This Week in WWII - by Tom "Crash" Davis

September 1, 1944:  Canadians avenge the Disaster at Dieppe and capture the French town. 

September 2, 1944:  Allied forces enter Belgium
                                     Finland signs an armistice with th Soviet Union and demands the removal of Gernman troops from its soil.

September 2, 1945:  General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Imperial Japanese Army surrenders to American and Filipino forces at Kiangan, Ifugao, in the northern Phillipines.
                                     The Articles of Surrender are signed by the Japanese and all members of the Allied forces on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
                                     Ho Chi Minh uses a copy of the American Declaration of Independence provided to him by the OSS to draft his Proclamation of Independence.  He declares himself President of Vietnam and seeks recognition byy the United States but is continually rebuffed by Prsident Truman.

September 3, 1943:  General Sir Bernard Montgomery lands Allied forces at Reggio di Calabria. starting the invasion of mainland Italy.  The Italian governmnt overthrows Benito Mussolini and signs an Armistice with the Allies.. 
                                      Hitler order the evacuation of civlians from Berlin
September 3, 1944.  Th British Second Army liberates Brussels while further south American and French troops enter Lyon.


September 4, 1943:  The Soviet Union declares wa on Bulgaria.
                                      The 503rd Parachute Regiment under General Douglas "Dugout Doug" MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of Lae, Papua, New Guinea. Lae falls shortly thereafter.  Australian :Diggers: occupy Salamau 
September 4, 1944:  The British stop Operation Outward.  Operation Outward was the use of hot air balloons to disrupt the German occupation of europe.  The balloons either trailed a long steel wire designed to cut power and phone transmission lines or carried three incendiary bombs.  The first launches had taken place on March 20, 1942.  Outward's greatest success came on July 12, 1942 when one of the steel carrying balloons struck a 110,000 olt power line near Liepzig.  The failure of a circuit breaker caused a fire that destroyed a power station.  By August, 1942, British WRNS (Women's Royal Navy Serivice) were deploying 1000 balloons a day.  Up to 140 women were employed in this "cottage" industry.