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This is a timeline of events that occurred during 1944 in World War II.
[edit] January 1944
- 4: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
- 4: The 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army enters Poland.
- 9: British forces take Maungdaw, Burma, a critical port for Allied supplies.
- 11: The first battle of Monte Cassino. The Americans are driven off.
- 12: Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister and Mussolini's son-in-law is executed by Mussolini's revived Fascist government sympathisers.
- 17: British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River
- 19: Red Army troops push westward toward the Baltic countries.
- 20: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin
- 20: The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido Riverbut suffers heavy losses.
- 22: Allies begin Operation Shingle, the landing at Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months. Time and again aggressive German artillery and troop attacks nearly overwhelm the beachhead.
- 24: The Allied forces have a major setback on the Rapido River.
- 29: American troops land in the Admiralty Islands, part of New Guinea.
- 30: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
- 31: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
- 31: Americans are still struggling to protect the beachhead at Anzio.
[edit] February 1944
- 1: United States Marines mop up on Roi and Namur in the Marshall Islands.
- 1: The battles at both Monte Cassino and Anzio intensify.
- 2: Soviet Armed Forces launch their offensive against Estonia.
- 3: United States taking of the Marshall Islands is nearing completion.
- 3: The Red Army take prisoner two German Army corps at the Korsun "pocket", south of Kiev.
- 3: American planes bomb Eniwetok in the Marshalls, later to be a major B-29 base.
- 4: Kwajalein, the world's largest atoll and a major Japanese naval base is secured.
- 5: American Navy bombards the Kurile Islands, northernmost in the Japanese homelands.
- 6: Germans continue to have continuing success in staving off the Allies at Cassino.
- 7: In Anzio, the Allies continue to be threatened by German artillery attacks.
- 7: In a radio interview, the last Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Uluots as acting Head of State supports mobilisation.
- 8: The plan for the invasion of France, Operation Overlord, is confirmed.
- 14: The landing of the Soviet Baltic Sea Fleet, in the rear of the Germans at the Narva Front at Mereküla, is resisted.
- 14: A landing by the Red Army takes control of Meerapalu and Pedaspää on the western shore of Lake Peipus, but by 17 February the landing has been destroyed.
- 14: The underground organisation, the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, is formed in Tallinn.
- 14: SHAEF headquarters are established in Britain by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
- 14: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- 15: The "second" Battle of Monte Cassino begins. The history-rich monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing. The bombing is controversial since the Germans deny the Allied charge that the grounds were used as observation posts.
- 16: Germans launch a major counter-attack at Anzio, threatening the American beachhead.
- 16: Germans, with Panzer forces leading, fail to break out of the Korsun pocket.
- 16: Diplomats from the USSR and Finland meet to sign an armistice.
- 17: American Marines land on Eniwetok Atoll.
- 18: Monte Cassino is captured in a final push in which Polish troops distinguish themselves.
- 18: American naval air raids on the Truk islands, a major Japanese naval base, but it will be one of the bypassed fortresses of the Japanese outer defence ring.
- 19: Leipzig, Germany is bombed for two straight nights. This marks the beginning of a "Big Week" bombing campaign against German industrial cities by Allied bombers.
- 23: US Navy planes attack the Mariana Islands of Saipan, Guam, Tinian.
- 26: The "Big Week" bombing campaign comes to a successful conclusion; the American fighter P-51 Mustang with its long range proves invaluable in protecting American bombers over Germany.
- 26: Red Air Force continues to bomb Helsinki, as Finland continues peace talks.
- 28: The Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces, marked by the Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer. The struggle for this important fleet anchorage will continue until May. Rabaul is now completely isolated.
[edit] March 1944
- 1: The keels of USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge are laid down.
- 1: Anti-fascist strikes occur in northern Italy.
- 6: Wingate's Chindits make several successful forays in Burma.
- 6-7: The Soviet air force bombs Narva, the city is destroyed.
- 7: Japanese begin an invasion attempt on India, starting a four-month battle around Imphal.
- 8: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in the Bougainville; the battle that will last five days.
- 8: A Red Army offensive on a wide front west of the Dnieper in the Ukraine forces the Germans into a major retreat.
- 9-19: The Soviet air force carries out air raids on Tallinn, approx. 800 people die.
- 12: The creation of the Political Committee of National Liberation in Greece.
