Air Operations, Carolines

• VII Bomber Command B-24s and US Navy PB4Ys attack Ponape Island during their return from Momote Airfield on Los Negros to the Marshall Islands.
• During the night, VII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Truk Atoll.

Air Operations, CBI

• 12 10th Air Force A-31s attack targets around Buthidaung.
• 12 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack the airfield at Kangaung.

• 9 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 9 10th Air Force B-25s attack a bridge and other targets around Moirang.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s reconnoiter Halmahera Island.

Air Operations, Europe

German cities are attacked by Allied bombers. Berlin is hit by 378 Liberators. The Luftwaffe loses 119 aircraft, the Allies 49.

• 62 Halifaxes, 53 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of Nos. 6 and 8 Groups are sent to Haine St Pierre. Severe damage is caused to half the railway yards and locomotive sheds.
• 6 Halifaxes and 3 Lancasters are lost.
• 58 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitos of No. 5 Group attack the airfield and seaplane base at Lanveoc Poulmic near Brest with great accuracy.
• 1 Lancaster is lost.
• 31 Halifaxes of No. 4 Group and 8 Pathfinder Mosquitos score direct hits on a coastal gun position at Morsalines on the Cherbourg peninsula.
• 1 Halifax is lost.
• 32 Halifaxes of No. 4 Group and 7 Pathfinder Mosquitos attack a gun position at Berneval, but on 1 plane hits the target. Most of the bombing falls between 600 and 700 yards away.
• There are no losses.
• 30 Lancasters of No. 3 Group and 8 Pathfinder Mosquitos attempt to hit a gun position at Cap Griz Nez, but no hits are scored.
• There are no losses.

• 28 Mosquitos are sent to Osnabrück, 2 to Oberhausen, 30 Halifaxes and 8 Stirlings lay mines off the Dutch and French coasts, 41 aircraft are on Resistance operations, there are 10 Serrate patrols and 4 RCM and 26 OTU sorties.
• 1 Stirling is lost on a Resistance supply operation.

Although relegated to support tasks, Wellingtons were still used on a few operational missions. Here, one aircraft is loaded with leaflets prior to a Nickelling sortie on 8/9 May.

A Wellington Being Loaded with Leaflets

Air Operations, New Guinea

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s and V Fighter Command P-40s attack the Mokmer airfield on Biak.
• 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based in Australia attack Jefman Island.
• Many A-20s and fighter-bombers attack coastal targets of opportunity between Hansa Bay and Wewak.
• 1 B-24 is lost over Jefman Island.

Allied Planning

Originally set for an unspecified day in May, Gen Eisenhower fixes June 5 as D-Day, the date for the invasion of Normandy. Later the date has to be put back one day.

Britain, Home Front

Dame Ethel Smyth, composer and suffragette, dies at age 86.

Burma

The Chinese and Americans shell the village of Ritpong and send in a regiment of the Chinese 30th Div to take it by assault, but the attack is repulsed. Units of the Chinese 38th Div advance on Kamaing, and others from the same division prepare to attack Warong.

Eastern Front

The defenses of Sevastopol crumble under the sledgehammer blows of the Russians. Gen Schörner, Commander of the South Ukraine Army Group, in defiance of Hitler's orders, takes responsibility for ordering naval and air forces to evacuate his forces. In fact the evacuation of the Germans and Rumanians has already begun, in secret, on the previous day. German and Rumanian naval craft succeed in taking at least 130,000 men across the Black Sea to Rumania.

(?)After refusing several earlier, timely requests, Hitler now gives his permission for full-scale withdrawals from the Crimea. During the next few days 37,500 men will be taken off but a further 8,000 will be drowned in ships sunk by the fierce Soviet attacks from the air and submarines and surface naval units.

The 2nd Guards and 51st Armies push into Sevastopol, cutting off part of the XLIX and V Corps to the east. As the remnants fall back the 51st Army sweeps into the city, capturing most of it as the Germans flee to the Khersonnes Peninsula. With the end in sight, Hitler belatedly orders the evacuation.

New Guinea

The Americans reinforce the perimeter of their beachhead at Aitape.

Occupied Hungary

Adolf Eichmann offers to barter the lives of Hungarian Jews for 10,000 trucks, 2 million cases of soap and other goods. This offer is tranmitted to Western Allies by Joel Brand, a member of Vaadat Ezra v'Hazalah (Jewish Assistance and Rescue Committee). The Allies indignantly reject this outrageous proposal.

United States, Home Front

The Senate votes to extend Lend-Lease to June 1945.

Images from May 8, 1944

The Destroyed Hulk of Nagatsuki on Kolombangara, 8 May 1944

105mm Howitzer Mounted on a DUKW Amphibious Vehicle, Guadalcanal, 8 May 1944

Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel Inspects the 21st Panzer Division in May 1944