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• » 7 Apr 1944

• The Icelandic airline Lofteide HF, founded in the previous month, inaugurated its initial flight service. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Tunny arrived at Milne Bay, New Guinea. ww2dbase [Tunny | CPC]

• 50 miles west-northwest of New Hanover, Bismarck Islands, destroyer USS Saufley developed an underwater sound contact and dropped 18 depth charges in two attacks. Two large underwater explosions were heard and an oil slick rose to the surface that grew to be 14 miles long. Saufley was later credited with sinking Japanese submarine I-2. ww2dbase [Saufley | Bismarck Islands | DS]

• The 1st Battalion of US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) arrived at Hsamshingyang, Burma at 1700 hours after marching through 30 miles of jungle, which took 5 days. The 800 men were exhausted, and 200 of them were suffering from acute dysentery. Colonel Charles Hunter immediately organized an offensive toward Nhpum Ga for the next day, and Osborne of 1st Battalion committed 254 of his men who were in decent enough of shape to fight. ww2dbase [Charles Hunter | Battle of Myitkyina | Nhpum Ga | CPC]

• Patrol Boat No. 102 departed Balikpapan, Dutch East Indies at 1215 hours for a patrol. ww2dbase [Stewart | Balikpapan, Borneo | CPC]

• 44 Jewish children and their 7 adult caretakers, arrested in a children's home in Izieu, France on the previous day, arrived at Drancy concentration camp. They all would later be deported to Auschwitz in Poland for their execution by gassing. ww2dbase [Drancy Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Paris | CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Five officers and 91 men of D-2, Unit 2, departed. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• No. 112 Squadron RAF, flying Kittyhawk fighters, shot down a German aircraft over Rieti Airfield in Italy; this would be the final Kittyhawk victory in the Mediterranean theater of WW2. ww2dbase [P-40 Warhawk | Rieti, Lazio | CPC]

• Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in occupied Poland; they would cross the border to Slovakia three days later. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Allied convoy RA-58 departed the Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Murmansk | CPC]
• Nikolai Melnikov, the deputy of Soviet NKVD Directorate for Prisoners of War and Interned Persons (UPVI), committed suicide. He was replaced by Amayak Kobulov. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Bernard Montgomery briefed his generals regarding the invasion of France, predicting the city of Caen would be captured on the first day of the invasion. ww2dbase [Bernard Montgomery | CPC]
• During a dinner with Dwight Eisenhower and other Allied generals in England, United Kingdom, George Patton suggested that divisions used for Operation Overlord should be made over-strength. ww2dbase [George Patton | England | CPC]

• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Sargent Bay departed Seattle Washington bound for Alameda, California, United States. ww2dbase [Sargent Bay | Seattle, Washington | DS]

7 Apr 1944 Interactive Map