.

Final score for the day - three raiders destroyed, four RAF fighters lost.

The Home Guard is preparing stocks of Molotov cocktails.

At 0154, the British merchant ship Ampleforth (4,576 tons), a straggler from Convoy OA-199, was torpedoed and sunk by U-101 west of the Hebrides in position 56.10N, 10.40W. Nine crewmembers were lost. The master and 28 crewmembers were picked up by destroyer HMS Warwick and landed at Liverpool.

Destroyer HMS Oakley laid down.

Minesweeper HMS Rye launched.

Destroyers HMS Quilliam and Tickham laid down.

Corvettes HMS Abelia and Alisma laid down.

Corvettes HMS Hollyhock, Sunflower, Apostolis and Hyacinth launched.

Submarine HMS Urge launched

Destroyer HMS Liddledale launched.

GERMANY: U-104 is commissioned.

ITALY:
Rome: The Italian High Command announced:
In British Somaliland our troops have broken through the enemy's second line of defence, occupied La Faruk and crossed over. They pursued the enemy, who withdrew to his ships, and also bombed these. A British plane was shot down by Italian fighter planes. An enemy air raid on Kassala (East Africa) caused neither casualties nor damage. Another enemy air attack on Addis Ababa airfield resulted in 2 dead and 5 wounded; hits were also scored on two hangars that contained only antiquated equipment.

SOMALILAND: Berbera: A line of African troops clambered from the jetty onto dhows, as the Australian warship HMAS Hobart stood on the horizon. The British were evacuating Somaliland, the capital of which, Berbera fell today. For 16 days 6,000 Imperial troops fought nearly 30,000 Italians. Now mathematics has asserted itself over tactics and Mussolini has tasted his first victory. While the last of the rearguard, the Black Watch, embarked, Indian army engineers blew up the port's installations. Only the Somali Camel Corps stayed behind, some to go home, others to go into the bush to fight another day.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Quezon declares a “limited state of national emergency”.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Lithgow laid down.

CANADA: The first bombing and gunnery school under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is established at Jarvis, Ontario.

U.S.A.: The USN places its first order for Ryan NR-1 Recruits.

The first production North American B-25 Mitchell, North American Model NA-62, USAAC serial number 40-2165, makes its first flight at Inglewood, California.

The newly formed Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) issues honorary pilot license Number 1 to Orville Wright.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: UA sank SS Kelet.
U-48 sank SS Viee de Gand.

19 August 1941

August 19th, 1941 (TUESDAY)

FRANCE: Paris: Two demonstrators captured in the 13th are executed, "the Jew Szmul Tyszelman,... Henry Gautherot".

GERMANY: U-87 commissioned
U-509 launched.

NORWAY: A joint Anglo-Canadian-Norwegian expedition lands on Spitzbergen to sabotage the coal mines and bring the miners back to Britain.

U.S.S.R.: Submarine M-121 launched.

WAKE ISLAND: The Wake Detachment, 1st Marine defence Battalion, arrives in the cargo ship USS Regulus (AK-14) to begin work on defensive positions.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Sorel commissioned.

U.S.A..: In baseball, Pittsburgh Pirates manager Frankie Frisch is ejected by umpire Jocko Conlan from the second game of a doubleheader when he appears on the field with an umbrella to protest the playing conditions at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field. The rainy argument is later portrayed in a famous oil painting by artist Norman Rockwell.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The British liner AQUILA is sunk by a U-boat.

USS Hopewell (DD-181), commissioned as HNoMS Bath (I-17) (LtCdr Frederick Melsom) on 23 Sep. 1940; while escorting her sixth convoy (OG71) between Liverpool and Gibraltar, as part of the 5th Escort Group about 400 miles southwest of Ireland Bath is torpedoed by U-204 and sank rapidly today at 02.05 hours. The commander and 88 crewmembers were lost. (Ron Babuka and Dave Shirlaw)

U-201 sank SS Aguila and Ciscar in Convoy OG-71.
U-559 sank SS Alva in Convoy OG-71.

The surviving crew members from the British merchant ship Alva sunk by U-559 were picked up by corvette HMS Campanula and transferred to destroyer HMS Velox and landed at Gibraltar on 25 August 1941.

ICELAND: The first convoy leaves Iceland for the USSR. The carrier HMS Argus is ferrying Hurricanes, complete with pilots, to Russia.

