2 Aug 1914
- German troops crossed the frontier into France.
- In France, the Law of Siege gave the army the power to requisition goods, to control the press, and to apply military law to civilians. It even subordinated the police to military control.
2 Aug 1917
- British Squadron Commander E. H. Dunning achieved the first RNAS landing on a ship under way at sea when, in a Sopwith Pup, he touched down on the deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Furious.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1918
- Major General F. C. Poole, Allied Commander in Chief in north Russia, landed at Archangel with a force of 870 French Colonial Infantry.
- The Japanese government informed US President Wilson that Japan had no intention of helping to create a new Eastern Front.
2 Aug 1934
- German President Paul von Hindenburg died; Hitler seized dictatorial powers as Führer, which was the combination of president, chancellor, and chief of armed forces.
- Hitler changed the military oath so that German servicemen now swore allegiance to Hitler rather than the country.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1935
- Yosuke Matsuoka was named the President of the South Manchuria Railway.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1937
- Lieutenant General Mikio Tsutsumi was named the commanding officer of the Taiwan Army.
- Photos dated 2 Aug 1937
2 Aug 1938
- Soviet reinforcements arrived in the Lake Khasan region where Soviet and Japanese troops had engaged in battle for the few days.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1939
- In a letter written by Leó Szilárd and signed by Albert Einstein, the two physicists urged US President Franklin Roosevelt to allocate funding for atomic weapons research.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1940
- Lord Beaverbrook was appointed to the British War Cabinet.
» In-depth article - French military court sentenced General de Gaulle to death in absentia.
» In-depth article - Battle of Britain: Before dawn, two German He 115 seaplanes attacked British ship Highlander of convoy FN.239 20 miles south of Aberdeen, Scotland; one of the aircraft was shot down by sloop HMS Weston, while the other crashed onto Highlander's poop deck after clipping the mast. During the day, German aircraft attacked convoys in the English Channel and along the east coast of Britain, sinking anti-submarine trawler HMT Cape Finesterre off Harwich, Essex, England, killing 1.
» In-depth article - Overnight, British submarine HMS Thames hit a mine and sank southwest of Stavanger, Norway, killing the entire crew of 62.
- German Ju 87 aircraft attacked German submarine U-60 with bombs by mistake off Hagesund, Norway; U-60 was able to escape without damage.
- German submarine U-99 torpedoed British merchant ship Alexia, British merchant ship Lucerna, and Norwegian merchant ship Strinda of convoy OB-191. All three were damaged but none of them sank. No men were killed as the result of the attack.
» In-depth article - Operation Hurry: 12 British Hurricane fighters were launched from carrier HMS Argus southwest of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea and flew about 300 miles to Malta; they were to form the new No. 261 Squadron. The escorting surface warships turned back for Gibraltar and England, while the escorting carriers (escorted by battlecruiser HMS Hood, cruiser HMS Enterprise, and 4 destroyers) launched an attack consisted of 8 Swordfish torpedo bombers on the Italian airfield at Cagliari, Sardinia, destroying several aircraft and deploying several mines.
» In-depth article - US President Roosevelt and his cabinet discussed the methods to which the transferring 50 or 60 destroyers to the United Kingdom could be conducted.
» In-depth article - Hulbert was commissioned into service.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1941
- All civilian radios in Norway were confiscated by the German occupation.
- Two Australian companies attacked Italian positions near Tobruk, Libya with the support of over 60 field guns. The attacks were repulsed after suffering heavy casualties. This particular attack represented the last Australian attempt to regain positions lost in early May 1941.
» In-depth article - German dive bombers attacked an Allied convoys off Libya, but they were driven away by British fighters; about 3 German aircraft were shot down at a loss of 3 British Hurricane fighters.
- The Soviet submarines M99 and S11 were sunk by German mines in the Baltic Sea.
- Croatia established diplomatic relationship with the Japanese-sponsored puppet state of Manchukuo.
2 Aug 1942
- Aircraft of US Marine Observation Squadron 251 began to arrive at the newly completed airfield at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.
- Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Manila, Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement - Italian torpedo boats and German He 111 torpedo bombers attacked Russian cruiser Molotov off Feodossiya, scoring one hit, killing 18, and put the ship out of commission until 31 Jul 1943.
» In-depth article - USS Long Island departed from Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii with aircraft for the Solomon Islands.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 Aug 1942
2 Aug 1943
- Auschwitz Concentration Camp's special camp for Roma people was liquidated; 2,897 prisoners were gassed. Meanwhile, 200 Jews revolted in Treblinka concentration camp, burning down several buildings, and attempted to escape; camp guards found and killed most of them.
» In-depth article - Overnight, Hamburg, Germany suffered its ninth and final raid in eight days as 740 RAF bombers attacked; 30 of the bombers were shot down. By this time Hamburg had lost as many civilians as Britain had in the entire air war.
» In-depth article - In spite of Hitler's "stand fast" order, Manstein implemented a flexible defense, which allowed the Germans to repel heavy Soviet attacks near Izyum and along the Mius River in Ukraine.
- US Navy torpedo boat PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant (jg) John F. Kennedy, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer Amagiri in the Blackett Strait between Kolombangara and Arundel in the Solomon Islands.
» In-depth article - Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1944
- US VIII Corps moved west along Brittany coast from Avranches, France.
» In-depth article - Turkey severed diplomatic relations with Germany.
- The Soviet-sponsored 1st Polish Army established a bridgehead over the Vistula River south of Warsaw, Poland.
» In-depth article - Zigeunernacht ("Gypsy Night"): 4,000 Roma were killed and cremated at Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-804 sank American destroyer escort USS Fiske with torpedoes in the central Atlantic.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 Aug 1944
See all photos dated 2 Aug 1944
2 Aug 1945
- On the island of Sado, off Honshu, Japan, 387 allied prisoners working as slave labourers in an ore mine were deliberately entombed and left to suffocate below ground when the Japanese blew up the facility and tried to obliterate any trace of the camp before the Allies inevitably arrive.
- Bernard Montgomery was awarded the Order of the Elephant of Denmark.
» In-depth article - Divers from USS Chanticleer discovered the wreck of destroyer Yuzuki under 70 feet of water near Cebu, Philippine Islands. Inspection operations by divers would last until 4 Aug 1945 to recover decoding machines in the radio shack.
» In-depth article - USS Bugara sank 1 small enemy craft with her deck gun in the Gulf of Siam and South China Sea area before dawn, and 5 more during the day.
» In-depth article - A number of survivors of cruiser USS Indianapolis, which was sunk 4 days prior, were found.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 Aug 1945
See all photos dated 2 Aug 1945
2 Aug 1946
- General Andrey Vlasov was executed by the Soviets for treason.
- Nikolaus von Falkenhorst was sentenced to death; the sentence would later be commuted to an imprisonment term.
» In-depth article - Historical document written: Letter from Truman to Forrestal Regarding Fleet Admiral Rank
» In-depth article
2 Aug 1949
- USS Manta was recommissioned into service with Lieutenant E. H. Edwards, Jr. in command. Her designation changed from SS-299 to ESS-299.
» In-depth article
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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