Air Operations, CBI

• 20 14th Air Force P-51s attack a bridge, rail targets, and river traffic in southern and eastern China.
• A VC-41 FM downs a P1Y 'Galaxy' bomber near Shanghai at 1506 hours.

Air Operations, East Indies

XIII Fighter Command B-24s attack the Miti airfield on Halmahera and anti-aircraft batteries along Makassar Strait.

Air Operations, Japan

• 63 FEAF B-24s, 84 B-25s, 32 A-26s, 97 P-47s, and 49 P-51s attack numerous targets on Kyushu.
• More than 100 VII Fighter Command P-51s attack airfields and military installations in the Tokyo area.
• During the night 64 58th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Imabari. 63 58th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Saga. 92 313th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Maebashi. 250 73rd and 314th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack Nishinomiya. 106 315th Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s attack a coal-liquifaction plant at Ube. 27 504th Very Heavy Bomb Group sow mines in Nakaumi Lagoon and off 8 port cities. 10 B-29s attack targets of opportunity.

Air Operations, Philippines

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

Air Operations, Ryukyus

A 548th Night Fighter Squadron P-61 crew downs a G4M 'Betty' bomber north of Okinawa at 0243 hours.

Air Operations, Pacific

During the night, 6 cities, previously warned, are totally devastated during incendiary attacks. 325 planes of the US 5th and 7th Air Forces, based on Okinawa, raid Tarumizu in southern Japan.

China

The Chinese 13th Army captures the town of Tanchuk. The 58th Div liberates Hsinning. In Manchuria the Chinese 58th Div takes Hsinking (Changchun).

Occupied Austria

Composer Emil von Reznicek dies at the age of 85.

Pacific

The US destroyer Bristol (DD-857) is damaged in a collision in the Iwo Jima area.

Images from August 5, 1945

Cowra, NSW. 5 August 1945. Clothes and blankets, used as protection against the barbed wire, hanging over the perimeter fencing around B Compound of the Cowra Prisoner of War (POW) Camp immediately after the escape attempt by 1100 POWs in the early hours of the morning on 5 August 1945. 231 Japanese POWs and four Australian soldiers were killed during the escape. There are two dead bodies of Japanese POWs that have been caught in the fence in the foreground.

Cowra POW Camp

The Enola Gay on August 5, 1945

The Enola Gay

Martin-Omaha B-29-45-MO Superfortress 44-86292, Enola Gay, being moved into position over the pit to load Little Boy, 5 August 1945. (U.S. Air Force)

Loading the A-Bomb

Bomb Unit L-11 in the pit before loading aboard Enola Gay, 5 August 1945. (U.S. Air Force)

Bomb Unit L-11