19 August 1942

August 19th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force flies Mission 2: 22 B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb Drucat Airfield, Abbeville, France between 1032-1040 hours while 6 B-17s fly a diversion. This mission is flown to occupy the Luftwaffe and prevent them from opposing an invasion by over 5,000 Allied troops, mostly Canadians, who raid Dieppe, France. 123 Spitfire Mk Vs of the US VIII Fighter Command support the raid on Dieppe and claim 1-1-5 Luftwaffe aircraft with the loss of 8 Spitfires; 2d Lieutenant Samuel F Junkin Jr of the 309th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, flying a Spitfire Mk V in support of the amphibious raid on Dieppe, shoots down a German fighter, this being the first aerial victory won by an 8th Air Force fighter pilot flying from the UK.

During the ensuing dogfight, Lieutenant Junkin was one-versus-one with a FW, which he managed to shoot down before he was subsequently attacked by a second FW. Wounded in the shoulder by cannon fire, he momentarily passed out, but re- gained consciousness just above sea level. He climbed to 1,000 feet where he planned to bail out, having to break through his stuck canopy before he managed to get out at an altitude of 600- 700 feet. Rescued by an Allied torpedo boat, he was transferred to another ship which had also picked up Lieutenant Collins, another Spitfire pilot who had been shot down. (Bob Castle)

Duncan Scott-Ford, a Royal Navy sailor, is arrested for passing information to the enemy.

Lancashire: Tommy, a racing pigeon who strayed into the Netherlands during a race, arrives home bearing valuable military information attached to his leg by a Dutch resistant.

Minesweeper HMS Brixham commissioned.

FRANCE: During Operation JUBILEE, 4,963 Canadians of the 2nd Canadian Division, 1000 British Commandoes of Nos 3 and 4 Commando and 50 U.S. Army Rangers raid along a 10 mile (16 kilometer) wide beachhead centered on the English Channel port of Dieppe. This raid will end in disaster. It ends with a long casualty list of 3600 Allied soldier vs. 60 Germans and most of the installations designated for destruction are not reached, much less destroyed. Some lessons about opposed landings are learned. This raid will become one of the most controversial actions of the war.

Dieppe: Along an 11-mile stretch of the French coast, burning tanks, destroyed landing craft and the crumpled bodies of at least 1,000 soldiers remain as a grim memorial to today's disaster. Lieutenant Edwin Loustalot, of the 1st Ranger Battalion, became the first American to be killed in land fighting in Europe in this war. A Canadian chaplain, John Foote, tended wounded on the beach and carried them to the boats to be taken off. He refused to embark with them, preferring to become a PoW and help wounded captives. Lieutenant-Colonel J. P. Phillips, RM, died almost instantly as he stood to signal rear landing craft to turn back, but saved 200 of his men.

Combined-Ops HQ: A badly-mauled Allied commando force is returning to England this afternoon after a fruitless nine-hour attempt to seize the French port of Dieppe and destroy the German defences.

Of the 6,100-strong force of Canadians, British, Americans and Free French, around 4,100 officers and men are reported killed, wounded or missing. The 4,963 Canadians, the bulk of the force, bore the brunt of the casualties: 907 dead and 1,496 taken prisoner. Operation Jubilee, as it was codenamed, was planned last April as a reconnaissance in force to test enemy defences on a well-defended sector of the coast, and to persuade the Germans to withdraw men from the eastern front. A fleet of 252 ships sailed from four south-coast ports, and arrived off France at 0330 hours. H-hour was 0450 hours. Five thousand men were ready to go ashore in assault craft. Then the mishaps began.

At 3.47am the commando force in the east ran into an escorted German convoy. In the exchange of fire that followed two German ships were sunk and the eastern flank landing party considerably disordered. Most importantly, the sound of the battle alerted the German land forces and the advantage of tactical surprise was lost.

The force went ashore on an 11-mile stretch of coast centred on the port. The task was to destroy a series of shore batteries and a radio-location station and capture the German divisional HQ. One battery was silenced with brisk efficiency and another sniped at; but the others poured a hail of shells on the Canadians trapped against against barbed-wire on the beaches.

Of 24 tank-landing craft, ten managed to land 27 tanks, all of which were lost. One destroyer (Hunt class HMS Berkeley) and 33 landing craft were sunk. The navy's 550 casualties include 75 dead and 269 missing or captured.

