World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 28 Aug 1940

• Heavy cruisers USS Wichita (with Rear Admiral Andrew C. Pickens on board) and USS Quincy departed Montevideo, Uruguay for Buenos Aires, Argentina. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Radio broadcast in Vichy France announced that laws protecting Jews in France had been removed. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• German submarine U-101 torpedoed Finnish ship Elle 200 miles northwest of Ireland at 0425 hours, killing 2; after the 27 survivors were rescued by sloop HMS Leith and delivered to Greenock, Scotland, HMS Leith returned on 30 Aug to scuttle the ship with gunfire. German submarine U-28 sank British ship Kyno 200 miles northwest of Ireland at 2100 hours; 4 were killed and 33 were rescued by British ship Queen Maud. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Werner Mölders' wingman Oberleutnant Kircheis was shot down and became captured; Oberleutnant Georg Claus took over as his new wingman. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• US Army transport American Legion, with destroyers USS Biddle and USS Blakeley in escort, arrived from from Petsamo, Finland to New York City, United States with Norwegian Crown Princess Martha. Also aboard was a 40-millimeter Bofors gun, smuggled in for the US Navy. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Adolf Hitler ordered troops to prepare for an occupation of Romania should war break out in that country. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Simo Häyhä was promoted from the rank of corporal directly to the rank of second lieutenant by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Overnight, British bombers attacked Berlin, Germany, damaging Görlitzer railway station, killing 8 and wounding 21. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Shortly after 0800 hours, German bomber formations were detected above Calais, France; the incoming 33 bombers and 120 Bf 109 fighters would drop 100 bombs on RAF Eastchurch in southeastern Britain, but failed to disable the RAF airfield. At 1235 hours, 30 German fighters attacked RAF Rochford, which received 30 bombs. Two additional raids would reach airfields in southern England in the afternoon. During the day, the Germans lost 14 Bf 109 fighters, 8 modern bombers, and 1 WW1-era Gotha biplane bomber; the British lost 15 fighters; despite the fighter losses, after Winston Churchill's tour of some airfields, he was much more concerned about the German ability to damage runways, which could seriously disrupt fighter operations, thus he ordered more manpower to be assigned to the RAF for airfield repairs. Overnight, Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Sheffield, Manchester, and South Yorkshire were bombed. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

28 Aug 1940 Interactive Map