- 13: On Bougainville, Japanese troops end their failed assault on American forces at Hill 700.
- 15: The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
- 15: The "third" Battle of Cassino begins with the small town of Cassino destroyed.
- 15: Americans take Manus Island in the Admiralty chain.
- 17: Heavy bombing of Vienna.
- 18: German forces occupy Hungary. The Red Army approach Romanian border.
- 19: Yugoslav partisans attack Trieste, on the border of Italy and Croatia.
- 20: Red Army advances in the Ukraine continue with great success.
- 21: Finland rejects Soviet peace terms.
- 22: Japanese forces cross the Indian border all along the Imphal front.
- 22: Frankfurt is bombed with heavy civilian losses.
- 24: The Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome, Italy. 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members variouos groups in the Italian Resistance; this is a German response to a bomb blast that killed German troops
- 24: Orde Wingate is killed in a plane crash.
- 24: Heavy bombings of German cities at various strategic locations last for 24 hours.
- 25-26: Soviet air force bombs Tartu.
- 28: Japanese troops are in retreat in Burma.
- 30: RAF suffers grievous losses in a huge air raid on Nuremberg.
[edit] April 1944
- 3: Allied bombers hit Budapest in Hungary, now occupied by the Germans, and Bucharest in Rumania, ahead of the advancing Red Army.
- 4: General Charles de Gaulle takes command of all Free French forces.
- 5: US Air Force bombs Ploesti oil fields in Rumania, with heavy losses.
- 6: The Japanese drive on the Plain of Imphal, supposedly halted, proves strong enough to surround British forces at Imphal and Kohima, in India.
- 7: Red Army take Kerch in the eastern Crimea and drive toward Sevastopol
- 12: German troops begin evacuation of the Crimea.
- 14: Crimea and Odessa are liberated by Soviet forces.
- 15: Heavy air raids on Ploesti oil fields by both the RAF and the US Air Force.
- 17: Americans land on Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.
- 17: Japanese launch a major offensive in central China, aiming toward southeast China air bases where American bombers are located. By the next day they have had some successes.
- 17: Yalta, an important port in the southeast Crimea, is taken by the Red Army.
- 21: The Badoglio government in Italy falls and he is quickly asked to form another.
- 21: An air raid on Paris kills a large number of civilians.
- 22: American navy planes carry out widespread attacks in New Guinea. US troops land at Hollandia and Aitape in northern New Guinea. Japanese forces in New Guinea will now be cut off.
- 24: British troops force open the road from Imphal to Kohima in India.
- 27: The Slapton Sands tragedy: American soldiers are killed in a training exercise in preparation for D-Day at Slapton in Devon.
- 30: Vast preparations for D-Day are going on all over southern England.
- 30: American navy air raids continue in the Carolina Islands, including Truk.
[edit] May 1944
- 6: Heavy Allied bombings of the Continent in preparation for D-Day.
- 8: D-Day for Operation Overlord set for June 5.
- 9: The German Army evacuates Sevastopol the largest city and an important port in the Crimea; the Red Army moves in.
- 9: The Battle at the "Gustav line" near Monte Cassino continues without resolution.
- 11: The British cross the Rapido River. A "fourth" battle of Monte Cassino begins, concurrent with the opening of an offensive campaign toward Rome.
- 12: Soviet troops finalise the liberation of Crimea.
- 12: Large numbers of Chinese troops invade northern Burma.
- 13: The bridgehead over the Rapido River is reinforced.
- 18: Battle of Monte Cassino ends with an Allied victory; Polish troops hoist their red and white flag on the ruins of Monte Cassino. The Germans have ceded it and departed.
- 18: Allied troops take airfields at Myitkyina, Burma, an important air base; the struggle over the city itself will continue for nearly three months.
- 18: The last Japanese resistance in the Admiralty Islands, off New Guinea comes to an end.
- 21: Increased Allied bombing of targets in France in preparation for D-Day.
- 23: Allies advance toward Rome, after a linkup of American II and III corps.
- 25: Germans are now in retreat in the Anzio area. American forces break out of the beachhead and link up with the Fifth Army; both then begin their advance on Rome.
- 27: Americans land on Biak, Dutch New Guinea, a key Japanese air base; stubborn Japanese resistance until August.
- 31: The Japanese retreat from Imphal (India) with heavy losses; their invasion of India is over.