The RAF, including the Duxford Wing's new Hawker Typhoons, gave air cover, but lost 106 machines to the Germans' 170. The Germans lost 314 killed and 294 injured in the day's battles; 37 Germans were taken prisoner and brought back to England. (22)

Whilst participating in the Dieppe raid, destroyer HMS Berkeley is subjected to a number of air attacks which cause serious structural damage, requiring the ship to be abandoned and finally scuttled by a torpedo fired from HMS Albrighton 4 miles NW of Dieppe at 49 57N 01 04E. (Alex Gordon)(108)

Dieppe: Capt. (Reverend) John Weir Foote (1904-88), Canadian Chaplain Services, assigned to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, saved wounded and volunteered to leave the landing craft evacuating him and et himself be captured so that he could minister to PoWs (Victoria Cross)

Dieppe: Lt-Col Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt (b.1908) of the South Saskatchewan Regiment, Canadian Army, led survivors of four parties across the Scie River bridge under fire, and helped to cover the withdrawal from the port. (Victoria Cross)

Dieppe: Capt. Patrick Anthony Porteous (b.1918), Royal Regt. of Artillery, was shot through the hand, yet ran, under fire, to take charge of a leaderless detachment until he was severely wounded. (Victoria Cross)

GERMANY: U-747 laid down.
U-269 commissioned.
U-386 launched.

U.S.S.R.: Polish General Anders along with 115,000 Poles, held as prisoners since the fall of 1939, leaves the Soviet Union. General Anders feels that for the first time since September of 1939, he was indeed a free man.

The decision was made, March 26, 1942, that the only way to properly feed and equip the Polish Army in the Soviet Union was to transport them to Iran. Once in Iran, the British could provide adequate food and equipment to train and prepare the Poles for combat. (Alex Bielakowski)

Leningrad is still besieged, but warm weather enables ferries to cross Lake Ladoga bringing in much needed supplies and evacuating civilians. .

EGYPT: The Commander in Chief, Middle East, Field Marshal Harold Alexander orders Eighth Army Commander General Bernard Montgomery to hold positions while preparing the offensive.

INDIAN OCEAN: Seychelles Islands: Northeast of Africa's Zanzibar, the Japanese submarine HIJMS I-29 launches a "Glen" reconnaissance seaplane (Yokosuka E14Y, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane) to reconnoitre the islands.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: General Nishino, with the Kawaguchi Detachment, approaches
Guadalcanal by sea. His men read a training manual that says, "Westerners -- being very haughty, effeminate, and cowardly -- intensely dislike fighting in the rain or mist or in the dark. They cannot conceive night to be a proper time for battle -- though it is excellent for dancing. In these weaknesses lie our great opportunity."
     Colonel Kiyamo Ichiki's First Echelon of 917 men arrives at Guadalcanal's Taivu Point at 0100 hours local. The men unload and start marching in the dark nine miles to Tetere, where they take a break.
     Early in the morning, Martin Clemens is asked to provide native guides and scouts to locate the Ichiki force.
Daniel Pule is assigned to a Marine patrol, and police Sergeant Major Jacob Vouza leads a native patrol of his own.
     Early that day, Marine Captain Charles H. Brush hits the trail with a patrol of 60 men from Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines. They run encounter a 38-man patrol from Ichiki's detachment. A jungle firefight ensues, and the Marines kill all but five of the Japanese. Brush notes that the bodies of four Japanese officers and 29 men wear the star insignia of the Imperial Army as opposed to the chrysanthemum of the Imperial Navy on their fresh clothes. Obviously this is a new force. Their large amounts of communications equipment suggest a large unit. Their maps show the Japanese know the Marine positions. Brush immediately returns to headquarters.

The Japanese survivors return to Ichiki's force and although his patrol has been annihilated, Ichiki presses on through the jungle.
     Marine General Vandegrift studies the captured maps, and realizes that the Japanese are coming and know his dispositions. His officers urge a counterattack but Vandegrift wisely decides to await the Japanese within his perimeter.
     The Marines will dig in along Alligator Creek, which Martin Clemens has named after its inhabitants, which are
actually crocodiles. The Marines think the sluggish waterway is actually the Tenaru River.
     Three Japanese destroyers, HIJMS Kagero, HIJMS Hagikaze and HIJMS Maikaze, shell Tulagi. Allied Air Forces B-17s, flying from Espiritu Santo, bomb the destroyers and one aircraft scores direct hits on the HIJMS Hagikaze's stern, killing 33 and wounding 13. Hagikaze limps home.

