WE REMEMBER AUGUST 20th

August 20

We Remember:

1939:     Hitler sends a personal message to Stalin.  He requests that Stalin receive Foreign Minister Ribbentrop.  Negotiations have been progressing with unexpected speed.

Lord Halifax telegrams Kennard in Warsaw, requesting him to urgently try once more to gain Polish permission for Russian forces to enter their country.  (Andy Etherington)

Churchill, resting at the chateau of a friend, paints a picture of the building and remarks that it will be the last picture he paints in peace. (Andy Etherington)

Khalkin-Gol: 5:45AM, 150 bombers carry out a massive raid on the forward edge of the Japanese defences, their close-in reserves and artillery positions. The Soviets then assault along the entire front. Forces in the south gain the most ground, northern forces occupy the forward enemy positions reaching the fortified top of Palets Heights but are beaten back after a fierce fight. (Andy Etherington)

1940:     Churchill announces that bases in the Caribbean Sea will be leased to the United States.  He also speaks to the British people leaving history with another famous quote: ÒNever in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.Ó  His tribute to the RAF fighter pilots will live for many years.
     The quote continues:
"All hearts go out to the Fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness  ...  aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss  ...  and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power." (Jack McKillop)

RAF Bomber Command: 120 RAF bombers attack targets in Germany and airfields in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Weather restricts German activities. Manston and Martlesham attacked. Polish 302 Squadron in action for the first time shooting down a Ju88 on its way to bomb the airfield at Thornaby, Yorkshire. Night raids take place on the Rolls-Royce works at Derby. Losses: Luftwaffe, 7; RAF, 2. (Andy Etherington)

Italian planes bomb Gibraltar. (Andy Etherington)

Mussolini announces a blockade of British ports in the Mediterranean. (Andy Etherington)

The Japanese army's strategic security network of garrisons in the Shansi Province of northern China was suddenly cut off from the world today as 40,000 men of the Chinese Communist Eighth Route Army launched a series of well-coordinated surprise attacks on road and rail installations, severing communications in the area. The success of the attacks by the Army's 115 regiments provides a much-needed morale boost for the Chinese forces. and will help to silence critics of the Kuomintang who claim that the Communists are more intent on attacking them than the Japanese. (Andy Etherington)

BAY OF BISCAY: German submarine U-51 is sunk about 109 nautical miles (201 kilometers) west of Saint-Nazaire, France, in position 47.06N, 04.51W, by a torpedo from the RN submarine HMS Cachalot (N 83). All hands on the U-boat, 43-men, are lost. (Jack McKillop)

In Eire, a Luftwaffe Focke Wulf FW 200C-1 Condor, coded "F8+KH" and assigned to Kampfgeschwader 40 (KG 40), crashes at 1410 hours local on the lower slopes of Mount Brandon on the Dingle Penninsula  in County Kerry. This was the second Luftwaffe aircraft to crash in the country during World War II. The Condor had departed Abbeville, France, on a reconnaissance mission over northwestern Ireland and had been damaged by AA fire from a ship. All of the crew survived. Exactly 48 years later, the pilot and a crewman returned to the spot and met an Irish woman who had helped them on this day. (Jack McKillop)

In Mexico, exiled Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded by an ice-ax wielding assassin at his compound outside Mexico City. The killer--Ram—n Mercader--was a Spanish communist and probable agent of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Trotsky (real name Lev Davidovich Bronshtein) will die of his wounds tomorrow at age 60. Trotsky, who was born in the Ukraine of Russian-Jewish parents, was a theorist and a leader in both the 1905 and 1917 revolutions. Appointed Lenin's secretary of foreign affairs after the 1917 revolution, he negotiated with the Germans for an end to Russian involvement in World War I. In 1918, he became war commissioner and set about building up the Red Army, which succeeded in defeating anti-communist opposition in the Russian Civil War. In the early 1920s, Trotsky seemed the heir apparent of Lenin, but he lost out in the struggle of succession after Lenin fell ill in 1922. In 1924, Lenin died, and Joseph Stalin emerged as leader of the USSR. Against
  Stalin's stated policies, Trotsky called for a continuing world revolution that would inevitably result in the dismantling of the increasingly bureaucratic Soviet state. He also criticized the new regime for suppressing democracy in the Communist Party and for failing to develop adequate economic planning. In response, Stalin and his supporters launched a propaganda counterattack against Trotsky. In 1925, he was removed from his post in the war commissariat, in 1926 he was expelled from the Politburo and in 1927 from the Communist Party. In January 1928, Trotsky was deported by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Alma-Ata in remote Soviet Central Asia. He lived there in internal exile for a year before being banished from the USSR forever by Stalin. During the 1930s, he lived on the Turkish island of Prinkipo, France, Norway and he was finally granted asylum in Mexico in 1936. Settling with his family in a suburb of Mexico City, he was found guilty of treason in absentia during 
Stalin's purges of his political foes. He survived a machine gun attack but finally fell prey to Ram—n Mercader who had won the confidence of the Trotsky household. The Soviet government denied responsibility, and Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Mexican authorities. (Jack McKillop)

