World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 31 Aug 1944

• British 11th Armoured Division captured Amiens, France. Meanwhile, US Third Army reached the Meuse River. ww2dbase [TH]
• USS Wake Island departed Quonset Point, Rhode Island, United States. ww2dbase [Wake Island | CPC]
• Captain R. C. Parker was named the commanding officer of USS ABSD-1. ww2dbase [ABSD-1 | CPC]
• Roza Shanina reached 42 confirmed kills. ww2dbase [Roza Shanina | CPC]

• USS Luce arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Luce | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• USS Ray arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Ray | Fremantle, Western Australia | CPC]

• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Sargent Bay arrived at Manus, Admiralty Islands. ww2dbase [Sargent Bay | Manus, Admiralty Islands | DS]

• B-25 bombers of US 14th Air Force attacked Tianhe Airfield in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. ww2dbase [Tianhe Airfield | Guangzhou, Guangdong | CPC]

• Two divisions of Slovakian resistance fighters were disarmed by German troops at Presov, Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Slovak National Uprising | Presov | CPC]

• US 5th Army crossed the Arno River in northern Italy as British 8th Army attacked the Gothic Line. ww2dbase [Gothic Line Offensive | TH]

• USS Franklin launched strikes against Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima through 2 Sep 1944. ww2dbase [Franklin | Ralph Talbot | CPC]
• While attacking a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea with other submarines of her wolfpack, USS Tunny was attacked by gunfire and depth charges. Tunny did not fire any torpedoes. ww2dbase [Tunny | South China Sea | CPC]
• USS Sunfish fired a torpedo a small Japanese vessel south of Japan; the torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | CPC]
• South of Formosa (Taiwan), submarine USS Growler and her wolfpack attacked a convoy of twenty ships bound for Manila. Growler and Sealion badly damage the 9,181-ton tanker Rikko Maru and Growler probably also sunk a small escort vessel. ww2dbase [Growler | Mariana Islands Campaign and the Great Turkey Shoot | Luzon Strait | DS]

• Soviet forces captured Bucharest, Romania. ww2dbase [Jassy-Kishinev Offensive and Romania's Surrender | Bucharest | TH]

• In the early morning hours between 0300 and 0630 hours, German Air Force III K/G3 launched twenty V-1 flying bombs with Gloucester, England, United Kingdom as the target. Only 8 got across and over the coast and 6 of these fell to earth in Suffolk and the other two in Essex. One of the bombs injured 7 people in Suffolk near to Harleston. One bomb brought down by a fighter near the coast impacted near Whitstable in Kent seriously injuring four people. One of the Heinkel bombers flown by Unteroffizier Lorenz Gruber crashed at Vossenberg in Belgium on the return flight, all the crew perished. This was the final operation of the of the month by the aircraft of III K/G3, they had flown 228 sorties for the loss of 3 aircraft, a better return from the previous month. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | England | HM]
• Chief of the Air Staff Charles Portal asked Commander-in-Chief RAF Mediterranean and Middle East John Slessor if dropping supplies from a higher altitude with delayed parachutes would keep aircraft safer when they delivered supplies to resistance fighters on the ground in Warsaw, Poland. ww2dbase [Charles Portal | Warsaw Uprising | CPC]

• Franklin Roosevelt departed Washington DC, United States by train. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | Washington | CPC]

• USS Croaker arrived at Midway for refitting, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Midway Bases | Croaker | Midway | CPC]

31 Aug 1944 Interactive Map