NEW GUINEA: Troops of the Australian 7th Division start a series of landings at Port Moresby.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Mechanical failure prevents a US 11th Air Force B-24 Liberator from flying reconnaissance over Tanaga Island.

CANADA: Patrol vessels HMCS Blue Nose and Sea Wave (ex HMCS Chatham S) acquired from seized Japanese fishing fleet.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Harder launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: During an aircraft attack on U-155 a man was lost overboard. [Maschinengefreiter Konrad Garneier]
U-162 sank SS West Celina in Convoy TAW (S)
U-564 sank SS British Consul and Empire Cloud in Convoy TAW (S)
U-217 sank SS Sea Gull
U-406 sank SS City of Manila in Convoy SL-118
U-507 sank SS Jacyra
U-510 sank SS Cressington Court.

19 August 1943

August 19th, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Air Support Command and VIII Bomber Command in England both fly missions.

- The VIII Air Support Command flies Missions 27A, 27B and 28 against 3 Luftwaffe airfields in France without loss. (1) 36 B-26B Marauders bomb Glisy Airfield at Amiens at 1129 hours; they claim 1-0-2 Luftwaffe aircraft.
(2) 35 B-26s are attack Nord Airfield at Poix at 1218 hours.
(3) 36 B-26s are dispatched to Bryas Sud Airfield but the target is obscured by cloud and the mission is aborted.

- The VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 85 against 3 Luftwaffe airfields in The Netherlands.
(1) 38 B-17s attack Gilze-Rijen at 1802-1814 hours and 55 hit Flushing at 1756 hours; they claim 29-1-2 Luftwaffe aircraft; 4 B-17's are lost; escort is provided by 175 P-47 Thunderbolts who claim 9-2-4 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 P-47 is lost.
(2) 45 B-17s are dispatched to Woensdrecht Airfield but weather prevents them hitting the target.

Minesweeper HMS Pincher launched. Submarine HMS Venturer commissioned.

Corvette HMS Berkeley Castle launched.

Patrol vessel HMS Kilkenzie launched.

GERMANY: Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, Jeschonnek commits suicide after being criticized for the effects of the attacks two days ago on Schweinfurt and Peenemunde. He leaves a note asking that Göring should not attend his funeral.

U-856 and U-993 commissioned.

ITALY:

- The US Ninth Air Force in North Africa sends about 70 B-24s to bomb the marshalling yard at Foggia, Italy.

- The Northwest African Strategic Air Force dispatches 150+ B-17s to bomb the Foggia marshalling yard, while almost 100 medium bombers hit marshalling yards at Sapri and Salerno; the bombers, and escorting P-38 Lightnings claim 34 enemy planes shot down, against 8 losses.

PORTUGAL: U.S. General Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, and British General Kenneth Strong arrive in Lisbon to continue discussions with the Italians about surrender negotiations. General Giuseppe Castellano heads the Italian delegation. Castellano wants an agreement that would allow Italy to join the Allies and fight the Germans. He's shocked when the Allies insist on unconditional surrender.

INDIA: Major General Howard C Davidson becomes Commanding General of the US Tenth Air Force replacing Major General Clayton L Bissell. The change is a result of a complaint against Bissell by Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek because Bissell and Major General Claire L Chennault, Commanding General of the Fourteenth Air Force in China, do not get along.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: USAAF 5th AF B-24s attack Manokwari, sink small craft near Babo, and bomb Larat and Saumlakki. B-25s hit Koepang, Fuiloro and Lautem.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: US Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, operating in pairs and with fighter escort, hit barges at Timbala Bay on Vella Lavella Island, Kakasa radio station on Gill Island, and a beached vessel in Paraso Bay. From this date through 28 August, Japanese airplanes attack Allied forces in the Barakoma area of Vella Lavella Island, losing a considerable number of aircraft (claims total about 50) to Allied fighters and ground fire without doing any great damage to the Allies. On Baanga Island, US Army ground forces finally capture the Japanese artillery pieces which have been shelling Munda Airfield on New Georgia Island.

