Air Operations, CBI

• Despite bad weather, 4 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a bridge at Sincheng.
• 4 B-25s and 2 14th Air Force P-51s attack the airfield at Pailochi and motor vehicles.
• 7 P-51s attack trains and motor vehicles in southern China.

Air Operations, East Indies

XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Miti airfield on Halmahera.

Air Operations, Japan

FEAF B-25s attack industrial targets, warehouses, a railroad bridge, and a marshalling yard on Kyushu.

Air Operations, Malaya

8 P-38s of the 347th Fighter Group’s 67th Fighter Squadron based on Palawan stage through Brunei Bay to sweep the Singapore area. 67th Fighter Squadron P-38s down 2 Ki-44 'Tojo' fighters near Singapore between 1206 and 1220 hours. These are the 13th Air Force’s final aerial victories of World War II, a string that was begun over Guadalcanal almost exactly three years earlier—by the 67th Fighter Squadron.

Air Operations, Pacific

US B-29 bombers drop leaflets over Japan warning that, without a surrender, strategic bombing will destroy 12 more cities.

Air Operations, Philippines

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

Air Operations, Ryukyus

A VMF-351 carrier-based F4U downs a Japanese airplane at sea at 1620 hours.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

A 506th Fighter Group P-51 pilot downs a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane near Iwo Jima at 0935 hours.

Britain, Home Front

More government appointments are made: Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan; Minister of Fuel and Power, Emmanuel Shinwell.

Burma

The final organized elements of the Japanese 28th Army are destroyed in heavy battle around the Pegu Yoma range, nearly 8,500 of the 10,000 Japanese troops being killed. Although Burma is in Allied hands, isolated concentrations of Japanese troops remain throughout southern Burma, pushed up against the Irrawaddy and Sittang rivers.

United States, Planning

In the Philippines Gen MacArthur gathers his invasion force for Japan. The invasion is set for Kyushu on November 1 with a force of 650,000 men.

Images from August 4, 1945

Triumphal arch with Hungarian and Romanian inscriptions and symbols, erected in Târgu Mures, Romania in honor of Gheorghe Vladescu-Racoasa. August 4, 1945

Triumphal Arch in Romania

Germany, August 1945. 30mm Flak 38/103.

30mm Flak 38/103

4 August 1945 - 45 cases of art were found in the Merkers salt mine vault. All of the most valuable pieces from Berlin's museums. 400 tons of art in total. It took 26 ten-ton trucks to transfer the art to Frankfurt. Patton wrote about what he saw in the mine, 'A number of suitcases filled with jewelry, such as silver and gold cigarette cases, wrist-watch cases, spoons, forks, vases, gold-filled teeth, false teeth, etc. acquired by bandit methods.' Much from concentration camps.

Nazi Stolen Goods

Kyaukpyu, Ramree Island, Burma. 4 August 1945. Serving in a No. 10 (Hurricane) Squadron, Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) on the Arakan front are two RAAF members, Pilot Officer (PO) Eric Evans of Newcastle, NSW, and PO W. H. (Cobber) Pye of Ultimo, NSW. They are with their Indian fitters and riggers alongside Hurricane aircraft 'K for Kangaroo'.

Hurricane Squadron in Burma