[edit] June 1944
- 1: Eamon de Valera's government is re-elected in Ireland.
- 2: The provisional French government is established.
- 3: Daily bombings of the Cherbourg peninsula and the Normandy area.
- 4: Operation Overlord is postponed 24 hours due to high seas.
- 4: American, English and French troops enter Rome.
- 5: Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall. More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
- 5: The first Allied troops land in Normandy--paratroopers scattered from Caen southward.
- 6: Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
- 7: Bayeux is liberated by British troops.
- 9: No agreement having been reached on their mutual borders, Stalin launches an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
6th June 1944: A Navy LCVP disembarks troops at Omaha Beach.
- 10: 642 men, women and children are killed at Oradour-sur-Glane (a town near Limoges) France in a German response to local Resistance activities.
- 10: 218 civilians are killed in the Distomo massacre in Greece.
- 11: American navy planes attack the Marianas, including Saipan, preparing for invasion.
- 13: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England, in Hitler's view a kind of revenge for the invasion. He believes in Germany's victory with this "secret weapon." The V-1 attacks will continue through June.
- 15: The United States invades Saipan.
- 17: Free French troops land on Elba.
- 18: Elba is declared liberated.
- 18: Allies capture Assisi, Italy.
- 19: The Battle of the Philippine Sea. Known by America's navy pilots as "the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" in which numerous Japanese planes and pilots are destroyed and two Japanese carriers are sunk.
- 19: A severe Channel storm destroys one of the Allies' Mulberry harbours in Normandy.
- 19: The Red Army prepares for "Operation Bagration," a huge offensive in Byelorussia (White Russia).
- 20: The British take Perugia, Italy.
- 20: Siege of Imphal is lifted after a three-month siege.
- 21: Allied offensive in Burma.
- 22: V-1's continue to hit England, especially London, sometimes with horrifying losses.
- 22: Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus This results in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during World War II.
- 22: Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.
- 23: The National Committee of the Republic of Estonia makes a declaration “to the Estonian People”. The declaration was made public to the world press in Stockholm in July 1944 and in Tallinn on 1 August 1944.
- 25: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.
- 26: Cherbourg is liberated by American troops.
[edit] July 1944
- 2: V-1's continue to have devastating effects in terms of material destruction and losses of life.
- 3: Minsk in Byelorussia is liberated by Soviet forces.
- 3: The Allies find themselves in the "battle of the hedgerows", as they are stymied by the agricultural hedges in Western France which intelligence had not properly evaluated.
- 3: Siena, Italy falls to Algerian troops of the French forces.
- 6: Largest Banzai charge of the war: 4,300 Japanese troops are slaughtered on Saipan.
- 7: Soviet troops enter Vilna, Lithuania.
- 9: After heavy resistance Caen, France is liberated by the British troops on the left flank of the Allied advance.
- 9: Saipan is declared secure, the Japanese having lost over 30,000 troops; in the last stages numerous civilians commit suicide with the encouragement of Japanese military.
- 10: Japanese are still resisting on New Guinea.
- 10: Tokyo is bombed for the first time since the Doolittle raid of April, 1942.
- 11: President Roosevelt announces that he will run for an unprecedented fourth term.
- 12: Hitler rejects General Field Marshal Walther Model’s proposal to withdraw the German forces from Estonia and Northern Latvia and retreat to the Daugava River.
- 13: The Soviets take Vilna, Lithuania.
- 13: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive begins.
- 16: First troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) arrive in Italy
- 17: Field Marshal Rommel is badly wounded when his car is strafed from the air in France.
- 18: St. Lo, France is taken, and the Allied breakout from hedgerow country in Normandy begins.
- 18: General Hideki Tojo resigns as chief minister of the Japanese government as the defeats of the Japanese military forces continue to mount. Emperor Hirohito asks General Kuniaki Koiso to form a new government.
- 19: American forces take Leghorn (Livorno), Italy far up the Italian boot.
- 20: The July 20 Plot is carried out by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Hitler was visiting headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia. Reprisals follow against the plotters and their families, and even include Rommel.
- 21: US Marines land on Guam.
- 22: Hitler gives permission to retreat from the Narva River to the Tannenberg defence line in the Sinimäed hills 20 km West from Narva.
- 24:The Soviet Armed Forces commence their attack along the Narva River. The German forces begin retreating to the Tannenberg line.
