The Bobruysk Offensive, Mogilev Offensive and Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive ended as Soviet victories. Hitler relieved Ernst Busch and replaced him with Walter Model as commander of Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front.
Model was rising as Germany's defensive commander.
Busch had ignored the Red Army build up opposite Army Group Centre and refused to allow some of his subordinates to shorten their lines before Bagration. He refused to allow for retreats in the face of the offensive, which followed Hitler's orders, resulting in the loss of over 250,000 men in two days, the biggest German defeat on the Eastern Front. That loss resulted in his being removed from command. The sacking resulted in Busch becoming depressed, perhaps because he was effectively sacked by Hitler for following Hitler's orders.
He was returned to service in March 1945 and ended up surrendering to the British on May 4, 1945. He died shortly thereafter, July 17, 1945, as a prisoner of war at age 60. He was buried in the United Kingdom.
German General, and former Austrian officer, Robert Martinek on the Eastern Front. Warned about touring the front, Martinek had enigmatically cited the proverb "God blinds those he would destroy".
Hard fighting was going on for Hill 112 near Caen, with temporary commander Gen. Friderich Dollmann throwing in his last reserves. Rommel and von Rundstedt were in Berlin, having been summoned by Hitler. Dollmann's effort turns into a route for the Germans.
Dollmann was unaware that he had been relieved by Hitler that day, with Hitler angered by earlier failures, as well as the fall of Cherbourg. Both Rommel and von Rundstedt had argued against it, but upon their departure from their meeting, Hitler replaced Dollman with Waffen-SS general Paul Hausser, a sign of what was increasingly to come in the Wehrmacht.
Dollmann never knew. He died that night, or early the following morning, under disputed circumstances, with some claiming he suffered a heart attack and some claiming he committed suicide. Hitler awarded him the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross posthumously.
Like many more obscure German military figures, and also because of the Clean Wehrmacht myth, the extent of Dollmann's support for the Third Reich is disputed. Be that as it may, he was noted to have insisted that the wives of his officer be involved in Nazi Party activities and he harangued Catholic Chaplains for not being ardent in their support of Nazism.
The Republican National Convention nominated Thomas E. Dewey.
French poet and Vichy official Philippe Henriot was assassinated by the French Resistance.
Extremely conservative and politically active, Henriot had been strongly anti-German at the start of the war but had turned in favor of them after Barbarossa, due to his view that Communism was the premier enemy of Christianity.
Harry S. Truman spoke to the Kiwanis Club in Denver.
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