1941:     General der Infanterie Waldemar Erfurth, the representative of the OKW at the Finnish Supreme Headquarters, informs Mannerheim that Hitler wishes that the Finns would encircle Leningrad from the north with as many troops as possible. Mannerheim rejects the proposal and says that he has to negotiate with the President and cabinet first. Erfurth gets the impression that the Finns don't want to have anything to do with Leningrad. (Mikko HŠrmeinen)

In France, 50,000 people are arrested in occupied and Vichy France as a hunt goes on for railroad saboteurs. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.: In baseball, Larry MacPhail, General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, stages a fashion show before a Ladies Day crowd at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Such promotions, as well as the Dodgers pennant race, will push the home gate to over one million fans.  (Jack McKillop)

U.S.S.R.: The German 11th Army of Heeresgruppe SŸd captures Cherson on the Black Sea, the gateway to the Crimea.  (Jack McKillop)

1942:     SOLOMON ISLANDS: Late in the afternoon, the USN's Task Group 2.6, comprised of the auxiliary aircraft carrier USS Long Island (ACV-1), the light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) and destroyers USS Aylwin (DD-355) and USS Dale (DD-353), reaches a point 190 miles (305,8 kilometers) southeast of Guadalcanal. USS Long Island is carrying 31 aircraft of two squadrons of Marine Aircraft Group Twenty Three (MAG-23). The 31 aircraft and the squadrons are: (1) 19 F4F-4 Wildcats of Marine Fighting Squadron Two Hundred Twenty Three (VMF-223) and (2) 12 SBD-3 Dauntlesses of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron Two Hundred Thirty Two (VMSB-232). The aircraft, the first U.S. aircraft to be based on the island, begin landing on Henderson Field at 1700 hours local. 
     Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Thomas, operations officer of the 1st Marine Division, will later attributes to this event a boost in morale matched by no other event during the campaign.  (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop) ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe task group is spotted by Japanese reconnaissance operating from the Shortland Islands but they are out of range of enemy land-based aircraft and they retire from the area without incident.  (Jack McKillop)

In the Aleutians, a US 11th Air Force B-24 Liberator flies photo reconnaissance over Kiska Island; a patrol is also flown over Shumagin Island. (Jack McKillop)

HQ US Twelfth Air Force is activated at Bolling Field, Washington, DC. This unit is tasked with supporting the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942. (Jack McKillop)

In England, the principle of coordinated day and night bombing receives its first formal definition in the "Joint British/American Directive on Day Bomber Operations involving Fighter Cooperation." The emphasis is placed on achieving continuity in the bombing offensive from the UK. The US Eighth Air Force flies Mission 3; 11 B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb Longeau marshalling yard at Amiens, France at 1801 hours without loss. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-464 is sunk about 258 nautical miles (478 kilometers) southeast of Reykjavik, Iceland, in position 61.25N, 14.40W, by a USN PBY-5A Catalina of Patrol Squadron Seventy Three (VP-73) based at Reykjavik. While on convoy escort, the PBY crew surprised the surfaced submarine in rough weather and attacked with five depth charges which disabled the sub and prevented it from diving. Although U-464 could make 8 knots on the surface, the crew realized that the boat would be destroyed by nearby surface forces so the U-boat captain decided to scuttle the boat and got underway heading for a nearby Icelandic trawler. There are two versions of what happened next; the German version and the Icelandic version. The German version is that the U-boat crew boarded the Icelandic trawler "Skaftfellingur," subdued its crew, headed for Germany and they were only interrupted by two British destroyers. The  Icelandic version is that they headed for the sinking U-boat 
and commenced rescue operations. The Germans seemed hesitant to leave their boat but finally after one of them had been pulled over to the trawler via line they jumped into the water. The seven-man Icelandic crew then accommodated the 52 German survivors and placed them in the bow. A machine gun on the bridge enforced the order until two British destroyers arrived and captured the Germans. The RN authorities believed the Icelandic version. Only two of the 54 crewman of the U-boat died. Returning to base, the PBY pilot sent the following message: "Sank Sub Open Club." This message was directed at Commander Daniel V Gallery, USN, who had closed the Officers Club because the PBY crews had not sunk any submarines. In 1944, Gallery was in command of Task Group 22.3 which captured the German U-boat U-505 in the Atlantic on 4 June. U-505 is currently on display in Chicago, Illinois, USA. (Jack McKillop)

The USN redesignates its "Jeep" carriers from Aircraft Escort Vessel (AVG) to Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier  (ACV). (Jack McKillop)

