Air Operations, Aleutians

3 28th Composite Bomb Group B-17s, 2 B-24s and an LB-30 attack and photograph targets at Kanaga, Kiska and Tanaga Islands.

Air Operations, Europe

• Russian naval planes attack a Luftwaffe bomber base near the Sea of Azov.
• German planes bomb Iceland.

• Halifaxes to Hamburg; 2 Mosquitoes to Hagen and Vegesack
• All turn back due to lack of cloud

• 8 Lancasters lay mines in Kiel Bay and off Denmark
• No losses

August 3, 1942: After hammering Port Moresby for two days, Japanese bombers finally sank this Australian transport which sends up a cloud of smoke. She drifted onto a reef and heeled over. Flaming oil can be seen at left. The men in a small boat, foreground, are looking for victims. (AP Photo)

Australian Transport Sinks in Port Moresby

Air Operations, New Guinea

5th Air Force P-400s attack ground targets at Kokoda and Oivi.

Battle of the Atlantic

British submarine Saracen is on patrol north of the Shetlands when receiving orders to shift patrol in response to intelligence reports that a number of U-boats were outbound to the Atlantic. At 2159, while the boat was submerged, U-335 surfaces less than a mile away. Saracen fires all six bow tubes and the U-boat disintegrates in a huge explosion.

U-335

Britain, Command

Churchill and Gen Brooke arrive in Cairo to investigate what is wrong with the 8th Army and to provide new commanders. Churchill feels that with the lavish resources sent to 8th Army far more should have been achieved.

An interesting top view of a Matilda tank as it is being loaded onto a Scammell transporter. August 3, 1942.

British Matilda Tank Being Loaded on a Transport

Eastern Front

Army Group B continues to attack Kletskaya. 4th Pzr Army, having crossed the Don and establishing a bridgehead at Tsimlyansky, is now driving east around Kotelnikovo. The Russians, however, succeed in holding the region north of the great bend of the Don, with a certain number of bridgeheads across the river, for instance at Kletskaya, barring the way to the German Army Group B. 1st Pzr Army is mounting 2 attacks from its position on the Kuban, east toward Voroshilovsk (now Stavropol) and south toward Maykop. Voroshilovsk is captured by the Germans who establish a bridgehead on the other side of the Kuban which exposes the Maikop oil fields.

German soldiers crossing a Russian River on their tank on August 3, 1942. (AP Photo)

River Crossing on a Tank

Attacks by the 6th Army breaks the right wing of the 62nd Army and reaches the Don on a broad front near Malogolubaya. Gordov aims to counterattack with the 21st Army and the 1st and 4th Tank Armies to isolate the German spearhead. Lopatin asks permission to pull his embattled 62nd Army back but is refused.

The 4th Panzer Army throws the 51st Army back along the road to Stalingrad. In the Caucasus, Stavropol falls to Kleist's panzers. Malinovsky's Don Group is pushed farther away from the Coastal Group as the German attack gains momentum.

A low-flying Royal Air Force plane escorts rolling trucks of a New Zealand unit on the move in Egypt on August 3, 1942. (AP Photo)

RAF Plane Escorts Trucks of New Zealand Unit

Pacific

The US submarine Gudgeon (SS-211) sinks the Japanese transport Naniwa Maru (4353t).