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• » 3 Apr 1944

• Operation Tungsten: 41 British Barracuda dive bombers attacked German battleship Tirpitz, scoring 15 hits. ww2dbase [Tirpitz | CPC]
• Light carrier Ryuho departed Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Ryuho | CPC]
• TIME Magazine feature Vannevar Bush on its cover and with an article inside titled "Yankee Scientist." ww2dbase [Vannevar Bush | DS]

• Aircraft from HMS Activity and HMS Tracker sank German submarine U-288 in the Barents Sea. ww2dbase [Activity | Barents Sea | CPC]

• USS Cero departed Brisbane, Australia for her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Cero | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• Lieutenant Colonel George McGee, Jr., whose 2nd Battalion of US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) had been under near constant attack by the Japanese at Nhpum Ga, Burma for several days, sent a warning message to his superior Colonel Charles Hunter at the clearing of Hsamshingyang nearby, noting that the constant pressure by the Japanese and the lack of fresh water were about to break the morale of his men. With 1st Battalion five or six days away and Chinese allies more than ten days away, Hunter only had the tired troops of the 3rd Battalion to attempt to rescue the besieged 2nd Battalion. He planned to strike out from Hsamshingyang toward Nhpum Ga at 1200 hours on the next day, with Orange Combat Team at the front and Khaki Combat Team ready to flank the first Japanese position that Orange Combat Team would encounter. ww2dbase [George McGee | Charles Hunter | Battle of Myitkyina | Nhpum Ga | CPC]

• Shokaku arrived at Lingga Roads, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Shokaku | Lingga Roads | CPC]

• The keel of U-2501 was laid down at the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. ww2dbase [U-2501 | Blohm und Voss | Hamburg | CPC]

• USS Wake Island departed Karachi, India (now Pakistan). ww2dbase [Wake Island | Karachi, Sindh | CPC]
• General Montagu Stopford ordered Major General R. P. L. Ranking to move the Indian 161st Brigade from Kohima to Dimapur in India. Ranking believed this was a bad move as Kohima would be a Japanese target, and appealed to William Slim; Slim sided with Stopford. Also on this date, Louis Mountbatten and William Slim met with Joseph Stilwell at Jorhat, an airfield at Assam, India; Stilwell reluctantly offered to send Chinese 38th Division to Imphal, India to assist with the defense, and was secretly relieved when Slim declined as Stilwell wished to use the Chinese in northern Burma to further his own campaign ww2dbase [William Slim | Joseph Stilwell | Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Kohima, Assam | CPC]

• USS Pollack damaged passenger-cargo ship Tosei Maru in the Nanpo Islands area, Japan, hitting her with two of four torpedoes. ww2dbase [Pollack | CPC]

• UIT-24 arrived in Penang. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | Penang | CPC]

• Evelyn Sharp passed away near Middleton, Pennsylvania, United States. ww2dbase [Evelyn Sharp | Middleton, Pennsylvania | CPC]
• Condemning the oppression of the Stalin regime, Viktor Kravchenko, a member of the Soviet Lend-Lease Purchasing Commission, announced his defection to the New York Times. ww2dbase [AC]

3 Apr 1944 Interactive Map