Monday, November 20, 1944. The sinking of the Mississinewa.

The US tanker USS Mississinewa  was sunk by Japanese manned torpedoes off of Ulithi, Micronesia.

She was the first ship to suffer such an attack.

French troops in action, November 20, 1944.

Hitler left the Wolfsschanze for good.

Partisans took Kosovo.

The British commence attempting to disarm Greek partisans.

Lights came back on in the Piccadilly, the Strand and Fleet Street districts of London.

Facing discontent, Chiang Kai-shek appointed a new Minister of War.

M4 Sherman of French 5th Armored Division, Nov 20, 1944.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 19, 1944. Sixth War Loan.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, boats and ships, British Army, poster, Roosevelt, War Loan Drives, World War Two

Tuesday, November 17, 1914. Strained resources.

At Ypres, General Albrecht ordered all attacks to cease to allow reserve units to move to the Eastern Front.  The Allies did not detect this change for three days.

And. . . 

Falkenhayn Calls Off Western Offensives, Suggests Peace

The United Kingdom doubled income tax to cover war expenses.

Last edition:

Monday, November 16, 1914. Occupying Tsingtao

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Austro Hungarian Army, Bergmann Offensive, Blog Mirror, British Army, Federal Reserve, Imperial Russian Army, Ottoman Army, Serbia, Siege of Tsingtao, World War One, Zaian War

Tuesday, October 31, 1944. Rescued.

Pvt. Fred T. Huff, 698 Pulaski St., Athens, Ga., one of the soldiers in an American infantry battalion trapped behind German lines.for six days in the Belmont sector, France, eats while waiting for transportation to the rear area for a rest. 31 October, 1944.

U.S. Infantrymen who were cut off by the Germans for six days in the Belmont sector, France, file down the road after being relieved. 31 October, 1944. 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, 36th Infantry Division.

Bearded Lt. Martin J. Higgins, 29 Garrison Ave., Jersey City, N.J., left, receives a warm handshake from Lt. Charles O. Barry, 120 West St., Williamstown, P.A., when he rejoins his unit in the Belmont sector after being cut off by the Germans for six days. Lt. Higgins was one of the officers with a battalion cut off by the Germans. France. 31 October, 1944.  Note the M1 Carbine has a grenade launching attachment.  1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division.

The Royal Air Force raided Gestapo headquarters at the Aarhus University in Denmark  The goal was to destroy Gestapo records to aid the Danish resistance.  The raid was conducted, as an earlier on in France had been, with Mosquitos.

The Germans evacuated Salonika.  Remaining Aegean German garrisons were trapped.

German Army Group North was trapped on the Courland Peninsula.

T/5 Miles J. Wermager, center, of Magnomen, Minn., a member of a cavalry unit near Monschau, Germany, receives his first piece of chicken since D-Day from T/4 Frank F. Leichtman, left, of Bresho, S.D. 31 October, 1944.

Complete to a flute, turban, and ersatz snake, TeC 5 Hernry Vin Roten, seated, of Brooklyn, N.Y., muses fellow GIs and pretty guests from the nearby French town of Toul at a Halloween party given by members of an air evacuation holding station. 3rd Army Air Evac. Holding Station. 31 October, 1944.

Last edition:

Monday, October 30, 1944. Pvt. Ross.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Leyte, British Army, Dancing, Finnish Army, France, Greek Civil War, Greek Partisans, Heroes, Italy, Kamikaze, Lapland War, Personalities, Polish Army, World War Two

Thursday, October 5, 1944. Fuzhou and Memel.

The Japanese captured Fuzhou, the last seaport China had controlled.

The Battle of Memel commenced.

German reduced civilian food rations.

An ME 262 was shot down for the first time in combat. The RCAF scored the victory.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 4, 1944. Scorched Earth.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Al Smith, Battle of Morotai, British Army, Bulgaria, Finland, German Army, Greece, Lapland War, New Guinea, Operation Nordlicht, Paratroopers, Refugees, 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

Tuesday, September 5, 1944. The USSR declares war on Bulgaria.

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WORDS AT WAR episode #62 Sept 05, 1944; "The Veteran Comes Back" for Johnson's Wax.

The USSR declared war on Axis aligned Bulgaria.

Bulgaria had not attacked the USSR, but had supported Nazi Germany.  It had declared war in 1941 on the US and UK, which was a fairly safe, it seemed, thing to do. Really, the Soviet Union should have declared war on it earlier, for that reason, although the delay bade sense for strategic reasons.  It had also participated, albeit to a limited extent, in the war in the Balkans, for its own territorial reasons.

