Loading shells onto a tank destroyer just outside Brest, France, are, left to right: T/5 Francis J. Kangas, Astoria, Oregon; Pfc. Dominic Juncewski, Silver Lake, Minn.; Sgt. Emory Triggs, Arkansas City, Kansas; Pvt. John Horns, Dickinson, N.D., and Cpl. Cliff Pratt, Selah, Washington. 12 August, 1944. B Company, 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion.
The Battle of the Falaise Pocket, the decisive battle in the campaign for Normandy, began.
The US 15th Corps of the 3d Army took Alencon and advanced to the edge of Argentan. Patton sought permission to advance and close the Falaise gap, but was halted by command for several hours who feared that there would be friendly fire casualties.
Army field hospital nurses, August 12, 1944. France. Nurse on far left as viewed is wearing paratrooper boots.
Gen James Edward Wharton, commander of the 28th Infantry Division, was killed in action by a German sniper while inspecting the front lines. He'd taken command of that division on that very day.
An underground oil pipeline beneath the English Channel was completed. It was the world's first Pipeline Under the Ocean (PLUTO) and ran from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg.
US bombers operating out of Italy bombed the Bordeaux-Merignac airfield and flew on to the UK.
Navy pilot Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr died when his PB4Y-1 Liberator, the Naval version of the B-24, converted for radio controlled drone operations, detonated. The plane was part of a project that converted the planes into flying bombs, largely unsuccessfully, but which still required pilots to get them airborne.
The 5th Army took Florence.
Churchill met Tito in London.
Franklin Roosevelt gave an address from the Puget Sound Navy Yard.
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