26 August 1939

August 26th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
The football season opens.

The touring West Indian cricket team leaves early from Glasgow. They leave officials at Surrey, where they were due to play 'huffing and puffing'.(72)

Dahlerus sees Halifax again, flies back to Berlin with a letter for Göring and returns to London later that afternoon.

Queen Elizabeth tells her lady-in-waiting 'If things turn out badly, I must be with the King,' She goes to London.

The Chiefs of Staff advise the cabinet that the earliest possible date for any ultimatum to Germany is 1 September.

FRANCE:
Horses, cars and some property are requisitioned.

GERMANY:
Robert Coulondre (French Ambassador) sees Hitler and appeals to him as one soldier to another. When Coulondre cites the probable fate of women and children in any war, Hitler hesitates visibly, but Ribbentrop strengthens him again.

The government issues a declaration of neutrality for Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland.

U-43 commissioned.

ITALY:
Mussolini submits a list of Italian requirements to Ribbentrop.

VATICAN CITY:
The Pope issues a general appeal for peace.

U.S.S.R.:
Khalkin-Gol: The Japanese attempt to relieve their trapped forces. It is repulsed, mainly by 6th Tank Brigade.
In the last two days Soviet planes have made 218 sorties and claimed 74 Japanese aircraft.

CANADA: Certain Army units are mobilized in anticipation of the declaration of war. These are mostly coast defence units however, many militia units also mobilize details to guard vulnerable points.

U.S.A.: The first major league baseball telecast is broadcast on the experimental NBC TV station W2XBS in New York City. The announcer for the doubleheader between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn is the "Old Redhead," Red Barber. The Dodgers and Reds split the doubleheader.

26 August 1940

August 26th, 1940 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - industrial targets at Turin and Milan.
10 Sqn. Six aircraft to Milan. Five bombed primary, one FTR.
77 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Turin. Five bombed primary.

Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command:
Fierce and effective raids on airfields (especially Debden) mark the period of Fighter Command's greatest strain.
Dover and Folkestone are attacked.
Ineffective attacks on Hornchurch and Portsmouth.
At night Coventry, Birmingham and Plymouth are bombed heavily.

The day is marked by three major Luftwaffe operations.
The first comprising of five distinct raids over Kent, starts at 11:37 with intrusions by around 50 bombers and 80 fighters, some of which strafed east Kent targets. Some 40 Hurricanes and 30 Spitfires of 11 Group rose to defend their bases.
He 111s bombed Folkestone killing two and injuring 22. Seven 616 Squadron Spitfires arriving to protect Folkestone ran into a large Bf109 escort, despite being soon joined by five more Spitfires there was little the Yorkshire squadron could do and it loses seven aircraft and two pilots.

Warned of an intended attack on its base, Hornchurch, 264 Squadron hastened away to engage KG 3s Do17s over Herne Bay. Although the Defiants assembled in their specified battle formation for bomber interception they were no match for the escorting Bf109s which claimed three. In return the Defiants shot down six Do17s and a fighter. The struggle did reduce the Bf109s fuel forcing them to leave. The Do17s decided it was unwise to continue unprotected and jettisoned their loads.

The second major operation starts shortly after 13:00 when eight raids develop.
78 Do17s of II/KG 2 and III/KG 3 escorted by Bf110s of ZG 26 and ZG 76 and Bf109s assemble over Lille. Intelligence sources already knew their destinations to be Debden, North Weald and Hornchurch. Seven 11 Group squadrons scrambled in case a London raid developed and thwarted the attack by engaging the escorting Bf109s which quickly became short of fuel. The bombs fell widely on Kent including 32 on Broadstairs and more on Manston. 39 Do17s escorted by long-range tanked Bf 110s, continued to the Blackwater estuary then turned towards Debden. Colchester's AA guns caused several to turn away.

Lone pirate raids continued throughout the day. One placed four HEs on Harwell, killing six, injuring ten and damaging two Wellingtons. Whitleys later landed at Harwell to refuel for a long flight to Torino and these seem to have been the intended target. They are engaged by No. 1 Sqn. RCAF making its first combat fighting with 11 Group. They down two Bf110s and 1 Do17. but lose their Sqn. Ldr N.E. McNab.
Dave Wadman adds: At approximately 3.25p.m. Hurricanes of the Sqn intercepted a formation of 7th Staffel of KG2. S/Ldr McNab's Hurricane P3069 was damaged but he was unhurt, F/O R.L.Edwards flying P3874 was shot down and killed (the first Canadian pilot serving with a Canadian fighter sqn to be KIA in WW2), F/O Desloges' Hurricane P3872 was severely damaged but repairable - he was unhurt, a fourth Hurricane from the sqn - P3869 was also damaged but the pilot was unhurt.

