Thursday, April 20, 1944. Bombs for Hitler's birthday.

Members of 5307 Composite Unit (Merrill's Maunders) and local Kachin tribesmen in a group photo of all the nationalities represented in the unit.

L to R, back row:

Sgt. Harold R. Stevenson, Beaver, Pa. - Irish.

Pfc. Stephen Komar, Minnesota. - Ukrainian.

Pvt. George D. Altman, Adamsburg, Pa. - German.

Sgt. Carl F. Hamelic, Cleveland, Ohio. - Dutch.

Pvt. Hose L. Montoya, Las Vegas, Nevada. - Spanish.

Capt. A. E. Quinn, Burma. - Anglo-Burmese.

Capt. D. G. Wilson, Burma. - Anglo-Burmese.

Pfc. Joseph Wuele, Italy. - Italian.

Third row:

Pvt. Kai L. Wong, Los Angeles, California. - Chinese.

S/Sgt. C. N. Dulien, Wisconsin. - Polish.

Cpl. Perry E. Johnson, Somerville, Massachusetts. - Swedish.

Pfc. Louis O. Perdomo, Tampa, Florida. - Cuban.

T/Sgt. Jack Growly, Brooklyn, N.Y. - American.

Second row:

T/Sgt. Russell Hill, Chicago, Ill. - English.

Sgt. Werner Katz, N.Y.C. - Jewish.

Sgt. Miles Elson, Toledo, O. - Swedish.

S/Sgt. Francis Wonsowitz, Gary, Indiana. - Polish.

Sgt. Edward Kucera, Antigo, Wisc. - Bohemian.

Cpl. Bernard Martin, Providence, R.I. - French.

Sgt. Wilbur Smawley, Pullman, Wash. - English.

First row: 

Father James Steward. - Irish.

N'Ching Gam. - Kachin.

Li Yaw Tang - Maru.

Pirta Singh. - Gurkha.

Hpakawn Zau Mun. - Atzi.

The Royal Air Force dropped 4,500 tons of bombs on a single raid, a new record.  It was Hitler's 55th birthday.

The Luftwaffe sunk the USS Lansdale and the Liberty ship SS Paul Hamilton of Algiers. The attacking planes were Ju 88s which were used as torpedo bombers in this application.

Off of Anzio, the Germans deployed human torpedoes.  No serious damages are incurred by any of the Allied ships which are stricken.

Elmer Gedeon, age 27, was killed piloting a B-26 over France.  He had been, prior to entering the service, a professional baseball player and was one of only two major league ball players killed during World War Two, the other being Harry O'Neill who was killed as a Marine Corps officer on Iwo Jima.

The British conversation at Kohima was relieved.

The Luftwaffe attempted to raid Hull, but called off the mission.

George Grantham Baink "the father of foreign photographic news", died at age 78 in New York City, which he had heavily photographed.

Many of his photographs appear on this website.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 19, 1944. Operation Ichi-Go.

1940s, 1944, Adolf Hitler, baseball, Battle of Anzio, Battle of Kohima, boats and ships, German Kriegsmarine, German Luftwaffe, Operation U-Go, Personalities, Royal Air Force, U.S. Navy

Monday, April 10, 1944. Odessa taken by the Red Army.

The Red Army took Odessa. 24,000 German and Romanian troops were evacuated, although many of them were wounded, along with 55,000 tons of supplies.

The RAF dropped 3,600 tons of bombs in a single raid that included Germany, France and Belgium.  It was a record.

Gen. William Slim ordered an offensive to relieve Kohima and into Japanese territory.

The U-68 and U-515 were sunk in the Atlantic by U.S. aircraft flying from the USS Guadalcanal.

108th Gun Bn., camouflage and concealment of 90mm AA gun battery height finder, dug in. Anzio area, Italy. 10 April, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Easter Sunday, April 9, 1944. A wartime Easter, de Gaulle becomes Commander of the Free French, fighting in Romania, a Ukrainian heroine, Belgrade bombed.

1940s, 1944, Catholic, Charles de Gaulle, Christianity, Crimea, Easter, Eastern Front, First Battle of Târgu Frumos, Free French, Personalities, Radio, religion, Romania, Soviet Air Forces, World War Two, Yugoslavia

Palm Sunday, April 2, 1944. Soviets enter Romania, Rebellion in El Salvador.

Sgt. Walter Holden, Haleyville, Ala., Pfc. Raymond Holler, Route 1, Lenoir, N.C., and Pvt. John Mart, Route 2, Sanford, N.C. of the 3d Infantry Division in an obviously staged photograph at Anzio.  All three men are wearing the new M1943 uniform, which the photo was probably intended to illustrate.  The uniform featured the M1943 field jacket, the M1943 field trousers, and the M1943 combat boot.  It remained the essential Army pattern of uniform for decades, and indeed to the present day, with modifications.  Replacing earlier uniform variants would, however, take months.

