Sunday, September 15, 2024

Friday, September 15, 1944. Landing at Peleliu.

 


US forces invaded Peleliu.  Initial troops were from the 1st Marine Division, which would later be joined by the Army's 81st Infantry Division for the hard fought battle.  The landing on the island was in order to seize its airfields for the invasion of the Philippines.


The landings were bizarrely named Operation Stalemate II.

 Corporal William R. Scott, and Prince Doberman. Peleliu. 15 September, 1944.

American and Australian forces landed at Morotai near New Guinea.  The Battle of Morotai would go on until the end of the war.

The Battle of Gemmano in Italy ended in an Allied victory.

The Lapland War between Germany and Finland commenced when the Kriegsmarine attempted to take the island of Suursaari in order to secure the shipping routes in the Gulf of Finland.  Up until that time the German withdrawal from Finland had been going peacefully, although it was deteriorating as the Germans destroyed things on their way out.  The attempted German landing was resisted and the Finns withdrew their shipping from German evacuation efforts, although evacuation from Lapland to Norway, guaranteed by a secret agreement between the countries, continued peacefully at first.

The failed landings at Suursaari were an attempt to secure the island out of a fear the Soviets would.

Pvt. Stanley J. Zielonka fires an automatic rifle at a hidden sniper in Harze, Belgium. 15 September, 1944. 9th Infantry Division.  Like almost all BAR gunners, Pvt. Zielonka has removed the bipod and flash hinder from his BAR.  The unnamed soldier with a Thompson submachinegun has a short belt of machinegun ammunition around his neck.  The other two soldiers are armed with M1 carbines.  The one in front has a combat knife strapped to his lower leg.

The French Provisional Government issued arrest warrants for Philippe Pétain and his cabinet.

The Great Atlantic Hurricane made landfall on Long Island and Rhode Island.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 14, 1944. Dragoon concludes. More SOE agents executed. The toll of the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane increases.

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