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• USS Tang attacked a Japanese cargo ship with three torpedoes without success. ww2dbase [Tang | CPC]
• With Kriegsmarine support, the Germans opened a coastal corridor to German Armeegruppe Nord, but Hitler refused to authorize their withdrawal. ww2dbase [Operation Bagration | TH]
• HMS Orchis (Lieutenant Commander B. Harris) was mined and beached off Juno beach, Normandy, France. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Guitarro attacked a Japanese convoy off Luzon, Philippine Islands and sank cargo ship Uga Maru, hitting her with two of the four torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• USS Ray damaged a Japanese transport in the Philippine Islands, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Ray | CPC]

• French First Army enveloped Toulon, France. ww2dbase [Invasion of Southern France | Toulon Military Port | Toulon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | TH]
• US Third Army reached Reims and Troyes southeast of Paris, France. ww2dbase [Liberation of Paris | Reims | TH]
• James Johnson shot down two German Fw 190 fighters near Paris, France. ww2dbase [James Johnson | Paris | CPC]
• Lieutenant General Henry D. G. Crerar, commander of the 1st Canadian Army, sacked Major-General George Kitching, commander of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, as a recrimination for the accusation that II Canadian Corps had moved too slowly to close the Falaise Gap in France, thereby allowing some 20,000 to 50,000 enemy troops to escape encirclement. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 2 | Henry Crerar | AC]

• USS Segundo departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Segundo | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Steamer Bay departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii bound for Manus in the Admiralty Islands. ww2dbase [Steamer Bay | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• USS Harder assisted her wolfpack in the attack of a Japanese convoy off Palawan Bay, Mindoro, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Harder | Palawan Bay | CPC]

• After sundown, repeating the same missions as the previous night, aircraft of No. 1586 (Polish Special Duties) Flight RAF successfully made one supply drop in Warsaw, Poland and two drops in nearby Kampinos Forest. ww2dbase [Warsaw Uprising | Warsaw | CPC]

• Soviet 6th Guards Mechanized Corps separated German 6.Armee from the Romanian 3rd Army in northeastern Romania; as the Germans under Generaloberst Johannes Frießner fell back, Romanian troops began to refuse orders from German officers to engage the Soviets. ww2dbase [Jassy-Kishinev Offensive and Romania's Surrender | TH, CPC]

• Willesden in north-west London received its second V-1 flying bomb in two days, the latest impacting in College Road where 20 were killed and many injured another. 29 lives were lost and 58 hospitalized in Wharnecliffe Gardens, Marylebone in south-east London. The anti-aircraft battery in Dover had their best day, shooting down over 36 bombs over the sea and beaches. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | London, England | HM]

• The US 15th Army was activated at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States by a transfer of a group of personnel from the US 4th Army. No general officer was included in the transfer. Major General John P. Lucas was commanding general designate of the new 15th Army in addition to his other duties. ww2dbase [San Antonio, Texas | AC]

21 Aug 1944 Interactive Map

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