The first Canadian fighter pilot serving with a Canadian fighter squadron during WW2 is killed in action
over SE England. Flying Officer R.L.Edwards of No.1 Sqn. R.C.A.F. (later No.401 Sqn R.C.A.F) of Coburg, Ontario was shot down at approximately 1530hrs by a Dornier Do17 of KG2 following an attack on RAF station Debden, his Hurricane crashing near Thaxted, Essex. F/O Edwards is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery.

The third operation, directed against Portsmouth and Southampton started in the late afternoon and was the last large-scale day raid mounted by Luftlotte 3. About 50 He-111s of I and II/KG 55 were escorted by Bf109s and Bf110s. Eight fighter squadrons were ordered to engage and 43, 602 and 235 Squadrons went into action, preventing the bombing of Southampton and shooting down four He-111s and four Bf109s for the loss of four fighters and three pilots wounded. Some bombs dropped on Portsmouth damaging Langstone Harbour, destroying Fort Cumberland and causing a fire at Hilsea gas works. Later, an escorted rescue He59 was shot down south of the Isle of Wight.

Losses: Luftwaffe, 41; RAF, 31.

Croydon, Surrey. 2nd Lt Wallace Launcelot Andrews (1908-44), Royal Engineers, was blown some distance when a bomb blew up as he tried to defuse it. (Empire Gallantry Medal)

Corvette HMS Fleur de Lys commissioned.

ÉIRE: Dublin: Ireland's neutrality, assiduously preserved by the premier, Eamon de Valera, has not won immunity from German air raids. Luftwaffe bombs hit four places in County Wexford today, 130 miles from the border. Two of the three young women killed while working at a creamery were sisters. The third, a blast victim, was found sitting at a dining table, knife and fork in hand. The motive for the attack is not clear, for Ireland, like neutral Spain and Turkey, is an intelligence goldmine for the Germans. Dublin's representative in Berlin has protested.

GERMANY: U-704 laid down.

CHAD: Abeche: Chad declares its allegiance to Free France and General de Gaulle. French Equatorial Africa is the latest French colony to support General de Gaulle's Free French. Governor Eboue of Chad, France's first black governor in Africa, said today that he refused to accept capitulation. The other Equatorial territories will make similar statements in the coming days. Elsewhere in French Africa, recent weeks have seen the replacement of pro-Allied officials with Vichy supporters, although the Ivory Coast rallied to de Gaulle on 26 July. The first colony to back de Gaulle was the New Hebrides in the Pacific on 22 July.

CANADA: US President Franklin D Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister W L MacKenzie King signed the Ogdensburg Agreement calling for a permanent board for the defence of Canada and the US 8-days ago and The Permanent Joint Board on defence holds its first meeting in Ottawa, Ontario today. The US representatives are (1) Fiorello H LaGuardia, the mayor of New York City, who is also President of the US Conference of Mayors; (2) Lieutenant General Stanley D Embick, US Army, Commanding General Fourth Corps Area; (3) Captain Henry W Hill and Commander Forrest Sherman, US Navy, of the War Plans Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; (4) Colonel Joseph T McNarney, Army Air Corps, of the Joint Army-Navy Planning Committee; and (5) John D Hickerson, Assistant Chief, Division of European Affairs, US State Department.

Bangor Class minesweepers ordered for RCN: HMCS Melville, Granby, Noranda, Lachine, Digby, Truro, Trois Rivieres (ex-Three Rivers), Brockville, Transcona and Esquimalt.
Armed yacht HMCS Lynx (ex-Ramona) commissioned. Built by Newport News S.B. Co., Newport News Va., 495/22, 181x24x9ft, 10kts., crew 5/35, 1-4in, converted to p/v by George T. Davies and Sons Levis, Province of Quebec, 26 Aug 40, #172357, She was plagued by chronic mechanical problems that were made worse by a lack of spare parts. Sold Jul 43, Post WW.II, Banana trader in Caribbean, Lost near Sydney, Australia under the name Rican Star.