The Battle of Turda began in Romania.  Hungarian forces allied with the Germans joined in the action as the Hungarian army began to act in opposition to its government's desire to get out of the war, out of a fear of Soviet invasion.

Sweden barred entry into its country of fleeing Nazis, something significant in light of Finland stepping out of the war.

The U.S Army captured Namur and Chareroi.

In Italy, the U.S. Army captured Lucca.

Hitler reappointed Rundstedt as Commander in Chief West.

French spy Gustave Biéler was executed by the Germans.  Born in  France, he immigrated to Canada as an adult, and joined the SOE during the Second World War.

Pro Nazi Štefan Tiso became the Prime Minister of Slovakia.  He'd press for the "final solution" in Slovakia.

He was sentenced to live in prison after the war, dying in prison in 1959.

The U-362 was sunk in the Kara Sea by a Soviet minesweeper.

The governments of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg agree to the form the Benelux Customs Union.

An earthquake at Cornwall Ontario damaged buildings there and into New York.

Last edition:

Monday, September 4, 1944. Reaching Antwerp.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Antwerp Belgium, Army, Belgium, British Army, Continuation War, Finland, France, German Army, Norway, Red Army, Romania, USSR, World War Two

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

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

Thursday, August 17, 1944. And on this day too, 30 years later, the Red Army entered East Prussia.

The Red Army crossed the River Scheshule and raised the Soviet flag on German soil. Sgt. Alexander Belov took the honors.  He survived the war and died in 1960.   

Interestingly, the Red Army entered East Prussia on the same day that the Imperial Russian Army had during World War One.

German forces in Lithuania launched counterattacks along their entire line.

Statue of St. Joan d'Arc in Orleans, August 17, 1944.

The Canadian Army took Falaise.  The city was in ruins.  A gap of a few miles exists thereafter between the British lines and the American ones.

The US Third Army took Saint-Malo.

In Southern France, almost no resistance to Allied advances is offered and the US captured St. Raphael, St. Tropez, Frejus, Le Luq and St. Maxime.

Third Infantry Division troops advancing on  August 17, 1944, in southern France.  Troops are wearing the new M1943 combat boots.

Hitler dismissed Field Marshal Kluge as commander of Army Group B and replaced him with Model.

The Battle of Biak, which had been going on since May 27, ended in an Allied victory.  American forces advanced near Aitape.  The length of these battles gives testament to how hard the Japanese were fighting.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 16, 1944. Closing the Falaise Pocket.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Argentina, Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou ( 桂柳會戰), Battle of Studzianki, Cheyenne Wyoming, Eastern Front, Falaise Pocket, Operation Dragoon, Operation Ichi-Go, World War Two, Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Wednesday, August 16, 1944. Closing the Falaise Pocket.

American armor rolls into the town of Dreux, France, as the Americans continue their rapid advance for Paris. The smoke of battle hangs low and the road is strewn with wrecked German armor. 16 August, 1944.

US forces entered Chartres.  US forces also advanced towards Argentan and Alençon, in pursuit of the German forces fleeing the Falaise pocket.  Falaise itself was liberated by the Canadians.   Montgomery attempted to close the  Falaise pocket with an attack from Trun, which Bradley believes to be too late.  Polish troops in the British 1st Corps crossed over the Dives.

Pfc. Ciro B. Iadavaio, Brooklyn, N.Y., and T/4 Ira W. Myer, Louisville, Kentucky, of the crew of the hospital ship "Marigold" getting their first printed news of the invasion on the southern coast of France as nurses from the 93rd Evacuation Hospital load aboard to be taken to the new invasion front. 16 August, 1944. Naples, Italy.

The French 2nd Corps landed in southern France.

Walter Model replaced Günther von Kluge as Oberbefehlshaber West.

The Wehrmacht launched Operation Doppelkopf as a counteroffensive in the East.

The Red Army reached Ossow outside of Moscow, but had to withdraw under a German counterattack.

The Battle of Studzianki ended in a victory for Polish and Soviet forces.

The Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou ( 桂柳會戰) commenced between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Nationalist Chinese.

The US froze Argentine gold assets in the US due to failure to cooperate against the Axis.

Cheyenne experienced record railroad traffic due to war transportation of troops. (Wyoming State Historical Society calendar).

Last edition:

August 15, 1944. Operation Dragoon. The added invasion of France

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Port Cros, boats and ships, Canadian Army, Commandos, France, German Army, German Kriegsmarine, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, U.S. Navy, Women, World War Two