Air Operations, AsiaB-29 Superfortresses of the US XX Bomber Group carry out their first bombing mission against Bangkok. [![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Air Operations, CarolinesVII Bomber Command B-24s based at Eniwetok photograph and bomb Guam, then proceed to the Momote airfield on Los Negros. [![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Air Operations, CBIBURMA
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Air Operations, Europe
Evening Ops:
FRANCE:
FRANCE:
ITALY:
ITALY:
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Air Operations, New Guinea
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ArcticHM submarine Satyr sights a surfaced U-boat just after 9:00am about 4,500 yards away. The British submarine turns to port and runs in fast to gain a favorable firing position. At the new position it is discovered U-987 has altered her course. The Satyr adjusts her course and fires 6 torpedoes. 2 torpedoes strike the U-boat in the bow and under the conning tower. The forward part of the target is thrown into the air as if its back had been broken resulting in both halves sinking.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() AtlanticOff Normandy, France, mines sink the US minesweeper Osprey (AM-56) and damage the tank landing ship LST-981. [![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Burma-China-India20,000 men of the Chinese 71st Army have now crossed the Salweeen River. On the Indian front, in the XXXIII Corps sector, the battle of Kohima ends in an Allied victory; the British 2nd Div finishes off the Japanese resistance on the Aradura Spur, south of Kohima, but the road from here to Imphal has still to be reopened. From the south, from Imphal, the 20th Indian Div and the remaining divisions of the IV Corps are still moving north. [![]() ![]() ![]() CBIGen Stilwell arrives in Chungking from Burma to meet with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Gen Chennault on the situation in China. Although he is very doubtful that Chennault can stop the Japanese, Stilwell agrees to divert an additional 1,500 tons of supplies destined fo the B-29s at Chengtu to the 14th Air Force. The headquarters of the 3rd Combat Cargo Group is activated in India, along with the C-47-equipped 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Combat Cargo Squadrons. This will allo the 4th Troop Carrier Squadron, 62nd Troop Carrier Group, and the 16th, 17th, 18th and 35th Troop Carrier Squadrons of the 64th Troop Carrier Group to return to Italy and Sicily. These units have been supporting the CBI theater since April. [![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ItalyThe Allied forces make their triumphal entry into Rome, who are given a rapturous welcome by the population, and then push on beyond in pursuit of the retreating Germans. There are problems of traffic congestion on the few good roads which prevent the Allied forces using their full strength. As usual the German retreat is accompanied by skillful rearguard actions and demolitions. The German 14th Army is now being commanded by Gen Joachim Lemelsen. Alexander orders the US 5th and British 8th armies to advance to the Rimini-Pisa Line. King Victor Emmanuel III, in accordance with his undertaking, leaves his kingdom in the hands of his son, Umberto of Savoy, who is desigated 'Lt-Gen of the Realm'. [![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() New GuineaGen Walter Krueger, commander of the US 6th Army, urges the invasion force on Biak to capture the airfields quickly, since the Japanese are still able to use them for attacks against the American beachheads at Hollandia and Aitape. On Biak the 162nd Regt and 186th Regt both continue to advance breaking down pockets of Japanese resistance. The 186th Inf advances as far as the biggest hill on the island, northeast of Mokmer airfield. In the Ibdi area the 162nd Inf succeeds in wiping out the Japanese on the track leading to the interior of the island and making contact with the 186th Regt, but although naval ships give supporting fire the Japanese resistance is unbroken. Near Aitape the Americans are forced to evacuate one of their outlying beachheads in the Yakamul area because of the Japanese attacks. Other units are sent inland from Aitape so as to get behind the Japanese advancing from the east and take them from the rear. The beachhead cannot be considered secure, but the Japanese are paying dearly for any progress they succeed in making. [![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Operation OVERLORDThe German 15th Army's radio monitor intercepts the second half of Verlaine's verse, the second part ot the message to the Resistance, which according to Canaris is to be given not more than 48 hours before the invasion: 'Blessent mon ca'ur | D'une langeur | Monotone.' ('Wound my heart with a monotonous langor'). The 15th Army - but still only the 15th - is put on a state of maximum alert. Just after 10:00p.m. the paratroopers and glider-borne infantry take off. A little after midnight the sky over Normandy, bright as day with the flares, is filled with the rumble of aircraft and of German anti-aircraft guns, as Allied night bombers open the assault. The main mission of the airborne troops is to seize vital ground behind the German forces on both flanks of the Normandy invasion front and block German reinforcements from reaching the beachhead. A vast fleet approaches the French coast. 2,727 ships of every kind including merchant ships, cross-Channel steamers, hospital ships, small Transatlantic liners, tugs, and tankers, carry or tow more than 2,500 landing craft. They are escorted by over 700 warships including 23 cruisers, 5 battleships - the British Ramillies and Warspite and the American Texas (BB-35), Arkansas (BB-33) and Nevada (BB-36), back in action after being sunk in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor - and 104 destroyers. To oppose this armada, the equal of which has never been seen on the seas, the Germans have a total of 3 destroyers, 36 motor torpedo-boats and 34 submarines. The US minesweeper Osprey (AM-56) sinks when it hits a mine. There are 21 American convoys and 38 British and Canadian. Sailing from almost the entire south coast of England, they carry men and equipment for the first wave of the invasion on the Normandy coasts. The Americans are heading for the beaches code-named 'Utah', at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, and 'Omaha', between Vierville sur mer and Ste Honorine. The British and Canadians are heading for 'Gold' and 'Juno', between Arromanches and St Aubin, and 'Sword', between Lion and the mouth of the Orne. [![]() ![]() Pacific
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Images from June 5, 1944
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[June 4th - June 6th] |