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• » 6 Aug 1944

• USS Croaker fired 7 torpedoes at a Japanese freighter, all of which missed. ww2dbase [Croaker | CPC]
• In France, US 4th Armored Division advanced to Lorient and US 6th Armored Division advanced toward Brest. ww2dbase [Brittany Campaign | TH]
• The refinery city of Drohobyez, Poland was captured by the Red Army. ww2dbase [Operation Bagration | TH]
• US XX Corps reached Laval, France. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 2 | TH]
• A flight of three BQ-7 Aphrodite drones was launched in Britain, carrying high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs, and napalm. Control problems caused two of them to crash into the sea (one of them nearly crashed into the town of Ipswich). The third was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on the French coast. ww2dbase [Operation Aphrodite and Operation Anvil | HM]

• TBM Avengers from escort carrier USS Card detected submarine noises from sonobuoys in the mid-Atlantic and launched two Mark 24 FIDO homing torpedoes with one confirmed underwater explosion. No confirmation of a submarine was obtained. ww2dbase [Mark XXIV | Card | Conclusion of the Battle of the Atlantic | TBF Avenger | DS]

• Matt Urban was made the commanding officer of 2nd Battalion of US 60th Regiment while in France. ww2dbase [Matthew Urban | JR]

• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against the airfield at Brandenburg, Germany. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Brandenburg | DS]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Twelve ready-service magazines turned over to station. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• Unryu was commissioned into service at Yokosuka, Japan with Captain Konishi Kaname in command. She was assigned to Carrier Division 1 of Japanese 3rd Fleet. ww2dbase [Unryu | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]

• USS Pintado sank Japanese cargo ship Shonan Maru and damaged another in the East China Sea; six torpedoes were expended and four of them made contact (two on each target). ww2dbase [Pintado | East China Sea | CPC]

• Łódź, the last Jewish ghetto in Poland, was liquidated; its 60,000 residences were sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. 27,000 prisoners of various concentration camps east of the Vistula River in Poland were transferred to camps to the west. The evacuation of Kaiserwald Concentration Camp outside of Riga, Latvia began. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Łódź | CPC]
• In an Operation Frantic mission, 75 B-17s from England bombed aircraft factories at Gdynia and Rahmel, Poland and flew on to bases in Ukraine. 23 B-17s were damaged. Escort was provided by 154 P-51s. 4 P-51s were lost and 1 was damaged beyond repair. Further, 60 fighters from the previous day’s strike took off from Operation Frantic bases in Ukraine, attacked Craiova railway marshalling yard and other railway targets in the Bucharest-Ploesti, Romania area, and landed at bases in Italy. ww2dbase [B-17 Flying Fortress | P-51 Mustang | Operation Frantic | Gdynia | DS]

• Anti-aircraft batteries along the southern British coast were in action throughout the day, bringing down V-1 flying bombs; the beaches along the coast at Folkestone and Hythe, Kent, England, United Kingdom were becoming littered with wreckage from the bombs. The fighter squadrons were busy too with the Polish 316 squadron bringing down 9, mostly behind the coastal anti-aircraft guns near Hastings, Sussex. Flight Sergeant Don MacKerras RAAF was killed when his Tempest V fighter spun into the ground whilst he was on patrol; he had attempted to tip a flying bomb over with his wing tip but collided with the missile, losing his wing. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 1 | V-Weapons Campaign | England | HM]
• A V-1 flying bomb caused massive damage when it exploded in Carrington Road in Dartford, London, England, United Kingdom; 20 homes were wrecked and another 700 houses needed repair; ten people died and 20 hospitalized. Balloons brought down four flying bombs around the town of Sevenoaks in Kent, England; the success was a testament to the skill of the balloon crews in placing them at the correct height and in areas that did not threaten dwellings if the bombs were brought down. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 1 | V-Weapons Campaign | London, England | HM]

• USS Bennington was commissioned, New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, United States. ww2dbase [Bennington | New York Navy Yard | Brooklyn, New York | DS]

6 Aug 1944 Interactive Map