- 24: Majdanek Concentration Camp is liberated by Soviet forces, the first among many. The Soviet Union is now in control of several large cities in Poland, including Lublin.
- 24: US bombers mistakenly bomb American troops near St. Lo, France.
- 24: Marines land on Tinian Island, last of the Marianas (after Saipan and Guam); Tinian will eventually be a B-29 base, and the base from which the atomic bombers departed.
- 24: "Operation Cobra" is now in full swing: the breakout at St. Lo in Normandy with American troops taking Coutances.
- 26: German forces, including Estonian conscript formations retreat from the defense of Narva town to Tannenberg Line.
- 27 July to 10 August: Battles on the Tannenberg Line. At the start of the battles there are 25 Estonian and 24 Dutch, Danish and Flemish infantry battalions on the German side at the Narva Front. The artillery forces, and the tank, engineer and other special units are comprised mainly of Germans. The attack by the Soviet Armed Forces is stopped, tens of thousands of men are killed in both sides.
- 28: The Red Army take Brest-Litovsk, the site of the Russo-German peace treaty in World War I.
- 29: A decisive day in the Battle of Narva, allowing German forces, including Estonian conscript formations, to delay Baltic Offensive for another three months.
[edit] August 1944
- 1: The Second Warsaw Uprising, this time by the Polish Home Army commences; the Polish people rise up, expecting aid from the approaching Soviet Union armies. The tragic event will last 63 days.
- 1: The Red Army isolates the Baltic States from East Prussia by taking Kovno.
- 1: The Americans complete the capture the island of Tinian.
- 2: The battle for Guam, another island in the Marianas, however, continues.
- 3: Myitkyina in northern Burma, falls to the Allies (the Chinese and Americans under Stilwell), after a vigorous defence by the Japanese.
- 4: Florence is liberated by the Allies, particularly British and South African troops; before exiting, however, the Germans under General Kesselring destroy some historic bridges and historically valuable buildings.
- 4: The trials of the bomb conspirators against Hitler are underway in a court presided over by notorious Judge Roland Freisler.
- 4: Rennes is liberated by American forces.
- 8: Plotters in the bomb plot against Hitler are hanged, their bodies hung on meat hooks; reprisals against their families continue. Rommel is given a state funeral.
- 10: Guam is liberated by American troops and all of the Marianas are now in American hands. They will be turned into a major air and naval centre against the Japanese homeland.
- 11: The Warsaw Rising continues; the Red Army remain on the west side of the Vistula, apparently unwilling to help their supposed allies against the occupying Germans.
- 14: The failure of the Allies to close the Falaise gap in France, proves advantageous to the Germans fleeing to the east who escape the pincer movement of the Allies.
- 15: The Allies reach the "Gothic Line", the last German strategic position in North Italy.
- 15: Operation Dragoon begins, marked by amphibious Allied landings in southern France.
- 16: The Red Armies makes moves to close in on Warsaw.
- 18: The Red Army reaches the East Prussian border.
- 19: French Resistance begins uprising in Paris, partly inspired by the Allied approach to the Seine River.
- 19: In a radio broadcast, Jüri Uluots, the acting Head of State of Estonia, calls the Estonian conscripts to hold the Soviet Armed Forces back until a peace treaty with Germany is signed.
Polish Boy Scouts played an important role in the Warsaw Uprising
- 20: The Red Army crosses the border into Romania.
- 21: The Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins, setting up the basic structure of the United Nations.
- 22: The Japanese are now in total retreat from India.
- 23: Romania breaks with the Axis, surrenders to the Soviet Union, and joins the Allies.
- 25: Paris is liberated; De Gaulle and Free French parade triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées. The German military disobeys Hitler's orders to burn the city. Meanwhile the southern Allied forces move up from the Riviera, take Grenoble and Avignon.
- 28: The Germans surrender at Toulon and Marseilles, in southern France.
- 28: Patton's tanks cross the Marne.
- 29: An anti-German rising starts in Czechoslovakia.
- 30: The Allies enter Rouen, in northwestern France.
- 31: The Soviet army enters Bucharest.
- 31: American forces turn over the government of France to Free French troops.
[edit] September 1944
- 1: Canadian troops capture Dieppe, France, scene of their humiliation in August, 1942.
- 2: Allied troops enter Belgium.
