Tuesday, August 29, 1944. Marching in Paris, crossing the Foglia, the Slovaks rebell.

15,000 U.S. troops of the 28th Infantry division marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris.

The Battle of Marseille ended in an Allied victory.

The British 8th Army crossed the Foglia.

The Slovak National Uprising began.

At the time, with Romania having changed sides, the Red Army actually in East Prussia, and Hungary attempting to get out of the war, it looked as if the collapse of Germany was eminent.

It should be noted that the Warsaw Uprising was still going on.

The Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive and Šiauliai Offensive all ended in Soviet victories.  The Red Army took the Black Sea port of Constanta and the Romanian city of Buzau.

The Soviets rejected the Bulgarian proclamation of neutrality.

The British government proclaimed the Polish Home Army was a de jure belligerent force.  The US also did.

Operation Goodwood, the Royal Navy effort to sink the Tirptiz, concluded as a failure.

Dumbarton Oaks concluded.

Last edition:

Monday, August 28, 1944. Hungarians reconsider.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, British Broadcasting Corporation, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Lithuania, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, Personalities, Southeast Asia, The Holocaust

Sunday, August 27, 1944. Collateral damage.

Shoeless French women subject to abuse, swastika's painted on their foreheads, for dalliances with German soldiers during the occupation of Paris, August 27, 1944.

The Germans made limited tactical gains in Operation Doppelkopf on the Eastern Front.

The Red Army took August 27, 1944 Focșani, Romania.

The British 21st Army Group and US 12 Army Group advanced beyond the Seine.

The US 3d Army took Château-Thierry.

Princess Mafalda of Savoy, age 41, died of wounds sustained in a bombing raid on Buchenwald concentration camp.  She was imprisoned there, as was her husband, due to Italy's having changed sides during the war.

Her naked body was dumped into the crematorium but  Father Joseph Thyl was able to give it some attention.  Her death was not learned of until after the German surrender.

The RAF bombed the refinery at Homberg-Meerbeck in a daylight bombing raid, the first since the early stages of the war.

The incomplete French battleship Clemenceau was bombed and sunk at Brest by U.S. aircraft.

Dumbarton Oaks was still going on.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 26, 1944. De Gaulle in the streets of Paris. Bulgaria calls it quits.

Labels: Battle for Paris, Battle of Toulon, Bulgaria, Caen France, Charles de Gaulle, Collaborators, French Army, French Resistance Movements, Paris France, Rüsselsheim massacre, World War Two

Saturday, August 26, 1944. De Gaulle in the streets of Paris. Bulgaria calls it quits.

Charles de Gaulle marched in the streets of paris, German sniper fire notwithstanding.

T-Sgt. Kenneth Averill, 563 Marshall St., Hazel Park, Mich., of the 4th Signal Co., 4th Div., gets his welcome personally from a Parisian girl when his unit, with other French and American forces, enters the main section of the French capitol. 26 August, 1944.

Not every Parisian enjoyed the festivities.  Parisian women with recent German boyfriends were brutalized, although the number was undoubtedly far below the numbers that had fraternized during the German occupation.  They were made to bear the guilt of a nation who had resisted heroically, in part, but which had not been free of collaboration.

American and French armor rolls through the Rue De Rivoli, Paris, passing cheering crowds and a knocked-out Nazi tank which fell victim to the gunnery of the tank crews which aided in the liberation of the French capital. 26 August, 1944.

Indeed, France has never reconciled with its complicated history during the war. Thousands of Frenchmen heroically resisted the Germans, including groups as widely divergent as monarchist and communists, but it's also the case that "French" liberation armies included massive numbers of North Africans who saw joining the Free French as a means of bringing their regions into metropolitan France, which they were soon to learn was not the case.

Crowds of Parisians celebrating the entry of Allied troops into Paris scatter for cover as a sniper fires into them from a building on the Place De La Concorde. Although the Germans surrendered the city, small bands of snipers still remained. 26 August, 1944.

Meanwhile, while dwarfed by the Free French formation that had formed during the war, and the regular French units that were now part of the Allied armies, some French volunteers continued to fight on the Eastern front.

