Tuesday, October 10, 1944. The murder of the Romani children.

800 Romani children were murdered at Auschwitz.

Aircraft from the USS Bunker Hill sank six Japanese midget submarines at Okinawa, along with numerous other ships.

Austrian industrialist and officers asked Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach to declare Vienna an open city.

Alba was temporarily liberated from the Italian Social Republic by communist and monarchist partisans.

Last edition:

Monday, October 9, 1944. The Fourth Moscow Conference Commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1944 World Series, Canadian Army, Diplomacy, Fourth Moscow Conference, French Troupes de Marine, Marcus Island, Netherlands, Pacific, Red Cross, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Wednesday, August 9, 1944. Finns battle Soviets to a draw, Horror at the Łódź Ghetto, Yes to MacArthur and the Philippines, Third Army at Le Mans, Smokey the Bear and Sam Elliot arrive on the scene.

Soviet IS2 moving through forest near Vyborg past wounded Red Army troops.

The outnumbered Finns fought the Red Army to a draw in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, which concluded on this day.

The Battle of Studzianki began in Poland as a German counter offensive.

The Germans began the liquidation of the Łódź Ghetto, which would result in 60,000 Jews and some Roma being deported to Auschwitz.

MacArthur received a letter from Roosevelt endorsing MacArthur's plan to make the Philippines the next priority for the Allies in the Pacific.

Sgt. Robert Becker and Sgt. Joe Flores, members of an armored unit, and both from New York City, bring in their first German prisoner in the battle around Brest, France, August 9, 1944.

The 3d Army liberated Le Mans.

The French Provisional Government ordered the Republic restored and Vichy laws nullified.

120th FA in New Guinea, August 9, 1944.

The very first Smokey the Bear poster appeared.

Actor Sam Elliot was born in Sacramento, California.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 8, 1944. Hengyang falls, Wittmann killed, Falaise noticed.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Hengyang, British Army, Canadian Army, Falaise Pocket, Imperial Japanese Army, Nationalist Chinese Army, Operation Ichi-Go, Operation Totalize, Second Sino-Japanese War, World War Two

Tuesday, August 2, 1944. Murder of the Gypsies.

The last of the gypsies were murdered at Auschwitz.  4,200 people were murdered.

In their memory, this is Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma.

Clearly seeing which way the wind was blowing, Turkey broke off diplomatic relations with Germany.

The Germans launched 316 V-1s on London.  100 reached the city.

Pfc. Joseph A. Calvello of New York City, N.Y., examines the sponge rubber interior of a Russian tire found on a 4.5 cm. anti-tank gun left behind by the retreating Germans in France.

The Allies ceased air strikes on French bridges as the pace of Allied advances increased.

The newly activated 3d Army reached Dinan and the outskirts of Rennes.  The 1st Army captured Villedieu.

The USS Fiske was sunk in the Atlantic by the U-804.  

German midget submarines attacked Allied shipping in the Channel and sank two vessels, including the HMS Quorn.  Of the 58 German Marder submarines used in the attack, only 19 survived.

Fighting continued on Guam, and in Warsaw.

The Arado Ar 234 B Blitz made its first combat flight, a reconnaissance mission over the Allied beachhead in Normandy.

Last edition:

Monday, August 1, 1944. The Warsaw Uprising Starts.

Tuesday, May 16, 1944. The Romani Uprising, Advancing in Italy

Romani, gypsies, rebelled at Auschwitz.  Tipped off by a Yugoslavian member of the SS, a Pole alerted the Gypsies the night prior of the SS plan to destroy their camp the following day. Armed with shovels and other tools, they refused to come out of their buildings, and a confused SS withdrew.  The event was bloodless, but the destruction of the camp and the murder of its occupants was only postponed.

Perhaps coincidentally, or not, the first train carrying Hungarian Jews arrived at Auschwitz on this day as well.

Pvt. Joseph A. Zbin, Cleveland, Ohio, of Co. A, 338th Inf. carrying a 90 lb load of mortar ammo through town of Scauri. 16 May, 1944.  He's armed with a M1 Carbine.  He died in 1977 at age 55 back in Ohio.

Allied forces generally advanced in Italy, save for at Monte Cassino where the Polish 2nd Corps was meeting difficult resistance.

Twenty three year old 1st Lt. Keith J. Bauer, 937th F.A. Battery, of Arkansaw Wis., washes up on this day in 1944.  His post-war plans were, reportedly to "get married", "get a farm", "get out of the Army".  Bauer was from a farm family.  Bauer was a pilot and was still in the Army in 1954, so apparently his plans changed, or he was recalled during the Korean War.  In this photograph you can tell that he's an officer simply because his wool shirt has epaulets.

The Soviet Air Force bombed the rail yards at Minsk.

The Allied powers entered into an agreement with Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway about immediate post-war governance.

British Coast Command harried German submarines.

Anti-aircraft crew training at Ft. Bliss, May 16, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 15, 1944. Deportation of the Hungarian Jews.

1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Auschwitz, Battle of the Atlantic, boats and ships, Disaster, German SS, Hawaii, Hungary, Operation Overlord, Russian Orthodox Church, The Holocaust, World War Two

Monday, November 15, 1943. The Combat Infantry Badge.

One of the awards most respected by soldiers to be issued by the U.S. Army, the Combat Infantry Badge, was authorized.