U.S.A.: The Cadillac Division of the General Motors Corporation announces that they are discontinuing the manufacture of the LaSalle automobile after fourteen years of production. The LaSalle had been introduced as a moderately priced alternative to the expensive Cadillac.

26 August 1941

August 26th, 1941 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Laforey commissioned.
Submarine HMS Thorn commissioned.

GERMANY: U-505 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: The German positions near Velikiye Luki repulse a Soviet counterattack.

An OKW memorandum accepted by Hitler states that the war against Soviet Union won't be finished before the end of 1941.

Ukraine: German forces capture Dnepropetrovsk.

IRAN: British forces take complete control of the Abadan area while the Soviets moving down from the north enter Tabriz. Soviet aircraft bomb Teheran.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Philippine Department Air Force is re-designated USAFFE Air Force. (Marc Small)

The Philippine National Army is brought into existence. (Gordon Rottman)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Buctouche departed St. John's to join the 64-ship Sydney to Liverpool convoy SC41 which arrived safely on 11 Sep 41.The SC series of convoys was introduced in August of 1940 to provide a system of protection for slow merchant ships (7.5 knots minimum, often not achieved), which had previously been sailing independently, with disastrous consequences. Sydney, Cape Breton, was chosen as the western terminus to help ease congestion on the port of Halifax. SC-1 sailed on 15 Aug 40. During the winters of ‘41 and ‘42 the SC convoys were shifted to Halifax, due to ice in Sydney and its approaches. In Aug 42, when the terminus for the HX series of convoys was shifted to New York City, the SC convoys were moved to Halifax, with a temporary interval where they also originated from New York between Sep 42 and Mar 43. Of the 177 SC convoys, only three failed to reach their destination. SC-52 lost four of its 34 ships to U-boats in Oct 41 and, with the prospects for continued heavy opposition, was returned to Sydney by a tortuous circumnavigation of Newfoundland. SC-62 and SC-63 were scattered by bad weather in Jan 42 and completed their voyages without loss as independently routed ships. In all, only 29 of the 177 SC convoys were attacked and only 145 ships were lost from the total of 6,806 ships escorted (2.1%). This number is quite misleading. The relatively low loss rate was mainly made possible by intelligence and evasive routing, without which losses would have substantially exceeded the 3% rate considered to be unsustainable. The loss rate for the 29 convoys attacked was 12.3% (145/1175). Up to the end of Mar 43, the loss rate was 13.3% (138/1034). Additionally five other ships were damaged. Also, a large number of ‘stragglers’ were sunk when they dropped out of convoys that were not counted against convoy losses. Likewise, a number of ‘rompers’, ships that detached from the convoy to move ahead independently, were lost that were also not counted. The worst single-convoy losses occurred Oct 40 when convoy SC-7 lost 15 of the 34 merchant ships escorted (44%). Clearly, up until the 'Turning Point' in the Battle of the Atlantic, when the U-boats were able to engage they inflicted losses completely beyond the ability of the Allies to sustain. The key, therefore, was not to engage in a series of tactical battles the Allies could not win. Without the inestimable advantage of signal decryption, the Battle of the Atlantic would have been lost before the 'Turning Point' had been reached.
Corvette HMCS Vancouver (ex-HMCS Kitchener) launched Esquimalt, British Columbia.

U.S.A.: The White House issues a statement that "this Government is preparing to send a military mission to China. The mission will be sent for the purpose of assisting in carrying out the purposes of the Lend-Lease Act. It is being organized and it will operate under the direction of the Secretary of War. Its chief will be Brigadier General John Magruder."

Destroyer USS Hendon laid down.
Submarine USS Silversides launched.
Minesweeper USS Auk launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-571 attacked SS Marija Uljanova. Constructive total loss.
U-652 damaged SS Southern Prince.

Cutter HMS Lulworth went to the rescue of survivors from a torpedoed Merchantman. The night was dark, with heavy seas running, so that the rescue work was slow and hazardous. As HMS Lulworth was about to abandon search, two men and a woman were found clinging to the wreckage. The men were saved, but as the woman, who was unconscious, was being hauled on board, she slipped from her lifejacket, disappeared below the surface, and came up astern. Lt KEEFER at once dived into the sea to try to save her. He reached her, but both were swept away by the heavy seas, and though search was made for an hour, neither was seen again.

26 August 1942

August 26th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: HQ USAAF 52nd Fighter Group moves to Goxhill, England.