The Germans lose more of their supplies. Captured when American and French forces occupied the main parts of the French capital, this stock of German gasoline quickly disappeared as Parisians help themselves outside the former Paris Wehrmacht headquarters on Avenue Kleber, former French tanks taken into German service, now abandoned on location. 26 August, 1944.

The Allies won the Battle of Toulon.

And they were taking back channel islands this late as well.

British paratroopers backed by Belgian infantry and armor, cleared the arears around Caen still in German hands.

Six American airmen were lynched by the townspeople of Rüsselsheim am Main.  Some of the townspeople would find themselves defendants in a war crimes trial after the war.

While this incident resulted in trials, killings of airmen, both in Germany and Japan, were hardly limited to this.

Bugarai announced that it was pulling out of the war and disarming all German troops on its territory.

The Red Army reached the Danube.

The 8th Army crossed the Metauro in Italy.

Adam von Trott zu Solz, 35 years of age, a German lawyer, diplomat and central figure in the 20 July plot, was hung by the Nazis.

Banika "U", Headquarters for Morale Services on the Russell Islands. L-R: Lt. William H. Ireland, Orientation Officer, of Ohio; Pvt. Paul E. Swofford, Assistant in Moral Services, of Ill.; Cpl. Fred D. Scullcy, Assistant in Moral Services, of Indiana; native of the Island; and Lt. John W. M. Rothney, [illegible] officer, of Wisconsin. 26 August, 1944.

Last edition:

Friday, August 25, 1944. Paris, Versailles and Avignon liberated.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle for Paris, British Army, Charles de Gaulle, French Army, German Army, Italy, Logistics, New Guinea, Operation Olive, Personalities, Romania, Transportation, Trucks, World War Two

Friday, August 25, 1944. Paris, Versailles and Avignon liberated.

The Battle of Paris ended at 2:30 p.m. when German commander Dietrich von Choltitz surrendered the French capital against orders.

Dietrich von Choltitz with Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and Jacques Soustelle in the M3 Scout Car.

De Gaulle arrived in the city at 4:00 p.m. to cheering crowds.

Versailles was liberated by French troops.

124 residents of  Maillé, Indre-et-Loire were murdered by the Germans in reprisal for actions by the French Resistance.

The Red Ball Express truck convoy system of emergency supply provision began and would run for 83 days.

US and French forces liberated Avignon without opposition.

The British 8th Army commenced Operation Olive in Italy.

Belgian No. 4 Troop of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando raided Île d'Yeu, which turned out to be unoccupied.

Romania declared war on Germany.

The Germans scuttled the U-18, U-24 and U-178.  The U-667 hit a mine in the Bay of Biscay and sank.  The Z24 was sunk by Allied aircraft.  The U-1000 hit a mine off of Pilau and was damaged beyond repair.

The US prevailed in the Battle of Aitape.

The Japanese destroyer Yūnagi was sunk northeast of Cape Bojeador, Luzon by the USS Picuda.

"Coast Guardsman Kent C. Pompella, boatswain’s mate second class, displays the picturesque facial fashions of the fighting South Sea invader. On his face he sports a 10 months growth of briers and in his ears a pair of shark tooth earrings."  Pompella passed away in January 2000 at the age of 79, a resident of Cloverdale, California.  The last 20 years of his life he ran a hotel in that city, behind which he planted a large garden.  He was a commercial fisherman prior to that.  Earrings in men, it might be noted, were extremely unusual at the time.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 24, 1944. Paris Reached.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Act of 23 August, Battle for Paris, German Army, Nazi Germany, Operation Dragoon, Operation Goodwood, Operation Overlord, Romania, Romanian Army, Royal Navy, technology, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Thursday, August 24, 1944. Paris Reached.

US tank crossing the Seine, August 24, 1944.

The French 4th Armored Division entered Paris in the evening.

Germany closed theaters, cancelled holidays and cancelled military leave.

The First Canadian Army captured Bernay and crossed the Risle River at Nassandres.

The 51st SS-Brigade murdered 68 civilians of all ages in Buchères, France.

The 7th Army took Cannes.

The German Army Group South Ukraine line collapses with the switch in sides of Romania.

The USS Harder was sunk in Dasol Bay by the Japanese.

The U-354 and U-445 were sunk by the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy unsuccessfully tried again for the Tirpitz.