In the U.S., the entire West Coast is ordered to dim city lights at night. Searchlights crisscrossing the sky at Hollywood movie premieres are extinguished for the duration. Limits have also been placed  on movies studios relating to the amount of cloth they could use in costumes, the quantity of new construction they could devote to sets, and the amount of film stock they could purchase. Hollywood directors must learn to limit the number of "takes" when filming movies. (Jack McKillop)


1943:     U.S.S.R.: A Soviet Army spearhead in northern Ukraine plunges 75 miles (120,7 kilometers) beyond Kharkov and threatens to trap German forces in the wrecked city. Hitler orders Kharkov to be held at all costs. Since losing 3,000 panzers and 1,200 planes during last month's disastrous Battle of Kursk, the outnumbered and outgunned Germans have been unable to contain Soviet offensives along a 600-mile (965,6 kilometer) front from central Russia to the Black Sea.  (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)

Allied forces are fighting on Babdubi Ridge, SW of Salamaua, New Guinea. 24 B-24s escorted by 46 P-38s bomb Boram Airfield, New Guinea in the late
morning. (Jack McKillop)
     Amplification of the above:
This was part of phased brigade attacks ordered by Maj-Gen Savige (GOC
3 Aust Div) to break the Japanese defensive lines centered on Mt
Tambu. Mt Tambu was an immensely strong natural fortress improved with
fortifications up to 12 feet thick.
     The sequence was as follows: US 162nd Infantry Regiment(-) captured
Roosevelt Ridge on 13 August; 15th Aust militia Brigade attacked
Bobdubi Ridge on 14 August; 17th Brigade AIF enveloped Mt Tambu on 16
August.
     The capture of Mt Tambu was achieved by two companies of 2/6 Bbn AIF
infiltrating across Buirali gorge to seize a position behind Mt Tambu,
astride the Japanese supply line. At the same time frontal pressure
was maintained by 2/5 Bn AIF and I/162 US Inf Bn. Japanese counter
attacks on the 2/6 Bn infiltration force were broken up by long range
sustained MG fire from 42 Aust militia Bn. After three days, the
Japanese I/66 Bn abandoned Mt Tambu on 19 August. Neighbouring
defensive positions were also abandoned. 
     The Japanese had been evicted from a strong defensive position at
minimal cost. (Michael Mitchell)

Lieutenant General George E Stratemeyer assumes command of the US Army Air Forces, India-Burma Sector, China-Burma-India Theater which is activated at New Delhi, India. Components include the Tenth Air Force, China-Burma-India Air Service Command (Provisional), China-Burma-India Training Unit (Provisional) and several lesser units. Because of pressure from Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Stratemeyer will only control the US Tenth Air Force in India and acts as an advisor to the Fourteenth Air Force in China which is commanded by Major General Claire L Chennault. (Jack McKillop)

In Italy, Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) B-26 Marauders hit the Capua and Aversa marshalling yards, while B-25 Mitchells bomb the Benevento marshalling yard. (Jack McKillop)

BALTIC SEA: German submarine U-670 is sunk at 2230 hours local in the Gulf of Danzig, a wide inlet of the Baltic Sea north of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), position unknown, after a collision with the German target ship Bolkoburg. Twenty two of the 43 crewman on the U-boat survive. (Jack McKillop)

INDIAN OCEAN: German submarine U-197 is sunk about 322 nautical miles (596 kilometers) southwest of Fort Dauphin (now Tolanaro), Madagascar, in position 28.40S, 42.36E, by depth charges from two RAF Catalina Mk IBs, one from No 259 Squadron based at Kipevu, Kenya, and one from No 265 Squadron based at Diego Suarez, Madagascar. All hands, 67 men, on the U-boat were lost.  (Jack McKillop)

In Germany, the head of rocket research at Peenemunde is found dead, shot by an unknown assassin. (Jack McKillop)

PACIFIC: The USN submarine USS Pompano (SS-181) departs Midway Island on her seventh war patrol. She is never heard from again.  (Jack McKillop)

PORTUGAL:  Peace talks between American, British and Italian generals end in Lisbon with the Allies giving the Badoglio government ten days to agree to unconditional surrender.  (Jack McKillop)

1944:     Last night the last units of the German 5th Panzer and 7th Armies escape from the Falaise pocket through the Allied lines around Chambois and St. Lambert.

Patton takes crossings on the Seine River at Mantes Grassicourt, 30 miles west of Paris. The XX Corps enters Fontainebleau.

Petain is arrested by the Germans in Vichy for refusing to go to an area which is safe from the Allied advance.

MacArthur announces that the fighting has ended on Biak, New Guinea.  Japanese casualties are 4,700 KIA and 220 POW.  US casualties total 2550 KIA and WIA.

