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• German SS Lieutenant General Hans Kammler was named the Special Commissioner for the A-4 rocket program. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | CPC]
• Winston Churchill, Alan Brooke, Louis Mountbatten, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Oliver Lyttelton, and Albert Wedemeyer met in London, England, United Kingdom to discuss the future direction of war efforts in southeastern Asia. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | CPC]
• Jacques Leroy was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. ww2dbase [Jacques Leroy | CPC]

• USS Luce completed a period of anti-submarine patrol off Attu in the Aleutian Islands and departed for San Francisco, California, United States. ww2dbase [Luce | CPC]

• A British Mosquito night fighter of 604 squadron reported that they had brought down a German Do 217 aircraft, which was operating over the English Channel launching V-1 flying bombs; tragically it was found that their victim was an Allied Albemarle transport aircraft flown by the SOE to drop supplies to agents in France; the crew of Australians were lost. ww2dbase [HM]

• HMS Howe arrived at Trincomalee, Ceylon. ww2dbase [Howe | CPC]
• HMS Valiant was damaged at Trincomalee, Ceylon when the floating drydock in which she was docked suddenly collapsed. ww2dbase [Valiant | CPC]

• The German offensive at Mortain, France, Operation Lüttich, was called off after it suffered severe losses to armoured columns from Allied air attacks. Inaccuracy of the American bombing, however, would kill many Canadians, Polish and British ground troops and would wound Major General R. F. L. Keller, commanding officer of Canadian 3rd Infantry Division. Meanwhile, Canadian forces launched Operation Totalize to the south of Caen while the US 15th Army Corp occupied Le Mans, France. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 2 | TH, AC]
• SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann, the "ace of tank aces", was killed when his Tiger tank was knocked out leading an attack parallel to the main Caen-Falais Road in France. ww2dbase [AC]
• Violette Szabo was placed on a train in France for Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. ww2dbase [Violette Szabo | CPC]

• USS Preston arrived at Apra harbor, Guam. ww2dbase [Preston (Fletcher-class) | CPC]

• Landing ship No. 113 was launched. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]
• Landing ship No. 160 was launched. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• USS Guitarro sank a small vessel off Luzon, Philippine Islands in the South China Sea with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• USS Sterlet sank a Japanese transport in the Pacific Ocean, hitting her with four of four torpedoes. ww2dbase [Sterlet | CPC]

• Soviet convoy BD-5 departed Arkhangelsk, Russia, escorted by 3 trawlers. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]

• He 111 aircraft flying from their base in Rozières in France flew 23 sorties during the night of 7-8 Aug 1944. One of the Heinkel bombers was shot down by Flight Officer John Smith (604 Squadron); the bomber crashed near Achmer, Lower Saxony, Germany attempting to reach base; Smith also brought down a Do 217 bomber during the patrol over the channel. A V-1 flying bomb launched by another He 111 bomber hit a hostel for agricultural workers near Benenden, Kent, England, United Kingdom, killing four and injuring 33. The balloons around Dartford brought down two flying bombs and another, shot down by a fighter over Bidborough, near Tonbridge Wells in Kent, was the first to be found to be carrying 24 1-kilogram incendiary bombs. Flight Lieutenant "Togs" Mellersh of FIU (fighter interception Unit) shot down four flying bombs on his single night patrol. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | HM]

8 Aug 1944 Interactive Map