London: The government ban on the British Communist Party's newspaper, The Daily Worker, was lifted last night after 19 months and the paper reappeared today - but only just. At the last minute the printers went on strike.

William Rust, the editor, refused to hire a printer who had worked on the paper before the ban. This was the man who had welcomed police who came in to shut down the paper. "I have been expecting you," he had said. "I do not agree with the policies of those bastards upstairs."

NATSOPA, the printers and paperworkers union, told Rust that it would not agree to selective rehiring. Rust called the man a trouble-maker. Union officials then ordered the members to stop work. Rust caved in and 120,000 copies were printed, more than double the pre-ban print.

The paper was banned for spreading defeatist propaganda during the period when the Communists were opposed to the war. Party membership fell to 15,000. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the party switched to support of the war overnight. Membership has risen to 55,000.

Destroyer HMS Scorpion launched.
Destroyer HNLMS Kortenaer launched.

GERMANY: U-398 laid down.
U-532 laid down.
U-666 commissioned.

EASTERN FRONT: Tonight the Soviet Air Force will raid Berlin, Danzig and Stettin.

The Red Army launches diversionary attacks on Vyazma and Rzhev to try to take some pressure off Stalingrad.

INDIA: The training centre for Chinese troops is activated at Ramgarh, Bihar Province, with Colonel Frederick McCabe as commandant.

NEW GUINEA: While the fighting in the Solomons continues at full fury, a Japanese naval landing force has invaded Milne Bay in the south-eastern corner of Papua.

The Japanese army desperately wanted to provide air cover for its drive across the Owen Stanley Mountains to Port Moresby, to which it had committed 13,500 troops. It also wanted an air base within reach of northern Australian airfields. Under cover of darkness 1,200 men of the Special Naval Landing Force who sailed from Rabaul entered Milne Bay on 25 August. The invaders soon clashed with Australian troops, and at dawn the next morning Australian aircraft ripped their landing barges with bombs and cannon fire and killed Japanese on the foreshore.

DAWN (26AUG42)

With only three quarters of their supplies unloaded, the enemy convoy raised anchor and got under way at first light. The Japanese needed to reach the comparative safety of the offshore islands before Allied ships or aircraft found them. They were too late.

At 0630, a low altitude flight of eight American B17 aircraft came into view, heading up the bay towards the convoy. With Major Felix Hardison leading, the aircraft had taken off from Port Moresby an hour before dawn and flown on a dead reckoning course towards Milne Bay. Lt Moji saw the destroyer URAKAZE open fire.

In his book FLYING BUCCANEERS, Steve Birdsall describes the action: '...they let down through the gloom, and the convoy was below them. The ships sent up a torrent of fire as the B-17s made their runs. The Fortresses were rocked by the bursts of navy guns as the decks of the ships lit up in the gray murk, and the gunners on the B-17s returned the fire. The ceiling was down to less than two thousand feet, and the smoke thick, but Hardison's bombardier made out his target. The bombs hung up and would not move so Hardison turned to make another run. The B-17s had already bombed, when there tremendous burst of flame, and Captain Clyde Webb's plane dropped down. The Fortress struck the sea smoothly and shot ahead, leaving a slick of orange fire on the water before it sank.

Hardison's bombs still refused to go, and the B-17 was taking heavy damage as they made a third and fourth run, with another bomber covering them. After four more runs Hardison finally to let his bombardier salvo the load, and four bombs struck close to the stern of a destroyer. On the final run the rest of the bombs went down, but missed by a hundred feet or more. The last exploded immediately under them, evidently set off by an antiaircraft fire, blowing the door off the radio compartment and tearing a hole through the top of the plane.

Eight 17s had gone out, and seven came back, one carrying a dead bombardier. Several planes had wounded aboard, all were badly shot up. One ground-looped into a tree - there was a terrific crash and smoke billowed from the B-17, but the crew was saved. That evening the n the 93rd did some purposeful drinking.'

(The aircraft were from the 93 Bomb Sqn, 19 Bomb Group that had staged from Townsville via Port Moresby).

condensed from p161-2

(Daniel Ross)
On the Kokoda Trail some ground is gained near Isurava. But they come across the AIF reinforcements, veterans of the Middle East campaigns. Despite wave after wave of Japanese attackers, also using artillery, the Australians hold for 4 days.

