Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s, B-25s, and A-20s attack Manokwari, Efman Island, targets in the Schouten Islands, and artillery positions at Kamiri.
• A-20s attack the Wewak area.
• V Fighter Command P-40s attack occupied villages and supply dumps in the Sarmi area.
• Beginning at 1245 hours, 10 17th Reconnaissance Squadron B-25s based at Lake Sentani and escorted by 475th Fighter Group P-38s locate and attack a Japanese supply convoy on its way to Biak Island. 1 of 6 destroyer-transports is sunk and 3 are damaged. During the air attack, 3 B-25s are lost with their crews and most of the other airplanes are damaged. The remaining B-25s are so badly damaged that the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron must be withdrawn to Finschafen to draw new equipment and retrain.
• The convoy continues on toward Biak, but when a G4M 'Betty' search plane finds at 1440 hours that a USN-RAN surface battle force is poised to intercept, the 5 remaining destroyer-transports withdraw. At about 2200 hours, a VB-115 PB4Y relocates the Japanese convoy and is thus instrumental in an interception by US destroyers that results in the sinking of another destroyer-transport by gunfire.
• 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 3 Japanese fighters over the Japanese convoy between 1335 and 1345 hours.

Atlantic

Mines are responsible for sinking two US ships in the Normandy area: the destroyer escort Rich (DE-695) and LST-499. Destroyers Glennon (DD-620) and Meredith (DD-726) are damaged.

Battle of the Atlantic

• Sunderland 'R' of No 228 Squadron attacks a surfaced U-boat (U-970) which had been found by the plane's radar and illuminated with flares. The U-boat disappears during the attack and it is unsure if the attack was successful. German air-sea rescue picks up 13 survivors later in the morning.

U-970

Class	Type VIIC
CO	Oberleutnant zur See Heinrich Ketels
Location	Bay of Biscay
Cause	Air attack
Casualties	38
Survivors	13

• Liberator 'G' sights U-629 which had first been located by radar and attacks with six depth charges. The charges are dropped in a straddle with three landing on each side of the conning tower. The explosions seem to list the U-boat clear of the water before it sinks.

U-629 Class Type VIIC CO Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Helmut Bugs Location English Channel, SW of Ushant Cause Air attack Casualties 51 Survivors None

U-373 Class Type VIIC CO Oberleutnant zur See Detlev von Lehsten Location English Channel, SW of Ushant Cause Air attack Casualties 4 Survivors 47

• Less than half an hour later, the same aircraft sights and confirms another U-boat. Another six depth-charge attack is carried out with the charges also straddling the U-boat. The U-boat (U-373) could be seen listing to starboard and sinking by the stern.

Burma-China

On the Salween front the Chinese 88th Div achieves a limited penetration into the defenses of Lungling. The Chinese 87th Div reaches the north gate of the town and cuts the Japanese supply route between Lungling and Tengchung.

Eastern Front

As a prelude to the big summer offensive the Russian 23rd and 21st Armies of the Leningrad Front of Govorov, after a three-hour-long artillery preparation, attack the Finnish positions in the Mannerheim line in the isthmus of Karelia, between Lake Ladoga to the east and the Gulf of Finland to the west. Russian diplomacy has tried to get Finland out of the war with a negotiated peace, but the conditions demanded by Moscow have so far been unacceptable to the Finns.

English Channel

The British netlayer Minister is sunk by a mine in Seine Bay with the loss of 57 of her crew.

Italy

The advance of the US VI Corps is slowed down south of Tarquinia by German resistance. The US II Corps comes within 6 miles of Viterbo. In the British sector the British V Corps, manning the Adriatic coast, continues its march north as the German troops retire. In the center of the Allied line the South African 6th Arm Div makes rapid progress in the direction of Orvieto.

The British 6th Arm Div is halted at Corese Pass, west of Monte Maggiore.

Badoglio and his government arrive in Rome.

New Guinea

The islets south of Biak have all been occupied by the Americans, and today a motor torpedo-boad base on one of them is activated. On Biak the US 186th Inv consolidates its positions in the Mokmer airfield area. The US 162nd Inf Regt, whose forces are spread out between the east coast and the west coast of the island, runs into strong opposition by the enemy in the area of the 'eastern caves', the fortifications in caves east of Mokmer airfied. In the area of the Parai Defile the Japanese put up a strong resistance to the combined forces of the US 163rd, 186th and 162nd Regts. From Parai advance guards of the 162nd Regt reach the outskirts of the village of Mokmer, near the airfield.

Near the Aitape beachhead the Americans go over to the counterattack and succeed in getting within a mile of the river Tirfoam, from which they had been forced to retire. During the night an Allied naval squadron commanded by the British Rear-Adm Crutchley intercepts 5 Japanese destroyers off the Schouten Islands, the group to which Biak belongs, carrying reinforcements and supplies for the Biak garrison, and puts them to flight. Another destroyer has been sunk by an American bomber the previous day.

Occupied France

The 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Div men hang 99 hostages in Tulle, France.

Pacific

• The Japanese destroyer Harusame is sunk in the Biak area of New Guinea by US Army aircraft.
• The US submarine Hake (SS-256) sinks the Japanese destroyer Kazagumo near Mindanao, Philippine Islands.
• The US submarine Rasher (SS-269) attacks a Japanese convoy in the Celebes Sea sinking replenishment vessel Shioya (4000t) northwest of Menado.

Western Front

With the capture of Port-en-Bessin by British Marines the link between Omaha, the American 1st Army, and Gold, the British 2nd Army, is complete. Units of the 82nd Airborne Div of the US VII Corps and the US 4th Div begin to advance toward Cherbourg. Efforts by the 22nd Regt, of the 4th Div, to cross the line of fortifications from Azeville to Crisbecq are fruitless. Along the bank of the Merderet River the 82nd Airborne Div is severely engaged with the German 243rd Div. On the southern flank of the VII Corps sector the 101st Airborne Div begins the battle for Carentan, trying to link up with the American V Corps as quickly as possible. The V Corps reaches the target set for it on Day 1 and the following night, Isigny, in complete calm; its 115th Regt pushes on south of the Aure River passing across Longueville. In the sector where the 1st Div is operating the 26th Regt, trying to trap the enemy between the American and British beachheads, takes Tour-en-Bessin and, during the night, Ste Anne. The 16th Regt tries to cut off the Germans retreating from Port-en-Bessin, but they manage to keep a corridor open and during the night they get most of their forces away. In the British XXX Corps sector, the 47th Regt Royal Marine Marines enters Port-en-Bessin in the early hours of the morning.

Images from June 8, 1944

Tallboy Blast-holes

US Paratroopers in a French Village

1st Duke of Wellington's Regiment

Wounded Canadian Soldiers Being Evacuated

Montgomery Passes German POWs

Jeeps Landing at Omaha Beach

Rangers on Pointe du Hoc

Holding a Captured Nazi Flag

Utah Beach, June 8, 1944

German POWs Sharing a Meal

Advancing from Sword Beach

Looking Down from a Church

Universal Carrier Crosses Bénouville Bridge

Tractor Pulling Ammo Trailers

Utah Beach, June 8, 1944

Montgomery Sets Foot on the Beach

Commandos Entering Douvres-la-Delivrande