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• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Manila, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• German submarine U-155 forced the 16 crewmen of Dutch freighter Draco to abandon ship and then sank her with gunfire 325 miles east of Barbados at 1145 hours. At 1613 hours, U-458 sank British ship Arletta of Allied convoy ON-115 170 miles south of Newfoundland; 36 were killed, 5 survived. At 1848 hours, U-593 sank Dutch ship Spar of Allied convoy SC-94 500 miles east of Newfoundland; 3 were killed, 36 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• Smolensk, Russia fell under German control with the surrender of Soviet Sixteenth and Twentieth Armies; 300,000 Soviet troops became prisoners of war. ww2dbase [TH]
• USS Greenling sank Japanese troopship Brasil Maru (more than 200 of the 600 aboard were killed) and freighter Palau Maru 450 miles southwest of Guam, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Greenling | CPC]
• Submarine ShCh-205 attacked German tanker Le Progrès northeast of Constanta, Romania; all three torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [ShCh-205 | CPC]
• Edward Brooks was promoted to the rank of major general. ww2dbase [Edward Brooks | CPC]
• HMS Milfoil was launched. ww2dbase [Milfoil | CPC]

• George Kenney visited Mareeba airfield in Queensland, Australia. ww2dbase [George Kenney | Mareeba, Queensland | CPC]

• Repair ship Akashi departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Akashi | Truk | CPC]
• Destroyer Yukikaze departed Truk Caroline Islands to escort cruiser Mogami and repair ship Akashi to Japan. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | Truk | CPC]

• Tatsuta Maru arrived at Shanghai, China and embarked interned Allied personnel; she would depart later on the same day. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | Shanghai | CPC]

• Winston Churchill and Claude Auchinleck inspected the front lines at El Alamein, Egypt. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | El Alamein | CPC]

• In France, the ration on wine was decreased to two liters per person, per week. ww2dbase [TH, CPC]
• Japanese submarine I-30 arrived at Lorient, France, disembarking 3,300 pounds of mica, 1,452 pounds of shellac, and blueprints of the Type 91 aerial torpedo. ww2dbase [Lorient, Bretagne | CPC]

• Leading Greek resistance leader Colonel Andreas Papadakis and his family were evacuated from Crete, Greece by the Greek submarine Papanikolis. Colonel Papadakis later became the commandant of the Greek forces in the Jerusalem garrison. ww2dbase [Crete | AC]

• Submarine USS Growler began her second war patrol, departing Pearl Harbor, Hawaii bound for Formosa (Taiwan). ww2dbase [Growler | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Hawaii | DS]

• Battleship Musashi was commissioned into service at Nagasaki, Japan; she was assigned to Combined Fleet Battleship Division 1. ww2dbase [Musashi | Nagasaki | CPC]

• Soviet submarine S-7 sank Finnish freighter Pohjanlahti with her deck gun 10 miles off Pavilosta, Latvia; the captain was captured, and charts of German and Finnish minefields in the Baltic region were acquired by the Soviets. ww2dbase [S-7 | Pavilosta | CPC]

• The Soviet STAVKA used elements of the Stalingrad Front to form a new Southwest Front. ww2dbase [TH]

• Troops of the German 1.Panzerarmee captured Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine. ww2dbase [Voroshilovgrad | TH]

• Queen Wilhelmina addressed the United States Congress in Washington DC, United States. ww2dbase [Wilhelmina | Washington | CPC]
• USS Ranger and Augusta arrived at Norfolk, Virginia. ww2dbase [Norfolk Navy Yard | Augusta | Ranger | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]
• US Navy LST-476 was laid at the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California, United States. This was the first ship to be laid down at Richmond's new Shipyard No. 4. ww2dbase [Kaiser Richmond Shipyards | Richmond, California | DS]

5 Aug 1942 Interactive Map