Air Operations, CBI

• 3 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 52 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack numerous transportation and other targets across southern and eastern China.

Air Operations, Japan

• More than 80 FEAF B-24s attack rail yards at Kagoshima, the Sasebo naval base, Nagasaki and Yakishima.
• FEAF B-25s and 319th Medium Bomb Group A-26s attack Marushima, the Sasebo naval base, the Kanoya and Miyazaki airfields on Kyushu, warehouses at Nagasaki, and a power plant and factory on Koyagi Island.
• FEAF P-51s attack many targets throughout the Kyushu area.
• In their portion of the attack against the Sasebo naval base, 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s mount exprimental attacks against shipping with a new 'glide' torpedo that can be launched from medium altitude a great distance from the target. The attack is not successful, but further experiments with the device will be conducted until the cessation of hostilities.
• Task Force 38 and Task Group 37.2 cease combat flight operations and withdraw from the path of an oncoming typhoon.
• During the night FEAF P-61s undertake harrassment missions over Kyushu and Honshu.

Air Operations, Philippines

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack targets on Luzon.
• XIII Bomber Command B-25s and XIII Fighter Command P-38s support US 8th Army ground forces on Luzon.

Canada, Home Front

Field Marshal Harold Alexander is appointed Governor General.

Pacific

• The air and naval bombardment of Japan continues. 1 Japanese destroyer and 1 frigate are sunk.
• The cruiser Takao is sunk by British frogmen with limpet mines at Singapore.
• The US destroyer Bancroft (DD-598) is damaged in a collision in the Luzon area.

War Crimes

Pierre Laval is flown from Spain, where he had been given asylum, to Linz, Austria, aboard Franco's personal plane. He surrenders to US authorities who turn him over to the French army. Laval felt he should return to France to justify his role in the Vichy government and to avoid being made the scapegoat for that dismal period when France was under Nazi rule. Laval will be subsequently executed by a firing squad after failing in an attempt to commit suicide with cyanide pills he had secreted in his overcoat ever since he thought the Nazis might try to kill him.

Images from July 31, 1945

31 July 1945 - US air attacks on the cities of Kobe and Nagoya in Japan - Bombs being dropped on Kobe, Japan

Bombs Being Dropped on Kobe, Japan

Go-slow action by London dock workers has caused serious delay in discharging of cargoes, and troops who have been standing by for some time have been called in at Surrey Docks to unload ships urgently required for service.

Troops Unloading Ships at Surrey Docks

USS Colorado (BB 45) suffers from a direct hit from a Japanese plane.

USS Colorado Hit by Japanese Plane

The US Navy fleet oiler USS Tappahannock (AO-43) refueling the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) and the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), in July 1945.

Refueling At Sea