- 2: Finland agrees to an armistice with the Soviet Union and demands a withdrawal of German troops.
- 3: Brussels liberated by British Second Army while Lyon is liberated by French and American troops.
- 5: Antwerp is liberated by British 11th Armoured Division.
- 5: The uprising in Warsaw continues; Red Army forces are available for relief and reinforcement, but are apparently unable to move without Stalin's order.
- 6: The "blackout" is diminished to a "dim-out) as threat of invasion and further bombing seems an unlikely possibility.
- 6: Ghent and Liège are liberated by British troops.
- 8: Ostend is liberated by Canadian troops.
- 8: Soviet Union invades Bulgaria.
- 9: The first V-2 rocket lands on London.
- 9: De Gaulle forms provisional government in France, and Bulgaria makes peace with the USSR then declares war on Germany.
- 10: Luxembourg is liberated by U.S. First Army.
- 10: Two Allied forces meet at Dijon, cutting France in half.
- 10: First Allied troops enter Germany, entering Aachen, a city on the border.
- 10: Dutch railway workers go on strike. The German response results in the Dutch famine of 1944.
- 13: American troops reach the Siegfried line, the West wall of Germany's defence system.
Waves of paratroops land in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.
- 15: American Marines land on Peleliu in the Palau Islands; a bloody battle of attrition continues for two and a half months.
- 16: The Red Army enters Sofia, Bulgaria and also opens a huge offensive in the Baltic states.
- 17: Operation Market Garden, the attempted liberation of Arnhem and turning of the German flank begins.
- 18: Brest, France, an important Channel port, falls to the Allies.
- 19: Nancy liberated by U.S. First Army; Armistice is signed between the Soviet Union and Finland.
- 21: British forces take Rimini, Italy.
- 21: The Second Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins: it will set guidelines for the United Nations.
- 22: The Red Army takes Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
- 22: The Germans surrender at Boulogne.
- 23: Americans take Ulithi atoll in the Carolina Islands; it is a massive atoll that will later become an important naval base.
- 24: The Red Army is well into Poland at this time.
- 25: British troops pull out of Arnhem with failure of Operation Market Garden. Over 6,000 paratroopers are captured. Hopes of an early end to the war are abandoned.
- 26: There are signs of civil war in Greece as the Communist-controlled National Liberation Front and the British-backed government seem irreconcilable.
- 30: German garrison in Calais surrenders to Canadian troops. At one time, Hitler thought it would be the focus of the cross-Channel invasion.
[edit] October 1944
- 1: Soviet troops enter Yugoslavia.
- 2: Germans finally succeed in putting down Warsaw Uprising by Polish Home Army. The Soviet Union armies have never moved to assist the Polish Home Army.
- 2: American troops are now in a full-scale attack on the German "West Wall."
- 2: Allied forces land on Crete.
- 5: Canadian troops cross the border into the Netherlands.
- 5: Red Army enters Hungary; meanwhile they launch an offensive to capture Riga, Latvia.
- 6: Soviet and Czechoslovak troops enter northeastern Slovakia.
- 6: The Battle of Debrecen begins as German and Soviet forces advance against each other in eastern Hungary.
- 9: Allied Conference ("Tolstoy") in Moscow: Churchill and Stalin discuss spheres of influence in the postwar Balkans.
- 10: The Red Army reach the Niemen River in Prussia and continue the battle around Riga.
- 10: The Allied combined forces take Corinth, in southern Greece.
- 12: US Navy carriers attack Formosa (Taiwan).
- 12: The Second Quebec Conference ("Octagon"). President Roosevelt and Churchill discuss military cooperation in the Pacific, and the division of Germany.
- 14: Athens is liberated by British troops entering the city.
- 14: Field Marshal Rommel, under suspicion as one of the "bomb plotters" voluntarily commits suicide to save his family.
- 15: Allied bombardment of Aachen continues, the first major battle on German soil.
- 16: The Germans depose Admiral Horthy, regent and dictator of Hungary; once a fervent ally of Germany, he had lost the trust of the German government.
- 16: The Red Army and Yugoslav partisans under the command of Josip Broz Tito liberate Belgrade. The Red Army forces are also in East Prussia.
- 18: Hitler orders a call-up of all men from 16 to 60 for Home Guard duties.
- 21: Aachen is occupied by U.S. First Army; it is the first major German city to be captured.
