Air Operations, Aleutians

2 54th Fighter Squadron P-38s each down a H6K 'Mavis' patrol bomber near Atka Island between noon and 1225 hours. This is the first aerial engagement ever by USAAF P-38 fighters.

Air Operations, CBI

23rd Fighter Group P-40s bomb Japanese Army headquarters buildings and barracks, and strafe transports at Linchwan, China.

Air Operations, Europe

• 3 Mosquitos and 1 Wellington to the Ruhr, Stuttgart and Bremen
• All turn back

• 38 aircraft to Essen
• Encounter icing; only 18 bomb Essen area
• 1 Lancaster lost
• 45 aircraft lay mines in the Frisians and off Brest, Lorient and St Nazaire
• 2 Wellingtons lost

Air Operations, Mediterranean

USAMEAF B-24s attack an Axis convoy at sea during the night and claim hits on 2 merchant ships.

Air Operations, Solomons

3 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s, based at the Efate/Vila Field, attack the Japanese Navy seaplane base at Gavutu Island. 1 B-17 is lost when it is rammed by a damaged A6M2-N 'Rufe' float fighter.

Britain, Home Front

The House of Commons passes a bill transferring jurisdiction over offenses committed by American servicemen from the British civil courts to US military tribunals.

Eastern Front

Heavy attacks by the 21st, 1st and 4th Tank Armies fail to push the Germans away from the Don. Stalin appoints Trufanov to command the 51st Army.

A German armored car amidst the debris of the Soviet fortress Sevastopol in Ukraine on August 4, 1942. (AP Photo)

German Armored Car in Sevastopol

Mediterranean

Late in the evening of August 3, an ASV-equipped Wellington of No 231 Squadron obtains a submarine (U-372) contact southwest of Haifa and marks the spot with a flare. The British destroyers Sikh and Zulu, which are working with the aircraft, hunt throughout the night and the next morning and use all their available depth charges. Two more destroyers, Croome and Tetcott, join the hunt shortly afternoon on August 4. Leaking oil, the U-boat surfaces to see if escape would be possible this way. Faced by four destroyers, the U-boat captain takes the only option open to him and scuttles the boat.

U-372

Occupied Belgium

The first trainload of Belgian Jews is sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Bracero Program Is Initiated

The Bracero Program began on August 4, 1942 after the United States entered World War II. With American men going off to fight the war, the U.S. needed farm laborers to tend to the growing demands of the agribusinesses supporting the war effort. The Bracero Program was a bilateral collaboration between the Mexican and United States governments designed to allow controlled migration of Mexican Nationals into the U.S. to work as farm labor.

Pacific

• The US destroyer Tucker (DD-374) is sunk in a minefield in Segond Channel, Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. The chartered transport President Coolidge is also lost as the result of striking a mine in the same minefield.
• The US submarine Narwhal (SS-167) sinks the Japanese merchant cargo ship Fukuyama Maru (3581t).