Air Operations, Carolines

• VII Bomber Command B-24s based in the Marshall Islands attack the Yap Atoll.
• 5th and 307th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the airfield on Koror and a seaplane base at Arakabesan Island in the Palau Islands.
• 1 B-24 is downed over Koror by anti-aircraft fire.
• During the night, 868th Heavy Bomb Squadron SB-24s mount their final attack in their nightly offensive against Japanese airfields and defenses in the Palau Islands.

Air Operations, CBI

• 5 10th Air Force P-47s attack Myintha.
• 4 P-47s attack Japanese Army tanks at Momauk.
• 2 P-47s support British Army ground troops near Pinbaw.

• 8 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack airfields at Canton, Hankow, and Pailochi.
• 8 B-25s attack Yangtze River traffic between Chiuchiang and Hankow and from Hengyang to Puchi.
• 23 14th Air Force P-40s attack targets of opportunity at Hengyang and Pailochi.
• 23 P-40s attack stores at Taying.
• 10 P-51s and P-40s attack Anjen and nearby targets of opportunity.
• 5th CACW and 51st Fighter group P-40s and a 118th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron P-51 down 6 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters and 1 Ki-44 'Tojo' fighter over or in the vicinity of Pailochi airfield at 1315 hours.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command A-20s and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack small vessels off the east coast of Ceram.

Air Operations, Europe

90 out of 97 V-1s directed against London are destroyed by the defenses. Most are brought down by AA shells with proximity fuses. The launch sites for these flying bombs are rapidly being captured by the advancing Allied troops in northern France. The Germans will soon resort to using He-111s as flying launch ramps.

• 150 aircraft including 77 Halifaxes, 48 Lancasters and 25 Mosquitos, carry out small 'Oboe leader' raids on 12 flying bomb sites. Most of the targets are satisfactorily hit. This is the last in a long series of attacks on flying bomb sites in the Pas de Calais area. This area will captured by Allied ground troops in a few days. There is 1 aircraft casualty. A No. 550 Squadron Lancaster, which had just bombed the Wemars/Cappel launch site near Amiens, receives a direct hit from a flak battery near Dunkirk. The Lancaster goes down in flames and explodes. The pilot, Pilot Officer S. C. Beeson, and 3 other members of the crew escape by parachute, but the wireless operator and the 2 gunners are killed. Sergeants J. K. Norgate, H. S. Picton and J. A. Trayhorn are thus the last fatal casualties in Bomber Command's campaign against the V-1 flying bomb.
• 30 aircraft of Nos. 6 and 8 Groups bomb a German battery on the Île de Cezembre, near St Malo, and 23 Halifaxes of No. 6 Group bomb ships in Brest harbor.
• There are no losses.

• 35 Mosquitos are sent to Essen, 4 to Leverkusen, 3 each to Le Culot and Venlo and 2 to Cologne, 6 Halifaxes lay mines off La Pallice, and 19 aircraft are on Resistance operations.
• 1 Halifax is lost on a Resistance operation.

Extensive Damage to the Huge Krupps Armament Works at Brunswick

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack Kokas, a fuel dump at Boram, stores at Manokwari and Moemi, barracks at Nabire, and shipping off Point Karakra.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

30th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based at Saipan attack Iwo Jima, day and night.

Eastern Front

Some of 2nd Ukraine Front's attacking units swing west and move through the Oituz Pass over the Carpathians toward Transylvania. On the Danube 3rd Ukraine Front takes Braila. Now Hungary is threatened.

Gen Meith is killed in heavy fighting as another breakout attempt fails. Through sheer desperate courage the Germans recapture Vutcani but a Soviet counterattack retakes it. A repeated German assualt then captures it for the second time.

Units of the 27th Army seize the Oituz pass and access to eastern Hungary. To the south, Braila falls to the 37th Army.

German, Home Front

Ernst Thalemann, former leader of the German Communist Party, dies at Buchenwald. He was 58.

Hungary, Politics

Faced by the imminent breakthrough by the Russians, Gen Géza Lakatos forms a new government which declares itself ready to negotiate Hungary's surrender.

Italy

Units of the 8th Indian Div of British XII Corps capture Tigliano, north of Pontassieve. The British 8th Army continues its advance toward the 'Gothic' Line.

Northern France

In the northern sector of the Allied line the Canadian II Corps expands its bridgehead toward Rouen and the British XXX Corps crosses the Seine in force, while farther south the American XV Corps further widens the Mantes-Gassicourt bridgehead. US 1st Army units cross the Marne at Meaux. The French 2nd Arm Div and American 4th Div, having entered Paris, continue to advance toward the northeast. The XX Corps is approaching Rheims and in Brittany the VIII Corps continues the siege of Brest.

Palau Islands

The Japanese submarine chaser No. 77 is sunk by US Army aircraft in the Kurile Islands area.

Southern France

The French II Corps advances northward along the west bank of the Rhône, while the American VI Corps, aiming at linking up with the OVERLORD forces, also goes north along a line Lyons-Beaume-Dijon. The German 19th Army manages to get most of its troops out of the trap at Montélimar. Some German units, particularly 11th Pzr Div, have been cut off south of Montélimar but in attacks northward they mostly succeed in breaking through, although they take heavy losses from Allied arty and air power. Units of the American 45th Div advance towards Lyons.

The battle of Toulon ends when the last German troops surrender to the French 9th Colonial Div. The German garrison at Marseilles also surrenders.

United States, Home Front

W. Franklin Knox, Secretary of the Navy since 1940, dies at the age of 70.

Images from August 28, 1944

6th Airborne soldiers aboard a captured German half-track mounting a 20mm gun, which they used to shoot down a German aircraft, 28 August 1944.

6th Airborne Soldiers Aboard a Captured German Half-track

Pontoon Bridges over the River Seine at Vernon, 28 August 1944

Sherman tank crews write letters home in a lull during operations to cross the River Seine at Vernon, 27/28 August 1944.

Writing Letters Home

Sherman Tanks Crossing a Pontoon Bridge over the River Seine at Vernon, 28 August 1944

Sherman Tanks Crossing a Pontoon Bridge over the River Seine at Vernon, 28 August 1944

Sherman Tanks Crossing a Bailey Bridge over the Seine at Vernon, 28 August 1944

Armored Crossing Bridge, Elbeuf, 28 August, 1944

French People Celebrate Liberation of Marseilles, France, 28 August 1944

Unidentified crew of a Centaur Mk II anti-aircraft vehicle of The Canadian Grenadier Guards talking with three French women, Elbeuf, 28 August 1944.

Canadians Soldiers Talking with Locals

Patton's Tanks Cross the Marne, 28 August 1944

Prudential building in Warsaw, Poland exploding as it was hit by a shell from a German Karl-Gerät self-propelled howitzer, 28 Aug 1944

Prudential Building in Warsaw Exploding

General Motors 'Staghound' T17E1 armoured cars of the 18th Armored Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons) crossing the Seine River, Elbeuf, 28 August 44 (NAC PA-144143)

Crossing the Seine River