Air Operations, Carolines

41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Ponape Island.

Air Operations, CBI

• 4 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack a bridge and roads at Sittang. 2 B-25s and more than 100 10 Air Force fighter-bombers attack Japanese Army ground troops at Shaduzup and Kamaing, and numerous targets throughout the Mogaung Valley. Nearly 50 A-31s attack Homalin and Kohima (India). More than 20 A-31s attack Japanese Army ground troops near Buthidaung in the Arakan coastal region. 8 14th Air Force P-40s attack oil dumps at Wanling.

• 6 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack shipping in Yulinkan Bay. 2 B-25s strafe the airfield on Weichow Island. 9 B-25s attack the Samah airfield at Hainan.

• 11 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack rail yards at Hanoi.

Air Operations, Europe

• 40 Mosquitos are sent to attack the Krupps works at Essen without a loss..

• 3 Mosquitos are sent to Duisburg and 3 to Osnabrück, 8 Halifaxes lay mines off Texel and Den Helder and there are 2 RCM sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Far East

The Germans begin a program of remarkable long-distance cargo flights between Polish airfields and Manchuria during which Ju-290 A-9 aircraft, with sufficient fuel for a 5,500-mile journey, fly at altitudes of up to 38,000 feet to cross the Soviet Union without detection.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command A-20s attack numerous targets in the Hansa Bay area. V Fighter Command P-40s attack targets of opportunity in the Aitape and Wewak areas.

Burma

B-24s knock out 2 spans of the Sittang bridge, regarded as the most critical target of the rail system in Burma. Its partial destruction halts most Japanese rail shipments to Myitkyina for nearly 2 months.

Diplomatic Relations

Stalin is told the date of the Normandy invasion. Almost simultaneously, the Japanese tell the Soviets they are willing to mediate a peace between Germany and Russia. The initiative is Tokyo's, not Berlin's, and the Russians reject the offer.

Eastern Front

At 9:00a.m. Tolbukhin launches the attack of the 2nd Guards Army and the 51st Army against the Crimea. The defenders from Col-Gen Erwin Jaenecke's 17th Army, numbering about 170,000, are attacked by a considerably superior force from the Perekop isthmus. The 17th Army is split in two. Farther west the troops of Zhukov's and Konev's Armies penetrate well into Rumania taking Botosani and Dorohoi and Siret to the north. Konev's forces reach the Siret River on a 60-mile front. Patrols from Zhukov's armies reach as far as the Slovakian border. Soon the line will be stabilized on account of the spring thaw, while the Russian offensive in northern Bessarabia and on the Moldau will be halted and a front will be established between Stanislav and Kovel.

At dawn concentrated arty fire by the 4th Ukrainian Front begins to pound the XLIX Mountain Corps, Following the barrage the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies attack, the 2nd Guards hitting the 50th and 11th Infantry Divisions and 51st Army the 336th German and 10th Rumanian Infantry Divisins. The German and Rumanian units fight back with ferocity, and despite repeated attacks with arty and aerial support the Soviets are unable to break through.

As the 4th Ukrainian Front begins its offensive, the 1st Guards Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front launches more assaults upon Group Neinhoff in Tarnopol, while Botosani, Dorohoi and Siret fall to the 2nd Ukrainian Front in northern Rumania. The 40th and 27th Armies have reached and crossed the Siret River on a 60-mile front. The German force at Razdelnaya is destroyed by the concentric attacks of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.

Images from April 8, 1944

A Sherman tank of 19th Armoured Regiment supporting infantry of 6th NZ Infantry Brigade during a reconstruction of the action at Cassino, Italy, 8 April 1944

19th Armored Regt Sherman Tank

Lt-Gen Mark W. Clark pins a battle streamer on the guidon of a 504th PIR soldier in the Bagnoli area of Naples on 8 April 1944

Battle Award for the 504th