A major Soviet offensive begins near Jassy and Tiraspol.  This involves a massive artillery bombardment from MalinovskyÕs Second Ukraine Front and TolbukhinÕs Thrird Ukraine Front.  The defense is by the 3rd and 4th Rumanian Armies and the German 6th Army, which contains many Rumanian troops.  This is General FreissnerÕs Army Group South Ukraine.

Shellfire from ÔPrinz EugenÕ assists in the successful defense against the Russian attack near Riga.

In the Aleutian Islands, 4 US Eleventh Air Force B-25s fly a negative shipping sweep. (Jack McKillop)

In Japan, 61 US XX Bomber Command B-29 Superfortresses based at Chengtu, China, bomb the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata during the day; 14 B-29s are lost, including 1 to AA and 4 to enemy aircraft (1 by air-to-air bombing and 1 by ramming); B-29 gunners claim 17 air victories. One crew bails out over Soviet territory and is interned. During the night of 20/21 August, 10 B-29s from Chengtu attack the Yawata steel works and 5 others bomb other targets. (Jack McKillop)

In France:
     61 US Ninth Air Force B-26s bomb troop and equipment concentrations waiting at Foret de la Lande to be ferried across the Seine River; fighters fly armed reconnaissance along the Seine River, support ground troops in the battle area of northern France, and fly an escort mission to 100+ C-47 Skytrains on a supply and evacuation run. 
     In southern France during the night of 19/20 August, US Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs attack lights and motor transport from the battleline northwest to the Rhone River; B-26s, joined by fighter-bombers and fighters, hit coastal defense guns in the Toulon area, while B-25s bomb Rhone Valley bridges and airfields achieving especially good results at the airfield near Valence. (Jack McKillop)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA:Seventy six USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb the oil refinery at Dubrova without loss.  (Jack McKillop)

HUNGARY: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack three targets: 94 aircraft bomb the marshalling yard at Szolnok, 88 bomb Rakoczifalva Airfield at Szolnok with the loss of two aircraft, and six bomb the city of Szeged.   (Jack McKillop)

POLAND: Two hundred twelve USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the I.G. Farben oil refinery at Oswiecim with the loss of one aircraft.  (Jack McKillop)

Saipan Island-based US Seventh Air Force B-24s hit Yap Island for the first
time. (Jack McKillop)

During the night of 20/21 August, radar-equipped US Thirteenth Air Force B-24s attack Japanese installations in the Palau Islands. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two German submarines are sunk:
   - U-984 is sunk about 44 nautical miles (81 kilometers) west of Brest, France, in position 48.16N, 05.33W, by depth charges from the RCN destroyers HMCS Ottawa (H 31, ex HMS Griffin), Kootenay (H 75, ex HMS Decoy) and Chaudiere (H 99, ex HMS Hero). All hands on the U-boat, 45 men, are lost.
   - U-1229 is sunk about 315 nautical miles (584 kilometers) south of St. Johnâs, Newfoundland, in position 42.20N, 51.39W, by depth charges and rockets from three TBM Avengers and two FM Wildcats of Composite Squadron Forty Two (VC-42) in the US escort aircraft carrier USS Bogue (CVE-9). Forty one of the 59 U-boat crewmen survive. (Jack McKillop)

ENGLISH CHANNEL: German submarine U-413 is sunk about 28 nautical miles (53 kilometers) south of Brighton, Sussex, England, in position 50.21N, 00.01W, by depth charges from the RN escort destroyer HMS Wensleydale (L 86) and the destroyers HMS Forester (H 74) and Vidette (D 48). Only one of the 46 crewmen of the U-boat survived.  (Jack McKillop)

FRANCE: German submarine U-188 is scuttled at the U-boat base in Bordeaux when it is unable to escape the Allied advance. (Jack McKillop)

ROMANIA: German submarine U-9 is sunk at 1030 hours local at the seaport of Constanta on the Black Sea, in position 44.10N, 28.38E, by bombs from Soviet aircraft.  (Jack McKillop)

The USN's nonrigid airship K-111 operating in conjunction with the escort aircraft carrier USS Makassar Strait (CVE-91) off San Diego, California, demonstrates the feasibility of refueling and replenishing airships from aircraft carriers. In this operation that lasted 72.5 hours, K-111's crew was relieved every 12 hours and its engines were operated continuously. In one evolution, the airship remained on deck for 32-minutes. (Jack McKillop)

1945:     The US War Production Board removes most of its controls over manufacturing activity.

U.S. Navy patrol planes reconnoiter Indochina and south China coasts. During the missions, Japanese fighters attempt to intercept them. (Jack McKillop)

In U.S. baseball, the Brooklyn Dodgers play the Pittsburgh Pirates. During the game, Dodger shortstop Tommy Brown hits a home run off Pirates' pitcher Preacher Roe and becomes the youngest player (17 year, 8 months and 14 days) to hit a home run in major-league baseball. (Jack McKillop)