Today in World War II History—April 2, 1944: Soviet troops enter Romania. First US B-29 Superfortress bomber arrives at Kharagpur, India, near Calcutta. Armed revolt erupts in El Salvador.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

The entering of Romania was more proof, if anymore was needed, that the Third Reich was in its final act.  Romania had sought to exit the war, but had been dissuaded from doing so by the Germans.  It would start pondering that once again in earnest. 

Romania, although somewhat forgotten in the West, was not a minor power in some significant ways.  The country had the third-largest army in the Axis in Europe, behind Italy and Japan, until Italy's 1943 surrender, at which time it was the second-largest Axis power.  Its army was in fact the fourth largest in the world.  It was plagued with internal problems, however, with a rank and file that was woefully uneducated and an officer corps that was condescending towards its men.  Generally, Romanians fought better under German officers and NCO's.

It was a monarchy, but a monarchy which was, at the time, led by a military dictator.

Hitler issued his directive 54 with the topic of stopping the Russian advance, which obviously wasn't going to happen.

The rebellion in El Salvador was a pro-democracy one against the country's fascist military dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez and included significant military elements.  Martinez admired Mussolini and Hitler, and like Hitler he was a vegetarian.  El Salvador declared war on the Axis in December 1941, but it took no actual part in the fighting and refused US requests to station troops there.

The rebellion would be violently put down, but it would nonetheless lead to Martinez' fall a month later.

Martinez was killed in a labor dispute with his taxi driver in 1966 while living in exile in Honduras.

The Japanese 15th Army (Mutaguchi) continued to advance.

The Italian Communist Party declared its support for the Badoglio government.

The 1944 Tour of Flanders bicycle race commenced.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 1, 1944. The closing curtain for the Axis.

1940s, 1944, Admiralty Islands Campaign, Blog Mirror, Caroline Islands, Combined Bomber Offensive, Garden, George S. Patton, Northern Ireland, the spoken word, Victory Gardens, World War Two

Sunday, March 5, 1944. The Uman–Botoșani Offensive, Yeager shot down.

A member of No. 9 Commando at Anzio, equipped for a patrol with his Bren gun, 5 March 1944.

The Red Army began the Uman–Botoșani Offensive in Ukraine.  It would become one of hte most successful Soviet offensives of the war.  On this day they took Iziaslav and Yampil.

The 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, the Chindits, was inserted in Burma by glider.

Flight Officer Chuck Yeager was shot down by Unteroffizier Irmfried Klotz, east of Bordeaux, France, on his eighth combat mission.  Russ Spicer, who would, like Yeager, remain in the Air Force after the war, was also shot down.  Unlike Yeager, Spicer did not live a long life, dying at age 59 just after he retired from the Air Force as a Maj. Gen.

Irmfried Klotz did not survive the war.  He was actually a fairly green pilot, and the FW190 he was flying was shot down by another P51 in the same dogfight.  He bailed out, but his parachute did not open.

Yeager would escape to Spain by March 30, and then return to action.  Spicer spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

Friday, March 3, 1944. The death of Teresa Gullace and of hope for Poland.

Teresa Gullace, seven months pregnant, was killed by a German soldier when she attempted to pass a sandwich to her husband, who was detained by the Germans in Rome.  She was part of a group of women that had gathered to protest the Germans holding their husbands.

The scene was later depicted in Rosellini's 1945 Rome open city, one of three great films by the director set during World War Two and filmed immediately after, and which used amateur actors to a large degree.

The U.S. Army Air Force hit the Roman rail facilities at the Tiburtino, Littorio and Ostiense marshalling yards.  There were 400 civilian casualties.

Over 500 railroad passengers died of carbon monoxide poisoning during a protracted stall in a tunnel at Balvano, Italy.  It's one of the worst rail disasters of all time.

Stalin shut the door on further negotiations on the Polish border.

The Soviet Union created the Medal of Ushakov and the Medal of Nakhimov, both of which were awarded to sailors.  Interestingly, they were both named after Imperial Russian officers.

Japanese troops on Los Negros launched a night attack, which was repulsed by US cavalrymen.

The 3d Infantry Division repulsed a German attack on the Anzio beachhead at Ponte Rotto.  It would be the last German offensive action at Anzio.

Paul-Émile Janson, a Belgian Prime Minister just before World War Two, died at Buchewald at age 71.

Tuesday, February 29, 1944. The 1st Cavalry Division lands at Los Negros.

First wave of the 1st Cavalry, note all the Thompson Submachineguns.

The Admiralty Islands Campaign began with the dismounted US. 1st Cavalry Division landing on Los Negros Island. What had started as a small landing was converted on the spot by General MacArthur and Admiral Kinkaid to a full scale landing.

MacArthur and Kincaid on Los Negros, February 29, 1944, with Army cameraman T/Sgt Daniel Rocklin.