CORAL SEA: The pilot of a USN Scouting Squadron Fifty Seven (VS-57) OS2N-1 Kingfisher sinks Japanese submarine HIJMS I-17 off eastern Australia in location 23.26S, 166.50E.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The USN submarine USS Finback (SS-230) sinks Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser HIJMS Cha 109 (ex-Dutch patrol vessel Kawi) off the east coast of Celebes Island in position 03.01S, 125.50E.

CANADA: The Combined Chiefs of Staff meeting in Ottawa, Ontario agree that the US will not invade the Japanese Kurile Islands due to the poor weather in the area and instead, will only bombard the islands by sea and air and monitor the Japanese via aerial photographic reconnaissance. As a result of this decision, US troop strength in the Aleutians is reduced to 113,000 by the end of 1943.

Minesweeper HMS Rockcliffe launched Port Arthur, Ontario.
Frigate HMCS Wasskesiu and minesweeper HMCS Canso arrived Halifax, Nova Scotia from Esquimalt, British Columbia.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "A Lady Takes a Chance" is released today. This romantic western comedy is directed by Henry Hathaway and stars John Wayne, Jean Arthur and Phil Silvers. A wide-eyed city girl pursued by many men (Arthur) boards a bus driven by a zany driver (Silvers) and meets a handsome rodeo star (Wayne).

Destroyer escort USS Lyman launched. Destroyers USS Gatling, Halligan and McCord commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Aircraft of Composite Squadron Twenty Five (VC 25) from the escort aircraft carrier USS Croatan (CVE-25) attack German submarine U-134, northwest of the Azores, but the sub escapes.

19 August 1944

August 19th, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine FS Morse (ex-HMS Vortex) launched.

Corvette HMCS Tillsonburg arrived Londonderry from workups at Stornoway.

SHAEF orders the removal of invasion stripes from Allied aircraft. (Ron Babuka)

FRANCE: Paris: At 7am today 2,000 striking policemen take over the Préfecture de Police. They hold off a counter-attack and capture 700 Germans. The police took the initiative from the communists whose leader, Colonel Rol, was taken by surprise, turning up at the prefecture on a bicycle and giving the orders for a general rising. Today the Germans also cut the cities gas supply.

The US XV Corps reaches the Seine at Mates Grasicourt.

The Polish 1st Armored Division links up with the U.S. 90th Infantry Division at Chambois, a village 15 miles (24 kilometres) southeast of Falaise thereby closing the Falaise Pocket. German loses in the ensuing four day battle are 10,000 dead and 40,000 captured.

In southern France, US Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs hit marshalling yards while B-25s and B-26s bomb road and rail bridges throughout southeastern France; fighter-bombers and fighters continue to pound enemy communications north and west, of the beachhead and guns in the immediate battle area as the US Seventh Army's Task Force Butler crosses the Durance River and moves north to Sisteron and Digne.

The USN battleship USS Nevada (BB-36), French battleship Lorraine, and heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) conduct reconnaissance in force off Toulon to support the U.S. Army's Third Division and French troops making a drive on that port. Escorted by four destroyers, Nevada, Lorraine, and Augusta shell the harbour and batteries at St. Mandrier; heavy cruiser USS Quincy (CA-71) provides counter-battery fire on Giens, from position south of Isle Port Cros.

VOF-1 from TULAGI shot down three He 111s. VF-74 from KASAAN BAY shot down one Do 217. Both of these carriers were of the CASABLANCA class. (Keith Allen)

Falaise, Normandy: A fleet of RAF Dakotas today landed 60 SAS soldiers led by Captain Roy Farran on an airstrip behind enemy lines at Rennes. The force disappeared into a forest near Orleans to ambush German columns. This is the 32nd operation of its kind since D-Day.

From Brittany to Dijon, SAS soldiers are creating havoc by direct attacks on railways and telephone lines, by targetting RAF strikes on military headquarters and by stiffening the Maquis with weapons, supplies and fighting leadership. It might have been otherwise. The Army top brass wanted to insert the SAS, now a brigade of 2,500 immediately behind the coastal area between the German infantry and their supporting tanks: a recipe for disaster which led the SAS commander, Bill Stirling (brother of the founder, the captured David), to resign.