In Allied air operations, USAAF P-40s, B-25 Mitchells, B-26 Marauders and B-17 Flying Fortresses plus RAAF Hudsons, all of the Allied Air Forces, pound Japanese forces who have landed in Milne Bay ; a large transport is damaged and most of the supplies on the beachheads east of Rabi are destroyed. A second Japanese convoy lands more troops during the night.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The "Tokyo Express" lands 350 IJA troops east of Taivu Point on Guadalcanal. At approximately 1200 hours, 12 USMC F4F Wildcats intercept 16 G4M "Betty" bombers which have just bombed Henderson Field. The Marine shoot down 3 of the bombers but they have damaged the aviation gasoline supply and 2 1,000-pound (454 kg) bombs and several parked aircraft are damaged by bomb splinters.

GILBERT ISLANDS: Undefended Ocean Island, located about 242 nautical miles (448 kilometres) west-southwest of Tarawa Atoll, is occupied by Japanese troops. Like Nauru Island, occupied yesterday, the island has large phosphate deposits and the loss of these two islands cause a severe shortage of fertilizer in Australia and New Zealand.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, a US 11th Air Force photo mission is aborted over Atka Island due to poor weather.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Border Cities laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.
Trawler (Canadian manned) HMS Baffin commissioned.
U-517 arrived off Belle Isle, Quebec on war patrol. U-517 was a long-range Type IXC U-boat built by Deutsche Schiff und Machinenbau AG, Seebreck Yard, at Bremen. She was commissioned on 21 Mar 42. U-517 conducted two patrols and compiled a record of sinking nine ships for a total of 31,231 tons. U-517 was sunk on 21 Nov 42 by RN 'Albacore' torpedo-bomber aircraft from 817 Sqn of HMS Victorious in the North Atlantic south-west of Ireland, at 46-16N, 017-09W. There were 52 survivors from U-517 crew of 53. Paul Hartwig was born in 1915, at Stein, in Vogtland. He joined the navy in 1935 and transferred to the U-boat force in Jul 40. He completed two patrols on the successful Type IXC boat U-125, commanded by KptLt. Günther Kuhnke, Knight's Cross. He was selected for command and underwent his U-boat commander's course between Nov 41 and Jan 42. U-517 was sunk just four days after leaving Lorient on her second patrol. Hartwig spent the remainder of the war in Allied captivity. After the war Hartwig joined the Bundesmarine and rose to the rank of Vice Admiral.

U.S.A.: Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for President in the 1940 election, leaves Mitchell Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York, to begin a 50-day trip around the world to more than a dozen countries as the envoy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the purposes of the trip is to boost Allied solidarity.

Heavy cruiser USS Boston launched.
Destroyers USS Jeffers and Glennon launched.
Submarine USS Sawfish commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-130 sank SS Beechwood.
U-162 sank SS Thelma.
U-375 attacked SS Empire Kumari in Convoy LW-38. Constructive total loss.

26 August 1943

August 26th, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission 35:

36 B-26s attack Carpiquet Airfield at Caen, France at 1846 hours.

The RAF's Desert Air Force (DAF) is assigned to the Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF), along with US units of the Ninth Air Force which have been an operational part of DAF and Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force (NATBF).

GERMANY: Stalag 383, Bavaria: Two British prisoners made a daring escape from this camp yesterday by walking out of the gate wearing home-made German uniforms and carrying forged passes.

The escapers, Lance-Sergeant Suggit of the 5th (Inniskilling) Dragoon Guards and Sergeant Beeson of the RAOC, had to bring their attempt forward a day because there is so much activity, masterminded by the escape committee, that their original plan would have clashed with an attempt by others to "go over the wire". They made their German uniforms from Australian tunics dyed green with dyes acquired from the camp theatre.

Their badges were made of cardboard covered in silver paper, and their medal ribbons cut out of tin coloured with red and black ink. A friendly guard from Alsace lent them his papers so that they could be forged.

At dusk tonight, with sandwiches in their fake holsters, they walked nonchalantly out of the gate.

U-750 commissioned.
U-1279 laid down.

BALTIC SEA: Soviet submarine SC-203 sunk near Cape Uret by torpedo from Italian submarine SB.4. All hands lost.

ITALY: 80+ Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) B-17s, with P-38 escort, bomb Capua Airfield; and 100+ fighter-escorted medium bombers hit Grazzanise Airfield and satellite field.