Limited to infantrymen alone who have seen actual ground combat, the creation of the award acknowledged the particular horrors experienced by infantrymen in combat.  The World War Two awards were upgraded, which they likely should not have been as it cheapened the original awards, to Bronze Stars in the 1980s, reflecting the particular horrors of World War Two in which soldiers were not rotated home but served until severely injured, killed, or the end of the war.

It followed the authorization of the Expert Infantry Badge, which had been authorized on November 11, 1943.

Both awards remain enormously respected in the U.S. Army.

"Nomadic" Gypsies in the Soviet Union were reclassified by Germany to be in the same racial category as Jews and therefore subject to the death camps, whereas "sedentary" Romani were classified as citizens of the country they were in.

The order would ultimately extend beyond the occupied regions of the USSR and was another example of how, as Nazi Germany's fate became sealed, it became more homicidal.

Offensive actions by the U.S. Fifth Army were halted by Gen. Alexander.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 15: 1943 1943  Harmonica player Larry Adler played at the University of Wyoming.  Adler was a well known harmonica player.

Manuel L. Quezon was inaugurated as President of the Philippines, in exile. It was his third term.  In the Philippines a collaborationist government, not as disdained by the post-war Philippines as might be supposed, was in control, with the sanction of the Japanese.

The Cross Mountain, Colorado post office was closed, putting an end to the Moffat County town.

Tuesday, March 22, 1943. Expanding Murder of European Jews by the Nazis, U.S. Army takes Maknassy, Tunisia, Italian port disaster.

Jewish women in Paris, 1942.  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0619-506 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5367011

Germany began deportation of 4,000 Jews from occupied France.  They were sent to Sobibor, where only five of them would survive.

The initial deportation of 4,000 was shortly followed by an additional 1,000.

The Germans also began to deport Yugoslavian Jews from Skopje to Treblinka.

The Germans made the first executions of Gypsies at Auschwitz.

The Waffen SS attacked and destroyed Khatyn, Byelorussia in retaliation for the killing of four German officers, including Hans-Otto Woellke of the Order Police.  Woelke had been an Olympic shot putter.

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—March 22, 1943: Nazis extend work week in the occupied Netherlands to 54 hours. US II Corps under Lt. Gen. George Patton occupies Maknassy, Tunisia.

Sundin also has a very interesting photograph on her blog, of troops in Maknassy.  I wouldn't normally repost it, but the details are quite interesting.

The quality of the photograph isn't fantastic, but the details are really interesting as noted.  All of the soldiers except the one on the far right are wearing coveralls, suggesting they're armored vehicle crewmen.  They are armed, left to right, as follows:  M1903 Springfield, M1 Carbine, M1903 Springfield, M1903 Springfield, unclear, unclear.

British Colonel Edward Orlando Kellett DSO, parliamentarian, British Army officer, and big game hunter was killed in action during the fighting in Tunisia as a colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps. 

The U-524 and U-665 were sunk by Allied aircraft in the Atlantic.

The Allesandro Volta (Italy) exploded in port, devasting the harbor, after being hit by bombs from a B-24. The same raid took out the Franco M, the Labor, the Lentini, the Manzoni, the Maria Louisa, the Modena, the Mondovi,  hte Moni, the Renato, the Rosa and the Trentino.

It was a bad day for Italian shipping.

The German tanker Eurosee sank in an air raid on Wilhelmshaven.

The British Harbour Defense Motor Launches HMML 1157 and HMML 1212 sank in an air raid in Portugal.

The Imperial Japanese Army (yes, army) auxiliary transport ship Meigan Maru was sunk off of Java by the USS Gudgeon.

Clark Gable appeared on the cover of Look magazine in his airman attire.

Friday, February 26, 1923. The Porajmos

The Afrika Korps launched Unternehmen Ochsenkopf in Tunisia with the goal of gaining control of Medjez el Bab, Béja, El Aroussa, Djebel Abiod and a position known as Hunt's Gap. This was directed at British forces. Operation Unternehmung Ausladung, directed at French forces, was launched on the same day.

The Germans gained ground in this operation, but with devastating losses that made the effort a Pyrrhic victory, which was all the more the case as none of the principal objectives were taken..

Particularly notable was the massive loss of German armor, including Tiger Is. The loss rate was approximately 90%.

Auschwitz opened the Zigeunerlager, a section just for Gypsies.

The brown triangle, which Gypsies (Romani) were forced to wear by the Third Reich.

The Porajmos, the Holocaust of the Gypsies, is difficult to grasp as it's difficult, at least from the American prospective, to grasp the level of European hatred of Gypsies.  Just as with Anti-Semitism, hatred and distrust of the Romani was widespread, crossed cultures, and predated the war.  As with the Jews, the Romani became the focus of German repression leading to massive Romani loss of life, although cataloging it is nearly impossible as their numbers in Europe were really unknown.

The Romani are a semi nomadic people who migrated from Central Asia.  Perhaps because they are semi nomadic, and have their own language and customs, they've have long been subject to contempt.

Perhaps an example of synchronicity, Tehodor Eicke of the SS, a principal figure in the development of concentration camps, was shot down while flying in a Storch over the Eastern Front, an easy target for Red Army ground based anti-aircraft guns.