IBM's Harvard Mark I electro-mechanical computer was formally presented to Harvard University.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 23, 1944. The Act of 23 August.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Act of 23 August, Allied Powers, Battle for Paris, Battle of Numfoor, Eastern Front, French Resistance Movements, Italian partisans, Monarchy, Operation Dragoon, Romania, World War Two

Wednesday, August 23, 1944. The Act of 23 August.

King Michael of Romania lead a coup that overthrew fascistic dictator Ion Antonescu in order that Romania could extract itself from its losing alliance with Germany.

It would become known as the Act of 23 August.

During the event, the King first met with Antonescu and asked him to sign an armistice with the Soviet Union.  When he refused, the King declared there was nothing that could be done, officers came in, and arrested Antonescu.

The King offered the Germans free passage out of the country, which they refused.  Within 24 hours the country would be successfully at war with Nazi Germany and an Allied power.

In spite of its success, the country would not be able to avoid the Soviet co-opting of the government, and Michael was deposed in 1947 when he was out of the country for the marriage of his cousin, Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.  He was allowed to return to Romania late in life, after Communism fell.

Antonescu was tried and executed in 1946. Constantin Sănătescu, who became Prime Minister up Antonescu being removed, died of cancer in 1947.

Italian partisans took Barceno, near Switzerland.

French partisans controlled most of Paris.

Allies were advancing everywhere in Europe.

American infantrymen move past a burning German motorized vehicle, in pursuit of the former operators of the vehicle. 23 August, 1944.

Eight German ships were sunk in the Battle of Audiene Bay The U-180 was sunk by some undetermined means in the Bay of Biscay.

The Japanese destroyer Asakaze was sunk by the USS Haddo in Paluan Bay.

Japanese resistance on Numfoor ends.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 22, 1944. End of the German Navy in the Baltic, Strikes on the Tirpitz, Advances in France.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Falaise Pocket, France, German Army, German Kriegsmarine, Japan, Normandy Breakout, Operation Dragoon, Operation Goodwood, Romania, Royal Navy, World War Two

Saturday, August 19, 1944. Uprising in Paris.

French resistance members began attacks on German troops in Paris.

FFL on August 19, 1944.

The uprising forced an Allied reassessment of the line of advance.  While French forces very much wanted to take Paris, and probably would have advanced on it no matter what they were told, Eisenhower did not want to as he did not regard the city as strategic and its large civilian population would instantly become a burden Allied supplies.

Unlike the Soviets, however, the Western Allies were not willing to simply let the Germans do what they will with an uprising in a city.

On the road to Paris, Ecouche, a French military policeman directs a British armored convoy at an intersection of the town.  August 19, 1944.

The Battle for Mont Ormel ridge as a final part of the Falaise operation, featuring Polish troops taking on the Germans at Hill 262.

3d Infantry Division soldier in southern France walks over a poster of Hitler.

American anti tank gun crew in southern France.

3d Infantry Division medic aiding wounded German.  The medic's 1943 boots are clearly in evidence and the 3d Infantry Division insignia is prominent on the shirts and helmets of these men.  The medic is carrying a short pickaxe on his belt.

French policeman and resistance fighter bringing in German captive in southern France.

Two French women on opposites sides of the war in sympathies square off in a fight in southern France.  A couple of items.  One of the French women is wearing shorts, which were very common hot weather apparel for French women in this period.  They were worn elsewhere as well, but they were common for the French.  Secondly, I don't know who is who, but as the women in the center seems to be getting the brunt of it, my guess she is the German sympathizer.  This would become a common scene.

Operation Bagration concluded in a Soviet victory.

American submarines sank troopship Teia Maru (formerly the French ocean liner Aramis), the landing craft depot ship Tamatsu Maru and fleet oiler Hayasui.

German submarines U-123 and U-466 were scuttled.

A referendum to grant the Australian government additional powers over a five year period failed.

Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, age 61, who had fallen under suspicion due to the July 20 plot ,and who had been relieved the day prior, killed himself.

Last edition:

Friday, August 18, 1944. German retreats.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Artillery, boats and ships, Falaise Pocket, French Navy, German Kriegsmarine, German Wehrmacht, Infantry, Red Cross, The Holocaust, U.S. Navy, Vichy France, Weapons, World War Two