Air War
Germany – FIRST SCHWEINFURT RAID: 230 8th USAAF B-17 Fortress bomb ball-bearing works at Schweinfurt and 146 B-17s bomb Regensburg; 60 planes lost.
PEENEMUNDE RAID: 597 RAF night bombers (40 lost) attack V-weapons experimental establishment in northeast Germany, killing 732 and halting V-2 tests until October 6.
Britain: 88 German bombers (11 lost) despatched to Lincoln; none find the target. Bombs scattered along East Coast (night August 17-18).
Pacific: US 5th AF carries out a devastating series of raids on air bases in Wewak area of New Guinea (August 17 and 18).
Home Fronts
Germany: Colonel-General Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe COS, commits suicide.
Mediterranean
Sicily – END OF SICILIAN CAMPAIGN: Americans and British enter Messina. Axis forces evacuated (Operation Lehrgang, ‘Training course’): 39,569 German and 62,000 Italian troops, with all their equipment and supplies, transported across Straits of Messina in small craft. Unprecedented flak ‘umbrella’ prevents Allied air forces from causing serious disruption during 14-day operation.
Sicily Campaign Losses:
Casualties | Planes |
|
|---|---|---|
German | 32,000 (mainly PoWs) | 597 |
Italian | 132,000 (mainly PoWs) | 144 |
British and Canadian | 12,843 | 345 (incl US) |
US | 9,968 | (with British) |