HONG KONG: 15 US Fourteenth Air Force B-24s, with an escort of 17 P-38 Lightnings and P-40s, bomb Kowloon Docks; 5 Japanese interceptors are shot down.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: 11 US Thirteenth Air Force B-25s and 40+ USMC SBD Dauntlesses, escorted by fighters, pound AA positions and barges at Ringa and Webster Coves on New Georgia Island and at Nusatuva Island; 15 B-24's bomb Papatura Ite and supply areas on Papatura Fa Island; 15 B-24's, with fighter escort, bomb Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island; and P-39Airacobras strafe buildings on Gizo Island and at Kolulavabae Inlet.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The US Eleventh Air Force's striking power shrinks rapidly as 2 B-24 Liberator and 2 B-25 squadrons are ordered to prepare for departure to the Zone of Interior (ZI).

CANADA: Churchill sets off for a four-day fishing holiday in the Laurentian mountains.

Minesweeper HMCS Ross Norman purchased.
Frigate HMCS Eastview laid down Montreal, Province of Quebec.
Minesweeper HMS Mariner (ex-HMCS Kincardine) laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.

U.S.A.: Washington: The French Committee of national Liberation is granted limited recognition by the US, Britain and Canada. Tomorrow The U.S.S.R. and China do the same.

Submarine USS Charr laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Stadtfield commissioned.
Destroyer escorts USS O'Neill, Bronstein, William T Powell and Chaffee laid down.
Minesweeper USS Dunlin launched.
Destroyer escort USS Haines launched.

California: Battery Ashburn, two 16-inch guns in casemates, is completed at Fort Rosecrans, a coastal artillery fort near San Diego. (Benjamin Ledin)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-410 sank SS John Bell and SS Richard Henderson in Convoy UGS-14.

German submarine U-84 (Type VIIB) is listed as missing in the middle of the North ATLANTIC OCEAN, position unknown. All hands, 46-men, are lost.

U-84 had previously been recorded as sunk 24 Aug, 1943 in the middle of the North Atlantic, in position 27.09N, 37.03W, by aerial torpedoes from aircraft of the US escort carrier USS Core, but U-84 was ordered to refuel from U-760 on 18 August in position 37.00N, 44.30W which is over 600 nautical miles from the attack by USS Core's aircraft. (Alex Gordon)

26 August 1944

August 26th, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Acheron laid down.

Corvette HMCS Tillsonburg departed Londonderry to join EG C-6 of NEF.

The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 8 missions (numbers in parenthesis indicate number of bombers attacking).

- Mission 575: 359 B-17s attack gun batteries in the Brest, France area; targets are Brest/Pte de St Mathieu (35) and coastal batteries at Kerandieu (27), Cornovailles (21), Brest/Ile Longue (20), Brest/Kerviniov (9) and Brest/Ponscorf (7); targets of opportunity are Brest/Pte des Espagnoles II (21) and Brest/Pte des Espagnoles III (18); escort is provided by 48 P-51 Mustangs; 1 P-51 is lost.

- Mission 576: 588 bombers and 402 fighters, in 3 forces, attack oil refineries, fuel stores and chemical works in Germany; 10 bombers and 3 fighters are lost.
(1) B-24s bomb the chemical works at Ludwigshafen (41); secondary targets hit are marshalling yards at Ehrang (33) and Kons/Karthaus (8); 11 others hit Alzey and 2 hit other targets of opportunity; 7 B-24s are lost; escort is provided by 77 P-51s; they claim 1-0-0 aircraft on the ground; 1 P-51 is lost.
(2) B-17s bomb oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen/Buer (89) and Gelsenkirchen/Nordstern (85); 19 hit Deelen Airfield, a secondary target, and 11 hit targets of opportunity; 3 B-17s are lost; escort is provided by 159 P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51s without loss.
(3) B-24s hit the Dulmen fuel dump (73) and oil refineries at Salzbergen (71) and Emmerich (36); 36 others hit Eindhoven Airfield; escort is provided by 129 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s; 1 P-38 and 1 P-51 are lost.

- Mission 577: 9 B-24s fly an AZON bomb mission to Moerdijk rail bridge, the Netherlands but clouds prevent an attack. Escort is provided by 32 P-51s.

- Mission 578: 37 B-17s are dispatched to hit liquid oxygen plants at La Louviere, Torte and Willebroeck, Belgium but the mission is aborted due to clouds. Escort is provided by 18 P-51s.

