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• » 2 Sep 1944

• German troops began evacuating the Aegean Islands. ww2dbase [TH]
• Canadian troops crossed into Belgium. ww2dbase [Liberation of Belgium | TH]
• USS Tunny surfaced late at night and set sail for home. ww2dbase [Tunny | CPC]
• USS Finback rescued downed aviator and future President of the United States George Bush off Chichi Jima, Bonin Islands. ww2dbase [Finback | CPC]

• Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria having refused a plea from Tsar Simeon II that the country desired to withdraw from its war with Britain and America and become a neutral. A little more than five hours later, Bulgaria called for an armistice. ww2dbase [Bulgaria Switched Sides | TH, AC]

• Slovakian Defense Minister Ferdinand Catlos abandoned his post and joined the partisan fighters. ww2dbase [Ferdinand Catlos | CPC]
• Vojtech Tuka resigned as the Prime Minister of the German puppet nation Slovak Republic, citing poor health. ww2dbase [Vojtech Tuka | CPC]

• The British 51st Highland Division entered Saint-Valery-en-Caux, France, where most of the original division had been taken prisoner in Jun 1940. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 2 | Saint-Valery-en-Caux, Haute-Normandie | AC]
• Edward Brooks personally led an attack on a 165-vehicle German convoy near Marchiennes, France; this action would earn him the Oak Leaf Cluster to his Silver Star medal. ww2dbase [Edward Brooks | Marchiennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | CPC]

• The German V-2 weapon was declared operational. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | CPC]
• German Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, head of Oberkommando der Heeres (OKH), ordered that "Malingerers and cowardly shirkers, including officers" should be executed immediately. ww2dbase [Wilhelm Keitel | Berlin | AC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Yokosuka, Japan for her 21th voyage with the Japanese Navy. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]

• Lieutenant Commander Richard A. Waugh took command of submarine USS Saury at Majuro, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Saury | Majuro | DS]

• Irako arrived at Manila Bay, Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Irako | Manila | CPC]

• Romanian troops entered the German legation in Bucharest, Romania. German Minister Manfred von Killinger shot himself after citing that a ship's captain should also go down with a sinking ship; Romanians arrested the remaining diplomats and military attachés including General Erik Hansen, Admiral Werner Tillessen, General Alfred Gertenberg, and General Karl Spalcke. ww2dbase [Jassy-Kishinev Offensive and Romania's Surrender | Bucharest | CPC]

• Kamoi took on ammunition, coal, and transportation items at Singapore. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Singapore | CPC]

• A sortie was carried out by II/KG 101 of the German Air Force, the target being Allied shipping in the English Channel. The plans were to co-ordinate with bomb-carrying Fw 109 aircraft from 2/KG200 but it was not successful. A Ju 88 aircraft crashed at Warsop in Nottinghamshire in central England, United Kingdom, another was brought down at Hothfield, Kent, southern England. Following this unsuccessful attack, II/KG101 was disbanded and a new unit III/KG66 was formed commanded by Hauptmann Kurt Capesius flying from Burg airfield near Magdeburg, Germany. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | Warsop, England | HM]
• In Britain, a V-1 flying bomb landed on RAF Hawkinge destroying a Spitfire fighter of 350 squadron and wounding some airmen. Another fell on the perimeter of RAF Nacton in Ipswich, killing a RAF non-commissioned officer and destroying a house. Records later showed that by this date, the effective end of the V-1 assault from France, 8,617 bombs had been ground launched against the United Kingdom. German AIr Force unit III K/G3 had launched about 410, mostly against London, however the Germans still had more to send. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | Folkestone, England | HM]

• While attempting to unclog a uranium enrichment device at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, United States for the Manhattan Project, chemists Peter Bragg, Douglas Meigs, and Arnold Kramish accidentally set of an explosion, which sprayed liquid uranium hexafluoride and hydrofuoric acid on them. Bragg and Meigs were killed, while Kramish and two soldliers, George LeFevre and John Tompkins, were seriously injured. ww2dbase [Operation Trinity and Manhattan Project | Philadelphia Navy Yard | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | CPC]

2 Sep 1944 Interactive Map