Thursday, April 6, 1944. German withdrawal from the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, Army Day.

The Germans pull off a major successful fighting withdrawal from Hube's Pocket (Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket).  200,000 German troops escaped Zhukov's forces, losing a lot of equipment, but also destorying a lot of Soviet equipment on the way.

An RAF Spitfire raid destroyed a substantial number of aircraft at Banja Luka field, Yugoslavia.

The French resistance shut down Timken ball bearing production at Paris.

The U-302 was sunk in the Atlantic by the Royal Navy.  The U-455 went down in the Ligurian Sea due to a mine.

US troops on Bougainville, April 6, 1944.

It was Army day pursuant to a proclamation earlier issued by President Roosevelt.

Proclamation 2610—Army Day, 1944

March 22, 1944

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas America's valiant soldiers have been welded by the fire of battle into a mighty army of liberation; and

Whereas the men and women of the American Army, of different races and creeds but one in their love of freedom and their devotion to the goals for which the United Nations are striving, must face during the coming year a burning test of their courage, their resourcefulness, and their physical prowess; and

Whereas the Congress, by Senate Concurrent Resolution 5, 75th Congress, agreed to by the House of Representatives March 16, 1937, has recognized April 6 of each year as Army Day and has requested that the President issue a proclamation annually with respect to that day:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, April 6, 1944, as Army Day, and do invite the Governors of the various States to issue proclamations calling for the appropriate observance of that day.

And I urge the civilians of the Nation to reconsecrate themselves on that day to the task of producing in fullest measure and with the greatest possible speed the weapons and ammunition and the materials and supplies required to equip our Army and to sustain it unto final victory.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this 22nd day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:

CORDELL HULL

Secretary of State.

Rose O'Neill, cartoonist and creator of the Kewpie character, died at age 69.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 5, 1944. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that’s why I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me! When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!

1940s, 1944, 1944 Election, Anne Frank, Ernie Pyle, Hungary, Judaism, Marshall Islands, Romania, The Holocaust, The written word, United States Marine Corps, World War Two

Saturday, March 25, 1944. Ioannina.

Young woman weeps during the deportation of Jews from Ioannina, Greece - March 25, 1944. Budesarchive on Wikipedia.  87% of Greek Jews perished in the Holocaust.  91% of those from Ioannina, the oldest and ancient Greek Jewish settlement, would die at Auschwitz.

Adolf Hitler ordered the execution of recaptured POWS who were part of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III.  While his order would mostly be carried out, it would not entirely. 

Germany was, of course, inescapably going down in defeat. As it was, it was covering itself in gore.

The Battle of the Kaments-Podolsky Pocket began as the Red Army attempted to surround the 1st Panzer Army South at Tarnopol.

U.S. forces eliminate most of the remaining Japanese forces on Manus.

In the Caroline Islands, Japanese patrols sight large American naval forces heading for Palau.