Monday, February 4, 1944. Casting lots in the East.

U.S. infantryman near the Rapido, February 7, 1944.

Men of the 36th Infantry Division, near the Rapido, February 7, 1944.

Franklin Roosevelt aimed at compromise today and asked Stalin not to allow the Polish border issue to undermine international cooperation, while asking the Polish Prime Minister to accept the Soviet land grab while altering his government without evidence of foreign pressure.

In other words, the Allies were selling the Poles down the river, although perhaps there wasn't much they could really do about it.

Prime Minister Jüri Uluots of Estonia broadcast a speech on the radio urging Estonians to fight alongside the Germans and join the German army.  Up until that point, he had resisted Estonian mobilization.

Estonia had declared itself to be neutral in 1938, which didn't save it from being occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Soviets were particularly hard on Russians in Estonia, the same being refugees from the USSR.

With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Estonian partisan bands formed and attacked the Soviet forces. An Estonian government was allowed to be formed by the Germans, but the long term plan for the Baltics was for them to be Germanized under a central Ostland entity. The Germans regarded the Estonians as partially Germanized from the onset, oddly, due to the influence of various Nordic nations.  As part of this, Germany imposed conscription upon the Estonians, which was largely evaded, with many Estonians crossing into Finland to join the Finnish armed forces. Estonia was not allowed to maintain its own armed forces under German occupation until just before the end came.

38,000 Estonians responded to Uluots' call, which was based on his belief that the Estonian lot was better with the Germans than with the Soviets, by volunteering to serve in the Germany military.  Estonians who were serving in the Finnish forces were allowed to return home and join the Territorial Defense Force, a newly formed Estonian defensive organization.

Estonian partisan groups, the Forest Brothers, would prove to be so strong that they actually controlled sizable areas of Estonia following World War Two and fought on against the USSR until 1953, with a few members carrying on until the 1970s.

Uluots died in exile in Sweden, of cancer, in 1945 at age 55.

Hitler agreed to allow German forces in the Korsun pocket to attempt to breakout.

The British 56th and American 45th Infantry Division arrive at Anzio.