Operation Ichi-Go commenced in China.
Japanese plans for the offensive, which would be a largely successful Japanese effort.
Control of the ground at the end of the war.
The massive and highly successful offensive was designed, in no small measure, to help force a conclusion to the war in China, something perhaps best demonstrated by its alternative Japanese name, Tairiku Datsū Sakusen (大陸打通作戦), "Continent Cross-Through Operation"). It would gain a huge amount of ground, and demonstrate the importance of the war on the mainland to the Asian conflict. It's specific goas were to link railways in Beijing and Hankou in northern China to the southern Chinese coast at Canton and spare shipping and avoid American submarines; to take the airfields in Sichuan and Guangxi to preclude U.S. bombing of Taiwan and the Japanese mainland; and to destroy elite Nationalist units to cause the Nationalist government to collapse.
It was ambitious and would be, late war though it was, the largest military campaign of the Japanese war against China. Japan committed 80% of their forces in China, some 500,000 men, as well as 100,000 horses, 1,500 artillery pieces, and 800 tanks.
700,000 Nationalist Chinese troops were eliminated from combat in the operation, which would continue into October.
The Allies launched Operation Cockpit, an operation that featured all of the principal Allied forces in the East, the same being an air assault on Sabang Indonesia.
The RAF mined the Danube.
Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:
Today in World War II History—April 19, 1944 In the US, shortening, salad & cooking oils are removed from rationing, but butter & margarine are still rationed. Read more: “Make It Do—Rationing of Butter, Fats & Oils in World War II.”
Congress extended the Lend Lease Act. Apparently the 78th Congress was a little more active than the 119th.
The 1944 NFL Draft was held, and the first draft pick was Angelo Bertelli, who was drafted by the Boston Yanks. It wouldn't matter, Bertelli was already slated to enter the Marine Corps.
Canadian Gérard Côté won the Boston Marathon.
Côté winning the 1940 Boston Marathon.
He was serving in the Canadian Army at the time, and took leave to run in the race, sponsored by a Montreal restaurateur. While the Canadian Army, which initially used him as a physical education instructor, and then stationed him in a munitions plant, had been proud of his status as Canada's premier runner, it had taken heat for perceived preferential treatment that he received, and reacted negatively to his taking leave and running in the race. Côté was shipped to the UK and served the rest of the war in Europe, winning three English marathons during that time period.
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1940s, 1943, Battle of Kohima, boats and ships, Catholic, Crimea, Eastern Front, German Luftwaffe, London England, Operation U-Go, Royal Air Force, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, World War Two