- Mission 579: 3 B-17s fly a special bomb test using Micro H radar against aviation industry targets at Meaulte, France. Escort is provided by 7 P-47s.

- Mission 580: 3 B-17s fly a Micro H test mission; 2 of the aircraft also drop leaflets.

- Mission 581: 7 B-24s are dispatched on a radio countermeasures mission to aid the RAF Bomber Command.

- Mission 582: 6 B-17s drop leaflets in France and Belgium during the night.

- 183 P-47s and 206 P-51s attack transport targets in Belgium, eastern France and western Germany in an attempt to prevent the escape of German forces; they claim 1-0-0 aircraft; 2 P-47s and 7 P-51s are lost.

The US IX Troop Carrier Command is relieved of its assignment to the Ninth Air Force upon transfer of the command and its service organizations from the IX Air Force Services Command to HQ First Allied Airborne Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lewis H Brereton.

FRANCE: Paris: A violent burst of gunfire greeted General de Gaulle and the other leaders of the Free French as they walked up to the cathedral of Notre Dame today to celebrate the liberation with a Te Deum, following a triumphant victory march from the Arc de Triomphe.

In the taut atmosphere of the newly liberated city, in which the official German capitulation had left numerous German and Milice snipers at liberty, a single shot set off a murderous fusillade in which several people were killed and 300 wounded near the cathedral. As the procession approached the cathedral Free French soldiers were firing at unseen targets among the pinnacles. General Leclerc tried to stop them, knocking down one man's rifle with his stick.

In the panic after a shot was heard in the cathedral, many Free French personalities took cover or threw themselves to the floor. General Koenig shouted: "Have you no pride? Stand up!" General de Gaulle was quite unruffled by the whole incident, and strode calmly up to the cathedral.

Paris: The roar of heavy artillery still resounds in the suburbs, but Parisians are busy celebrating. The streets are not entirely safe yet, but despite the dangers many Parisians are on the prowl, looking to vent their long bottled-up rage against those who collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces.

The people have not forgotten the 35 youths, aged between 17 and 25, who were massacred on 16 August at the Bois de Boulogne waterfall by French Gestapists working for the German secret police. They also remember the political prisoners at Romainville jail, shot dead by the German guards as they retreated before the approaching Allies a few days ago.

Their thirst for revenge is unlikely to be slaked. Most of the leading collaborators were able to flee Paris before the Allies entered the city, leaving behind only low-ranking militiamen and those women rather crudely termed "horizontal collaborators". The day before yesterday, a woman accused of having fraternized with Nazis was beaten and had her hair shaved off. She was then put on show at the police headquarters with a placard around her neck which proclaimed for all to see "She had her husband shot."
- The US Ninth Air Force's IX Bomber Command, with fighter escort, strikes fuel dumps at Saint-Gobain, Fournival/Bois-de-Mont, and Compiegne/Clairoix, and troop and equipment concentrations at Rouen; fighters fly ground forces and assault area cover, and armed reconnaissance in the Rouen, Dijon, Chatillon-sur-Seine and S Loire areas.

- During the night of 25/26 August, the US Twelfth Air Force sends fighter-bombers on armed reconnaissance over the Nice, France area to bomb vehicles and other targets of opportunity, and during the day to bomb ammunition dumps in southeastern France; B-25s and B-26s hit guns in the Marseille area but several missions into the Rhone Valley are aborted due to bad weather; fighter-bombers and fighters fly armed reconnaissance over southeastern France, attacking rail lines, roads, guns, vehicles, and other targets of opportunity.

GERMANY: Rüsselheim: Villagers, urged on by the local SS, beat to death seven of the crew of a crashed USAAF aircraft. One of the two survivors is 19-year-old Sidney Brown of Gainesville, Florida.

The airmen had been taken prisoner and were being marched the town on the outskirts of Frankfurt en-route to a prison camp.

The RAF had attacked the night before killing 198 (including 177 foreign slave labourers) and a mob attacked, throwing stones, bottles and railroad ties. The U.S. airmen were chased to the town cemetery, where they were beaten to the ground. Later, they were dragged outside of town and six were shot dead.

[ In a post-war trial by a US military court, seven individuals were convicted of the deaths. Five were hanged.] (Michael Douglas)

U-3012 laid down.

U.S.S.R.: Baltic Fleet, Ladoga Lake and Chudskoe Lake Flotillas: MS "T-45" (ex-"Antikainen") - by U-410, close to Nerva Is., in Finland Gulf . (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

Soviet destroyer Druznyj commissioned.

