Air Operations, Central Pacific

Light Carrier Air Group 32 (USS Cabot) attacks Wake Island.

Air Operations, CBI

• Bad weather grounds the 14th Air Force, but several 426th Night Fighter Squadron P-61s are able to sweep rivers around Canton, Tsingyun, and Wuchou.

• FEAF B-24s attack marshalling yards at Tourane and P-51s escorts strafe rolling stock at Quang Nam.

Air Operations, East Indies

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Pontianak, Borneo and barracks and anti-aircraft batteries adjacent to Makassar Strait.
• XIII Fighter Command P-38s attack locomotives near Soerabaja.

Air Operations, Formosa

V Bomber Command B-24s based in the Philippines attack military stores at Takao.

Air Operations, Japan

• Nearly 50 FEAF B-24s attack the port area at Nagasaki.
• B-24s attack the Konoya airfield on Kyushu and Kakeroma Island.
• FEAF B-25s and fighter-bombers attack shipping and rail and port facilities at Nagasaki.
• More than 80 FEAF P-47s attack bridges and rail facilities at Sendai.
• VII Fighter Command P-47s and P-51s based on Iwo Jima attack rolling stock and airfields in the Itami, Nagoya, and Okazaki areas.
• 348th Fighter Group P-51s down 4 Ki-84 'Frank' fighters over the Kyushu area at 1015 hours.
• The 414th Fighter Group, in P-47s, makes its combat debut over Japan with the VII Fighter Command. This is also the first appearance of Iwo Jima-based P-47s over Japan.
• During the night 836 B-29s are dispatched on the 20th Air Force’s largest effort of the war: 169 58th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Hachioji; 173 73rd Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Toyama; 125 313th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Nagaoka; 160 314th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Mito; 120 315th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack petroleum targets at Kawasaki; 37 504th Very Heavy Bomb Group B-24s sow mines in Shimonoseki Strait, Nakaumi Lagoon, and off five port cities; and 17 B-29s attack targets of opportunity.
• 1 B-29 is lost.

Air Operations, Philippines

• XIII Fighter Command P-38s support US 8th Army ground forces on Luzon.
• 1st Marine Aircraft Wing F4Us attack troops and defenses near Upian.

Air Operations, Pacific

820 Superfortresses drop a record total of 6,632 tons of bombs on the cities of Hachioji, Nagaoka, Mito and Toyama which was obliterated.

China

Traffic on the Yangtze River is totally disrupted. The Japanese have now lost 36 ships, with 11 other being damaged, as a result of Allied aerial mines.

Pacific

US carrier aircraft and battleships bombard Japanese forces on Wake Island. The Japanese reply with coastal guns, damaging the battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38).

Solomons

Allied forces completely seal off Japanese troops at Buin, at the southern tip of Bougainville.

Images from August 1, 1945

P-38s making a low level pass over the runway at Shemya (Alaska) AAF, 1 August 1945, during an Armed Forces Day display

Armed Forces Day Display

Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) lost the 1945 general election to the Socialists

a surprise result after his leadership of Britain during World War II. Removals men are seen loading a van with the Churchills' possessions

Moving Churchills' Possessions

Britain's new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, with President Truman and Marshal Stalin at the Potsdam Conference in Berlin, 1 August 1945

Attlee at the Potsdam Conference

5.5-inch guns of 63rd Medium Battery firing on Satthinagyon, Burma, 1 August 1945

Artillery Action