Saturday, October 14, 1944. Rommel kills himself.

A German Mark V Panther tank has been knocked out by the U.S. Army Air Corps. It stands alone in this field near Ploy, France. 14 October, 1944.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, rather than face trial for his remote association with the July 20 plot, killed himself.  He was met first by representatives of the German government and his house surrounded and given the choice between suicide with a state funeral and immunity from prosecution for his family, vs a trial.  The German public was told that he died from wounds associated with an Allied strafing run on his car.

German observation posts in Aachen, Germany, are targets for these M10s and their three-inch guns of "A" Co., 634th TD Bn. 14 October, 1944.  Company A, 634th Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to 1st Infantry Division.

The Allies took Athens and the Piraeus.  British forces landed at Corfu.

German and Italian Social Republic forces took Domodossola, Italy from partisans.

Troops in Italy eating K rations, looking a lot like Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe depictions.

Two soldiers with a tapped keg of some kind.

The Germans withdrew from Niš, Yugoslavia.

The 81st Infantry Division replaced the 1st Marine Division at Peleliu.

Formosa was hit again by Task Force 38.  Task Force 38.4 conducted air raids on Luzon.

The Canadian frigate Magog was damaged beyond repair in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by the U-1223.

Last edition:

Friday, October 13, 1944. Black Friday for the Black Watch.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Antwerp Belgium, Army, British Army, Canadian Army, France, Greece, Italy, Lapland War, Latvia, Netherlands, Red Army, Taiwan, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Saturday, September 30, 1944. Counteroffensive at Nijmegen.

German troops at Calais surrendered to the Canadians.

British 17 pdr Anti Tank Gun with Bren Gun and Hotchkiss machine gun in foreground.  The Hotchkiss must have been captured

The Germans commenced a counter offensive at Nijmegen with the goal of retaking the salient created by Market Garden.

Adm Fort took command at Palau and announces that Peleliu, Angaur, Ngesebus and Kongauru have been completely occupied. Japanese resistance continued on.

The U-1062 was sunk by the carrier escort USS Fessenden off of Cape Verde.

Last edition:

Friday, September 29, 1944. Soviet amphibious operations and executions.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Arracourt, Belgium, British Army, Estonia, Heroes, Italian partisans, Italy, July 20 Plot, Red Army, World War Two

Sunday, September 24, 1944. Market Garden reaches the Rhine.

Gendarmes of Epinal sneak up on German sniper.

The British took Deume, Netherlands. 30th Corps reached the south bank of the Rhine near Arnhem.  Other elements entered Germany southwest of Nijmegen.

The Italian government reopened the case of the murder of Giacomo Matteotti which had occurred in 1924.

The U-596 was damaged by US aircraft in Salamis Bay and scuttled.

Task Force 38 hit Japanese targets on the Visayan Islands.

Marine color Guard aboard a Coast Guard vessel, burial at sea, September 24, 1924.

Last edition:

Saturday, September 23, 1944. The Fala Speech.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Animals, Army, British Army, Canadian Army, Dogs, Eindhoven, Estonia, Franklin Roosevelt, Hungary, Operation Market Garden, Palau Island, Red Army, Royal Air Force, World War Two

Friday, September 22, 1944. Stiffening resistance in the Netherlands.

Polish paratroopers attempted to reach the Rhine and meet up with British airborne trapped on the opposed bank Arnhem.  Elst was taken by 30th Corps.

3rd Bn., 157th Inf. Regt. walking across footbridge over canal lock. Igney, France. 22 September, 1944. Note that the machine gun crewmen are carrying M1911 pistols as personal arms.  This unit of the 45th Infantry Division was equipped at this point with M1943 combat boots, but still wearing older pattern field jackets.

45th Infantry Division tank crossing the Moselle.

The 3d Canadian Division took Boulogne and Operation Undergo commenced to take Calais.

The Red Army took Tallinn, Estonia.

The U.S. Army took Giogo Pass in Italy.

A regiment of the Army's 81st Infantry Division was committed in Peleliu to reinforce depleted elements of the 1st Marine Division.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 21, 1944. A sort of Estonian civil war.

Labels: 1920s, 1921, 1922, 1940s, 1944, baseball, Battle of Rimini, boats and ships, Canadian Army, East Karelian Uprising, Estonia, Finland, Greek Army, New Zealand Army, Red Army, Waffen SS, World War Two

Wednesday, September 20, 1944 Nijmegen liberated.

Pvt. Nicholas Pappas of Canton, Ohio, peers through a hedge as his company advances towards a pillbox along the Siegfried Line. 20 September, 1944. Company E, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment.

Nijmegen was liberated by 82nd Airborne Division and British Guards Armoured Division.

At Arnhem the British 1st Airborne was pushed back from the bridge by the Germans.

The US 3d Army captured Chatel and Luneville.

The Battle of San Marino ended in a British victory.

The Red Army captured the island of Suur-Tytärsaari in the Gulf of Finland.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 19, 1944. The Moscow Armistice Signed.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle for Brest, Battle of Hürtgen Forest, Battle of Peleliu, Continuation War, Eastern Front, Finland, Italy, Operation Market Garden, Palau, Personalities, Red Cross, Winter War, World War Two

Tuesday, September 19, 1944. The Moscow Armistice Signed.