The USS Yarnell (DD-143), was commissioned as HMS Lincoln (G-42) on 23 Oct. 1940, part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. Today, this ship is transferred to Russia as Druzhny. She joins several sister ships transferred earlier this year. They will return to the RN between 1949-1952. (Ron Babuka)

HUNGARY: During the night of 26/27 August, two RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group fly a night leaflet mission over the country.

YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators visually bomb two targets without loss: 54 bomb the railroad bridge at Borovnica and one hits the marshalling yard at Nis. (Jack McKillopo)

ROMANIA: The Russian advance reaches the Danube River east of Galati.

BULGARIA withdraws from the war and disarms German troops. The German position in the Balkans is crumbling. The Romanians, who fought alongside the Germans at Stalingrad and in the Crimea, declared war on Germany yesterday and seized their own capital after a sharp fight with the Wehrmacht. And the Bulgarians today announced their intention of withdrawing from the war, and began disarming German garrisons. Armistice talks are in the final stages.

There were only maybe some ten thousands of troops in Bulgaria at the time (if even that), most being logistics personnel and a few FLAK troops to help protect the Romanian airfields. These were quickly disarmed.

The Bulgarian occupation troops in Macedonia and Serbia didn't try to disarm the Germans, but rather to withdraw back to Bulgaria. In the process, they were confronted and to a large degree disarmed themselves by the Germans. (Henrik Krog)

Romania's pro-German government collapsed four days ago when King Michael arrested Marshal Antonescu for refusing to make peace with the Allies and installed a new government which overcame German attempts to seize Bucharest.

ITALY: Solid bridgeheads are established by the British 8th Army over the River Metauro in Italy. The German 71st Division falls back in the face of attacks by V Corps.
The US Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 470+ bombers escorted, by P-38s and P-51s, to attack targets in Italy and Romania; B-17s hit viaducts and bridges at Venzone, Avisio, and Latisana, Italy; in Romania, 115 B-24s hit a train ferry and terminal at Giurgiu, Otopeni Airfield, barracks and troops in the Baneasa area; and B-24s bomb a viaduct at Borovnica, Yugoslavia.

KURILE ISLANDS: 3 B-24s hit the Kashiwabara staging area on Paramushiru Island during the early morning, starting several fires; later 6 B-25s strafe and bomb the east coast of the northern Kurile Islands, sinking a patrol boat; 1 out of 4 interceptors and one of the B-25s are hit; 7 more B-24s bomb targets on Kashiwabara and on Otomari Cape, including docks, piers, boats, and a fuel dump. 6 P-38s unsuccessfully attempt to intercept 4 unidentified aircraft west of Attu Island.

US Seventh Air Force B-24s based on Saipan bomb the airfield on Iwo Jima Island. A B-24 on armed reconnaissance bombs Woleai Atoll and Yap Island.

In the Palau Islands, US Far East Air Force B-24s bomb Koror and Peleliu Airfields.

U.S.A.: Minesweeper USS Garland commissioned
Destroyer escort USS Goss commissioned. Destroyer escort USS Thaddeus Parker launched.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-195 was commissioned at New Orleans. Her first commanding officer was Lt. J. P. McNabb, USCGR. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-745 sank Soviet minesweeper T-45/No 48.
U-957 sank SS Nord.
U-989 sank SS Ashmun J CLough in Convoy TBC-28.

26 August 1945

August 26th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Sir Arthur Harris, the C-in-C of RAF Bomber Command announces his resignation. He will relinquish his command next month and retire from the RAF shortly afterwards.

BURMA: Japanese envoys, led by Lieutenant General NUMATA Takazo, Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Count TERAUCHI Hisaichi, Commander in Chief, Japanese Southern Army, arrives at an airfield outside Rangoon this morning to carry out surrender arrangements in southeast Asia.

HONG KONG: Instructions have been given to the Japanese garrison to surrender to British Rear Admiral Cecil H. J. Harcourt, Commander of the 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron.

JAPAN: Japanese diplomats board the U.S. battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) to receive instructions on Japan's surrender.

The posts of Minister of Greater East Asia, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce and Minister of Munitions in the Cabinet of Prime Minister, Prince HIGASHIKUNI Naruhiko are abolished.

CANADA: HMC ML 121 paid off.

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