Hitler has developed a special distaste for these special forces, "Such men are dangerous" he affirms in an order for their execution as terrorists of captured. At Chambon 11 days ago Major Ian Fenwick deliberately drove into a German ambush with all guns firing from his Jeep and was killed. Near Auxerre, with two jeeps and a few men, Captain Derrick Harrison stormed into a village square crowded with SS men, interrupting the execution of 20 hostages. His Vickers machine gun jammed; his driver dead, he escaped leaving 60 enemy bodies in the smouldering wreckage of their vehicles.

Mantes-Gassicourt: During a night of pouring rain, units of Patton's Third Army crossed the Seine, 40 miles from Paris. Some men walked across a dam, others went in assault craft at Mantes-Gassicourt, near La Roche Guyon, the German headquarters. While the heaviest fighting continues in the "Falaise Pocket", near Argentan, where large Panzer forces are being concentrated, Patton has sent three of his corps south and east to capture Orleans and Chartres, with advance units poised to take Fontainebleau.

The Germans retreating from the Falaise/Argentan pocket are being attacked from the air with devastating effect; but the confusion on the ground has on several occasions led to Allied troops being bombed by their own air forces. The British 51st Highland Division has reported 40 accidental air attacks in one day, causing 51 casualties.

Field Marshal von Kluge, sacked by Hitler as C-in-C Army Group B, committed suicide today by swallowing poison. Four days ago his car was shot up by Allied planes, his radio was wrecked and he was cut off from contact with Army HQ in Berlin. Hitler was convinced, mistakenly, that he was trying to make peace with the Allies. When communications were restored von Kluge refused to obey an order from Berlin to mount a counter-attack. His suicide note protested his devotion to the Fuhrer, but urged him to end the war: "The German people have borne such untold suffering that it is time to put an end to this frightfulness." Field Marshal Walter Model takes over.

U-466 (Type VIIC) which had been damaged on 5 July, 1944 by bombs from US B-24 aircraft at Toulon, France, is scuttled 19 Aug, during the Allied invasion of southern France. (Alex Gordon)

German submarines U-123 and U-129 are scuttled to avoid capture at Lorient.

U-123 taken out of service at Lorient, France 17 Jun 1944. Scuttled there 19 Aug 1944. Surrendered to France in 1945 and became the French submarine Blaison. Stricken 18 Aug 1959 as Q165. (DS)

VICHY FRANCE: German SS men today arrested Marshal Petain and ordered him to move to Belfort, where his prime minister, Pierre Laval, was sent two days ago. It is thought that both will be taken to Germany.

The troops broke down the door of the Hotel de Parc, where the head of the Vichy state has lived since 1940, and burst into the Marshal's bedroom.

At first he refused German protection, but the Germans threatened to bomb the town of Vichy unless he agreed, and he was then arrested by the SS.

GERMANY: U-2330, U-2508 and U-3005U-3005 launched.
U-2327 and U-3502 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: Riga: In an attempt to save its Army Group North, cut off in Estonia by the advancing Red Army which had reached the Baltic at the Bay of Riga, the German high command has unleashed three Panzer divisions in the Autse area,

Striking at the over-extended left wing of General Bagramyan's First Baltic Front, the German tanks have crashed through the flank of the armoured column which had dashed to the coast. Despite desperate efforts by the Russians to seal the gap, the Germans have opened up a narrow corridor along the coast to restore land contact with General Schorner's divisions. The corridor is narrow, but it is being held with great determination and Schorner can now withdraw his men and equipment from what threatened to become a "cauldron" in which they would have been cut up and destroyed.

This sudden blow by the Germans demonstrates, that despite their terrible defeats this summer, they can still muster strong reinforcements and defeat the Russians when not faced with overwhelming numbers of men and tanks. It also demonstrated the extent to which the Russians have stretched themselves since Operation Bagration. Their victories have been stupendous, but they have suffered great losses in men and material.

ROMANIA: Using H2X radar, 65 B-17 Flying Fortresses, supported by 125 P-51 Mustangs, of the USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy bomb two oil refineries at Ploesti for the third consecutive day.

YUGOSLAVIA: Two B-17 Flying Fortresses of the USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, visually bomb the railroad at Cuprija.

ITALY, Pisa: Nakae, Masato, Pvt., US 100th/442nd Infantry, awarded the MOH for actions today. (Posthumous). (William L. Howard)

KURILE ISLANDS: The US Eleventh Air Force dispatches a weather sortie and a shipping sweep by 4 B-25s with negative results.