Fighting was ongoing in Italy.

The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland and the USSR.

Land ceded to the Soviet Union by the Moscow Armistice.  By Jniemenmaa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=317801

The land ceded by Finland was similar in extent to that which had been ceded to end the Winter War four years earlier.

Land ceded by Finland in Winter War.  By Jniemenmaa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=317799

Will discuss the history of Finnish wars with the USSR in a separate thread, which is much more complicated than generally recalled, but suffice it to say, Karelia had been a major bone of contention between the two countries, and fought over several times in the 20th Century until the Continuation War seemingly ended the dispute.

Grand Duchy of Finland, 1900.

The Battle of Păuliș ended in Romanian-Soviet victory.

The Soviets took Valga, Estonia.  A mass flight from the advancing Soviets by the Estonian population was underway, with a huge percentage of the population on their feet and in boats to attempt to escape.

British 30 Corps reached the US 82nd Airborne at Grave.

Cpl. Jaap W. Bothe, San Antonio, Texas, formerly of Rotterdam, Holland, gives some advice to a Dutch farmer who is giving Yanks a lift to the front lines near Son. 19 September, 1944. 101st Airborne Division.

The Battle for Brest ended in Allied victory.

Pvt. Garnett N. Early, of Harrisonburg, Va., receives an early morning cup of coffee from Red Cross worker Mary Jane Cook, of Jackson Heights, N.Y. Nancy, France. 19 September, 1944. 35th Infantry Division.

The Battle of Hürtgen Forest began between German and U.S. forces in the Hürtgen Forest began.  The battle would continue until mid December.  The Battle over a 54 square mile of industrial forest on the Belgian German frontier would continue until December 16 and became the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the second longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought after The Battle of Bataan.

US tanker Lafayette G. Pool lost his third Sherman tank in combat in a night engagement when it was ambushed by a German Panther at Münsterbusch, southeast of Aachen, Germany.  Pool lost his leg in the engagement, ending a pre war amature boxing career. 

In 81 days of combat tanks commanded by Pool had destroyed 12 German tanks, 258 total armored vehicles and self propelled busn and killed German soldiers.

Pool reentered the Army in 1949 and retired in 1960.  He thereafter became a Protestant minister.  He passed away in 1991.

The SS declared a state of emergency in Denmark over the ongoing strike.

Heavy fighting occurred on Peleliu and Angaur.

The U-407 and U-867 were sunk by the Allies and the U-565 damaged beyond repair.

Brazilian nurses embarking for Europe at Hampton Roads, September, 1944.

Last edition:

Monday, September 18, 1944. Eindoven taken.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Airborne, Battle of Arracourt, Battle of Peleliu, boats and ships, Disaster, Heroes, Operation Market Garden, Prisoners of War, Royal Navy, United States Marine Corps, Warsaw Uprising, World War Two

Monday, September 18, 1944. Eindoven taken.

Distraught German medic at scene of German surrender, Orléans, September 18, 1944.

The 101st Airborne Division liberated Eindoven.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole, who would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during Operation Overlord, was killed by a German sniper during Market Garden.  He was 29 years old.

Another American combatant would be killed in an action that resulted in his posthumously receiving the Medal of Honor.

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Private First Class Charles Howard Roan (MCSN: 504236), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for the conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Peleliu, Palau Islands, 18 September 1944. Shortly after his leader ordered a withdrawal upon discovering that the squad was partly cut off from their company as a result of the rapid advance along an exposed ridge during an aggressive attack on the strongly entrenched enemy, Private First Class Roan and his companions were suddenly engaged in a furious exchange of hand grenades by Japanese forces emplaced in a cave on higher ground and to the rear of the squad. Seeking protection with four other Marines in a depression in the rocky, broken terrain, Private First Class Roan was wounded by an enemy grenade which fell close to their position and, immediately realizing the eminent peril to his comrades when another grenade landed in the midst of the group, unhesitatingly flung himself upon it, covering it with his body and absorbing the full impact of the explosion. By his prompt action and selfless conduct in the face of almost certain death, he saved the lives of four men. His great personal valor reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U. S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his comrades.

The Battle of Arracourt commenced in France.

The US dropped supplies from B-17s to resistance fighters in Warsaw, the only such mission permitted by the Soviets.  The aircraft flew on to Soviet held territory.

It's often been speculated, not without reason, that Stalin allowed the uprising to bleed itself out as it was resulting in the deaths of a present combatant, the Germans, and a feared future one, the Poles.

The Jun'yō Maru was sunk off Sumatra by the British submarine Tradewind resulting in the deaths of 5,620 people, most of whom were Allied POWs or Japanese slave labor.  The event is one of the worst naval disasters of all time, taking into account the lives lost were largely innocent.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 17, 1944. Operation Market Garden commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Animals, Battle of Arnhem, Battle of Nijmegen, Cats, Netherlands, Operation Market Garden, Operation Paravane, Palau, Paratroopers, San Marino, Tallinn, World War Two, Wyoming (LaGrange)

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.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane, Baltic Offensive, boats and ships, Buchenwald, Canadian Army, France, Hungarian Army, Operation Dragoon, Red Army, Romanian Army, SOE, Weather, World War Two