June 26, 1944. Cherbourg surrenders.

The Germans surrendered at Cherbourg.

Karl-Wihelm Schlieben and Admiral Walter Hennecke at the surrender of Cherbourg.  In captivity, Schlieben remarkably noted regarding Dachau; “Everybody knew, happen that terrible things there – not what, but that terrible things happen because, knew each of us, even then 1935”.  Neither of these senior German officers reappeared in the German forces of the Budesrepublik in spite of their relative youth, which is interesting.

The British launched Operation Epsom to take Caen and seize Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Cheux and the airfield at Saint-Manvieux-Norrey.  Rommel orders SS units at Saint-Lô to disengage and to the aid of the 12th SS Panzer at Caen, but Allied air cover makes that impossible.

The Germans prevailed at the Battle of Osuchy against the Polish Home Army.

The Red Army kills or captures most of the German 53d Corps and also captured Orsha and Mogilev.  

Brigadier General Mike Calvert (left), Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw, with (right) Pakistani born Major James Lumley after the capture of Mogaung.  The General is armed with a SMLE and the Lt. Col. with a bayonet fixed SMLE.  The Major with a M1 Carbine.  Gen. Calvert is a particularly tragic figure. This battle was his most significant, and it was significant.  After the war, he began drinking heavily and was reassigned to a command in Germany.  In 1951, he was accused of improper sexual contact with three young German men, at a time at which that was fully illegal, and was court-martialed and convicted.  He never got back on his feet after that and maintained his innocence for the rest of his life.  Work by his biographer after his death indeed demonstrated that he was most likely innocent of what he had been accused of.

After 20 days of hard fighting, the Chindits, in the latter stages assisted by the Nationalist Chinese, took Mogaung in Burma.

The U.S. Navy bombarded Japanese positions on Matsuwa in the Kuriles.

The Republican National Convention opened in Chicago.

All three New York baseball team played at the Polo Grounds in a round-robin experiment to raise money for war bonds.

General Hap Arnold called Governor Lester Hunt and requested that UW President James Morill be given a leave of absence to assist with the War Education Program. (UW History Calendar).

The trustees refused the request.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, June 25, 1944. The Battle of Tali–Ihantala commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Tali–Ihantala, British Army, Caen France, Canadian Army, Diplomacy, Finnish Army, German SS, Operation Epsom, Operation Martlet, Operation Overlord, Red Army, Waffen SS, World War Two

Monday, March 13, 1944. Bougainville counterattack.

US troops regained most of the ground lost on Bougainville in a counterattack.

37th Infantry Division soldier firing Thompson submachinegun on Bougainville, March 13, 1944.

Light tank in action, Bougainville.

Artillery in action, Bougainville.

U.S. forces overrun the small Japanese garrison at Hauwei.

In northwest Indian, the 17th and 20th Indian Divisions were authorized to pull back to Imphal. Mountbatten requested American aircraft to supply the Chinese and to redeploy the 5th Indian Division from the Arakan.  

Japanese aircraft attacked the Broadway airfield being used to supply the Chindits.

The Kingdom of Italy and the Soviet Union restored diplomatic relations with each other.

The Red Army took Kherson.

The U-575 was sunk in the Atlantic.  The Japanese cruiser Tatsuta was sunk off Hachijō-jima by the American submarine Sand Lance.

Last Prior:

Sunday, March 12, 1944. Derailed.

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.

Saturday, February 5, 1944. The Battle of Admin Box

 

Sikh troops fighting in the Battle of Admin Box.

The Battle of Admin Box, so named as it was in a rectangular shaped area of the Indian Army's 7th Division administrative area, began, with the British Indian Army defending its position against a Japanese offensive in Burma which was calculated to draw off British troops from a larger Japanese offensive.

The Chindit 16th Long Range Penetration Brigade left Ledo and marched south toward the "Aberdeen" area in Burma.

The Red Army took Lutsk and Rovno in the Ukrainian sector.

The Germans withdrew to a smaller perimeter within the Korsun Pocket, which the Germans were able to resupply by air.