- 23: The Allies recognise General de Gaulle as the head of a provisional government of France.
- 23: Battle of Leyte Gulf begins. Largest sea battle in history. Americans experience more kamikaze attacks from Japanese aircraft; the USS Princeton is hit with grave damage.
- 23: The battle of San Bernardino Strait; the Japanese attempt to stop MacArthur's landing on Leyte. Small aircraft carriers save the day as Admira Halsey is lured north out of the action.
- 23: B-29's are now using Tinian Island, in the Marianas, as a base for the systematic bombing of Japan.
- 25: Romania is fully liberated by Red Army and Romanian troops.
- 27: The battle of the Hurtgen Forest is developing, and will continue through October and November and have its last spasms in December
[edit] November 1944
- 1: British forces take Salonika in northern Greece. The situation for civilians in Athens is now desperate.
- 1: "Operation Infatuate": An Allied attempt to free the approaches to Antwerp; notably there are amphibious landings on Walcheren Island.
- 2: Canadian troops take Zeebrugge in Belgium; Belgium is now entirely liberated.
- 4: Remaining Axis forces withdraw from the Greek mainland. German occupation forces will remain in several Greek islands until capitulation.
- 5: US planes bomb Singapore, under Japanese control since 1942.
- 5: Zionist terrorists assassinate the British government representative in the Middle East.
- 6: Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins a fourth term.
- 6: The aircraft carrier Lexington is heavily damaged by kamikazes.
- 9: General Patton's troops and tanks cross the Moselle River and threaten the city of Metz.
- 10: V-2 rockets continue to hit Britain, at the rate of about eight a day.
- 12: After numerous bombings while anchored in a fjord at Tromso, Norway, the German battleship Tirpitz is sunk.
- 17: The Germans give up Tirana, Albania, and the country is liberated by Allies.
- 20: Hitler leaves his wartime headquarters at Rastenberg, East Prussia, never to return; he goes to Berlin, where he will soon establish himself at the bunker.
- 23: Metz, France is taken, and Strasbourg, in eastern France, is liberated by French troops.
- 24: The first B-29 originating from Tinian, in the Marianas, raid Tokyo.
- 24: The USS Intrepid is hit by kamikazes for the third time; other American ships are heavily damaged.
- 25: Japanese take Nanning in south China, as the war in that theatre continues.
- 26: The war in Italy is at a stalemate, partly because of heavy rains.
- 28: Antwerp is now a major supply port for the onward moving Allies.
- 30: Kunming, China, an important air base, is threatened by Japanese attacks.
[edit] December 1944
- 3: The Dekemvriana ("December events") begin in the Greek capital, Athens, between members of the leftist National Liberation Front and government forces, backed by the British. The clashes are limited to Athens however, and the rest of the country remains relatively tranquil.
- 3: The British Home Guard is stood down.
- 5: The Allies are now in control of Ravenna, Italy.
- 8: The softening up bombardment of Iwo Jima begins.
- 15: Americans land troops at Mindoro, the Philippines.
- 15: The Battle of the Bulge begins as German forces attempt a breakthrough in the Ardennes region. The main object of Hitler's plan is the taking of Antwerp.
- 17: A typhoon hits the Third Fleet of Admiral Halsey; three destroyers capsize.
- 17: The Malmedy massacre: SS troops execute 86 American prisoners in the Ardennes offensive. The SS troops are led by SS commander Jochen Peiper.
- 18: Bastogne, an important crossroads, is surrounded.
- 20: General McAuliff's famous message of "Nuts" is sent to German officers at Bastogne demanding surrender.
- 22: The battle for Bastogne is at its height, with Americans running low on ammunition.
- 23: The skies clear over the Ardennes, permitting Allied aircraft to begin their attacks on the German offensive, the one factor that Hitler feared in his planning.
- 24: The American counter-attack at the "Bulge" begins.
- 24: The Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville is sunk off the coast of France. More than 800 lives, predominantly those of American servicemen, are lost.
- 26: The siege of Bastogne is broken, and with it the Ardennes offensive proves a failure.
- 28: Churchill and his Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden are in Athens in an attempt to reconcile the warring factions.
- 29: Soviets launch the Battle of Budapest against German and Hungarian forces in and around the Hungarian capital city.
- 31: Hungary, now led by a Soviet-controlled government, declares war on Germany.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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