PALAU ISLANDS: Radar-equipped B-24s of the US Thirteenth Air Force attack Japanese airfields and defenses during the night of 19/20 August.

PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarine attacks on Japanese convoy HI 71, begun the previous day, continue off the west coast of Luzon, Philippine Islands, as USS Bluefish (SS-222) sinks fast fleet tanker/seaplane carrier HIJMS Hayasui, 80 nautical miles (92 miles or 148 kilometres) northwest of Cape Bolinao in position 17.34N, 119.23E, and damages hospital ship Awa Maru, 17.36N, 119.38E.
USN submarine USS Spadefish (SS-411) sinks a Japanese landing craft depot repair ship Tamatsu Maru west of Luzon, 18.48N, 119.47E.
USN submarine USS Redfin (SS-272) lays mines off Sarawak, Borneo.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Smiths Falls launched Kingston, Ontario.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Massey launched.
Light cruiser USS Topeka launched.
Destroyer escort USS Presley launched.
Destroyer USS Little commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Finnegan commissioned. Aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-413 sank SS Saint Enogat in Convoy ETC-72.
U-862 sank SS Wayfarer.

HMCS Arnprior (ex-HMS Rising Castle), a Castle-class corvette built in the UK and transferred to the RCN, departed Londonderry with the 153-ship convoy ON-249, bound for New York City. The convoy arrived safely with all of its ship intact on 02 Sep 44. ON-249 was the largest of that series of convoys run during the war. 'ON' stood for 'Outward North' from Liverpool to North America. This series was started in July 1941 and terminated in June 1945 with the arrival of ON 305. The average convoy size was approximately 50 merchant ships and eight escorts. In all, 14,864 ships sailed in the ON series and 162 (1.1%) were lost, most of them in 1942. Of the total lost, only 81 (.55%) were in the convoy at the time of their sinking. The remainder were either stragglers or were 'out of convoy' due to detachment, weather, engineering defect, or some other tactical situation that made independent movement necessary. The overall loss rate in 1942 was 2.95%, which was considered unsustainable. This loss rate did not include damaged ships that were effectively lost for the period that they were under repair. Nearly as many ships were damaged as were lost due to enemy action. The effects of weather, collision, grounding and other accidents added substantially to the efforts of the enemy.

19 August 1945

August 19th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: King George and Queen Elizabeth lead nationwide thanksgiving services to mark Victory Sunday.

U.S.S.R.: Pacific Fleet ship loss - MMS "KT-152" (ex-"Neptun") - by aviation at Shumshu Is. area. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

MANCHURIA: Mukden: High-ranking Allied PoWs including Lt-Gen Jonathan Wainwright, who led the American's last stand on Corregidor in the Philippines in 1942, have been found safe and well in a small PoW camp 100 miles from Mukden in Manchuria. They were rescued by a volunteer team of US doctors which parachuted into the area shortly before it fell under Russian control. Also among the 34 freed PoWs are Lt-Gen Arthur Percival, commander of the Singapore garrison at its surrender in 1942, and the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Mr van Starkenborch Stachouwer.

FAR EAST: Two B-25Js of the US Far East Air Force's 345th Bombardment Group (Medium) intercept 2 IJN G4M "Betty" bombers north of Ie Shima, Ryukyu Islands. The Japanese aircraft carry a delegation from Tokyo enroute to Manila, Philippine Islands, to meet General MacArthur's staff to work out details of the surrender. The G4Ms are painted all white with green crosses on the wings, fuselage and vertical tail surface and use the call signs "Bataan I" and "Bataan II." The Japanese land on Ie Shima and transfer to USAAF C-54 Skymasters for the flight to Manila. On the return flight from Ie Shima to Japan, the Japanese aircraft run out of fuel and ditch in Tokyo Bay but the delegation is rescued and completes the mission.

Pictures of the delegation and Envoy

PACIFIC OCEAN: The formation of fleet Marine and Navy landing forces from officers and men afloat begins; these men are transferred, at sea, to transports for the impending occupation of Yokosuka under Commander, Task Force 31.

FORMOSA: Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian Nationalist leader is killed in an air crash.

CANADA: HMC ML 075 paid off.

USA: The War Production Board removes most of its controls over manufacturing activity.

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