A-20s on their way to Vesuvius airport after bombing targets at Anzio.

Poor weather prevented an effective continued German effort at Anzio.

The USS Trout was sunk in the East China Sea by the Japanese destroyer Asashimo.

The Red Army prevailed in the Nikopol-Krivol Rog Offensive.

The Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Nikolai Vatutin, was ambushed by Ukrainian partisans and mortally wounded.

The Battle of Ist was fought between the Free French Navy and a Kriegsmarine element, resulting in a French victory in the Adriatic.

A rodeo was held in New South Wales.

Saturday, February 28, 1944. Foreigners in the Wehrmacht.

In what was becoming a late war rarity, German and Estonian's in German service decisively defeated the Red Army's first Narva Offensive.  The Estonian's were mostly recent volunteer conscripts, brought into service after Estonian leaders urged an end to an Estonian boycott of German conscription in hopes of defending Estonia from being retaken by the USSR.

The German 14th Army renewed attacks against the US VI Corps at Anzio.

Ukrainian's in German service carried out the Huta Pieniacka Massacre of ethnic Poles, killing between 500 and 1,200 people.   The actions were carried out principally by police units of the 4th SS Volunteer Galician Regiment and the14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), which were under German command at the time.

The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division continues to have fans in Ukraine today, who deny its association with atrocities.  Many of its surviving members, who surrendered to the Western Allies late in the war, were allowed to immigrate to the United States and Canada in 1947, in part due to the intervention of Polish General Anders who knew some of its commanders due to their pre-war Polish Army service.  In spite of claims to the contrary, the early arrival of the Cold War clouded their association with atrocities, which were accordingly not well known at the time, as Anders intervention demonstrates.  The unit was sufficiently well thought of that a memorial to Ukrainians bearing their unit symbol was put to them in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery, Oakville, Ontario.

Aviator Hanna Reitsch visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden to receive a second Iron Cross.  She suggested kamikaze like volunteers there to fly piloted variants of the V-1.  Hitler rejected the idea as a waste of resources.

Reitsch survived the war and went on to a long post-war life. She never disavowed her association with Hitler, but did heavily alter her pre-war racial views.

Friday, February 25, 1944. Operation Avalanche concludes.

Operation Argument, the "Big Week", concluded.  The last raid was as combinedone by the US 8th and 15th Air Forces on the Messerschmidt works at Regensburg and Augsburg followed by the RAF hitting the same target that night.

Regarded as an Allied victory, actual results

• On 2/20 the 1st, 2nd and 3d Bombardment group failed to reach its target and attacked their secondary targets.
• On 2/21 all the 924 bombers launched failed to hit their assigned targets and all hit secondary targets.
• On 2/22, 252 B-24s were assigned targets, but only 177 were launched and only 74 saw combat action.  None of the 33 B-17s in the 3d Bombardment Division reached their targets as they were all recalled due to weather conditions.
• 2/23.  All operations were suspended due to bad weather.
• 2/24.  The RAF conducted an ineffective raid on aircraft plants at Schweinfurt.
• 2/25/26 The RAF carried out an accurate and effective raid on Augsburg, destroying 60% of the city.  It had been hit earlier than day by the 8th and 15th U.S. Air Forces.

During the offensive, the Eighth Air Force lost 97 B-17s, 40 B-24s and another 20 aircraft were scrapped due to damage. Operational strength of bomber units dropped from 75% to 54%.  The 15th Air Force lost 14.6% of its operational strength.  RAF Bomber Command, which of course operated at night, lost 5.7% of its strength.  It is noted by historians that these losses were significantly smaller than prior raids.

German losses were massively overestimated by Allied aircrews, something that was highly typical.  However, the Germans did sustain high losses of fighters overall, with the mission partially designed to draw in fighter attacks.  14% of its fighter pilots were killed in the raid, a loss that ended up partially crippling the Luftwaffe for the remainder of the war.

The accidental bombing of Nijmegen was a humanitarian disaster.  Perhaps somewhat ironically, Queen Wilhelmina's home in exile was bombed on this day by the Luftwaffe, and she narrowly escaped death.

B-17G "Nine O Nine"

The Collins Foundation B-17G Nine O Nine.  This plane isn't the original Nine O Nine, but a B-17G painted to match the original Nine O Nine's colors.

Riding in a B-17

B-17G Madras Maiden

A B-17 and a B-24

The B-17 Nine-O-Nine, which has appeared here in prior photographs, back at the Natrona County International Airport.

The Republic of Iceland was founded with the Icelandic parliament, severing ties with the Danish monarchy.  A referendum in May would make it official.

The Tango Maru was sunk in the Java Sea by the Rasher, taking 3,500 Japanese laborers and hundreds of Allied POWs down with her.  The Rasher also sank the Ryūsei Maru that same day with 5,000 Japanese soldiers going down with her.

The HMS Inglefield was sun by a guided bomb off of Anzio.