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• » 3 Sep 1944

• In Belgium, British Second Army captured Brussels and US First Army captured Tournai. ww2dbase [Liberation of Belgium | TH]
• US and French troops reached Lyon, France. ww2dbase [Invasion of Southern France | TH]
• Feldmarschal von Rundstedt took command of German forces in the West. ww2dbase [Gerd von Rundstedt | TH]
• Allied bombers conducted a raid on Belgrade, Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [CPC]
• A B-17 Flying Fortress bomber was mistakenly directed to Düne Island, Helgoland, Germany; its original target was a German submarine pen. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | CPC]
• A National Day of Prayer was declared in Britain on the 5th anniversary of the start of the war for the United Kingdom. British casualties to-date were revealed as 242,995 killed, 80,603 missing, 311,500 wounded, and 290,381 captured. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Segundo arrived at Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Segundo | CPC]
• In the Pacific Ocean, USS Becuna spotted an aircraft in the distance and believed it to be a friendly Liberator bomber. ww2dbase [Becuna | CPC]
• At a meeting with Omar Bradley, Bernard Montgomery hinted at trying an operation to seize the bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem, the Netherlands for an armoured thrust to follow up. ww2dbase [Operation Market Garden | AC]

• Matthew Urban led his battalion across the Meuse River in Belgium. He was shot in the neck in combat, damaging his vocal cords. ww2dbase [Matthew Urban | JR]

• A BQ-8 drone dove into Düne island on the German coast; the drone's controller had mistaken it for the island in the Helgoland archipelago where a German submarine base was located. ww2dbase [Operation Aphrodite and Operation Anvil | Düne, Schleswig-Holstein | CPC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against the chemical plant at Ludwigshafen, Germany. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Ludwigshafen | DS]

• USS Tang arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Tang | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• USS Pompon arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her sixth war patrol. ww2dbase [Pompon | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Canadian troops penetrated German lines and reached the Green II defensive positions on the Gothic Line in Italy. To the west, troops of British V Corps attacked German positions along the Coriano Ridge and advanced to the Marano River. ww2dbase [Gothic Line Offensive | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• Ion Antonescu with his wife Maria, Mihai Antonescu, Kristia Pantasi, Konstantin Vasiliu, Eugen Kristesku, Gheorghe Alexianu, Radu Lekka, and other arrested Romanian leaders were placed aboard a special train for Moscow, Russia. ww2dbase [Ion Antonescu | CPC]

• Kamoi arrived at Pulau Bukom, Singapore at 0815 hours, and took on a cargo of heavy oil at pier No. 2 at 1515 hours. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Singapore | CPC]

• Patrol Boat No. 102 departed Takao (Chinese: Kaohsiung), Taiwan at 0700 hours to escort Kyuko Maru, Saiho Maru, and another transport ship. ww2dbase [Stewart | Takao | CPC]

• Heinkel aircraft of III/KG3 of the German Air Force made 23 sorties with V-1 flying bombs being launched against London, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Gloucester of England, United Kingdom. 3 of these bombs came down in East Anglia, at Hill Farm in Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast, Langham in the east midlands and Dedham, near Colchester in Essex, other bombs fell in various areas of the home counties but caused very little damage. A veteran Luftwaffe pilot, Horst Juventus, who had been posted to III/KG3 recalled that the pilots all felt that the Luftwaffe were finished and hated to fly the Heinkel aircraft with the flying bomb attached. "Some crews", he said, "just dumped the bombs as soon as possible in order to get home safely." Also on this date, in the early morning, the 4 remaining Mistel aircraft with II/KG101 again headed out to launch against London, the attack was to be co-ordinated with that of bomb carrying Fw 190 aircraft from 2/KG200, but it failed. 2 of the Ju 88 Mistel aircraft crossed the English coast, one of which crashed at Warsop in Nottinghamshire and the other only just made it over the coast to crash at Hothfield, Kent. Following this II/KG101 was disbanded and a new Mistel unit, III/KG66 came into being commanded by Hauptmann Kurt Cepesius at Burg airfield near Magdeburg, Germany. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | England | HM]

• Task Group 12.5 consisting of carrier USS Monterey, cruisers USS Chester, USS Pensacola, USS Salt Lake City, and destroyers USS Cummings, USS Reid, and USS Dunlap conducted a bombardment of Japanese positions on Wake Island in the Pacific. ww2dbase [Pensacola | Chester | Cummings | Salt Lake City | Monterey | Wake | DS]

3 Sep 1944 Interactive Map