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.
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The British 14th Army counterattacked at Imphal.
Mahatma Gandhi was released from two years imprisonment due to ill health. He'd never be imprisoned again.
Italy's Torre Dam was breached by RAF Mustangs and Australian and South African P40s.
The St. John the Baptist Church in Dragatuš, Slovenia, was destroyed in a German air raid on the town.
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The Royal Air Force dropped 4,500 tons of bombs on a single raid, a new record. It was Hitler's 55th birthday.
The Luftwaffe sunk the USS Lansdale and the Liberty ship SS Paul Hamilton of Algiers. The attacking planes were Ju 88s which were used as torpedo bombers in this application.
Off of Anzio, the Germans deployed human torpedoes. No serious damages are incurred by any of the Allied ships which are stricken.
Elmer Gedeon, age 27, was killed piloting a B-26 over France. He had been, prior to entering the service, a professional baseball player and was one of only two major league ball players killed during World War Two, the other being Harry O'Neill who was killed as a Marine Corps officer on Iwo Jima.
The British conversation at Kohima was relieved.
The Luftwaffe attempted to raid Hull, but called off the mission.
George Grantham Baink "the father of foreign photographic news", died at age 78 in New York City, which he had heavily photographed.
Many of his photographs appear on this website.
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The combined Allied Air Forces achieved a new daily record, and dropped over 4,000 tons of bombs on Germany and occupied France.
On the same day, the Luftwaffe sent 125 aircraft on a raid over London, the last of the "Little Blitz" air raids. Fourteen German aircraft were brought down. Fifty-three tons of bombs were dropped on the city, and a hospital was amongst the buildings hit.
The Red Army took Balaclava.
German and Hungarian forces counterattacked at Buchach.
The British government banned coded radio and telegraph transmissions from the UK. Diplomats are forbidden to leave, and diplomatic bags are censored, with excepts for the US, USSR and the Polish government in exile. Incitement to strike is made a punishable offense.
The British 5th Brigade linked up with the Kohima garrison, braking the encirclement of the city.
The USS Gudgeon was sunk off of Iwo Jima by a Mitsubishi G3M.
The Vatican established the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza to provide rapid, non-bureaucratic and direct aid to needy populations, refugees, and prisoners in Europe.
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The Red Army took Odessa. 24,000 German and Romanian troops were evacuated, although many of them were wounded, along with 55,000 tons of supplies.
The RAF dropped 3,600 tons of bombs in a single raid that included Germany, France and Belgium. It was a record.
Gen. William Slim ordered an offensive to relieve Kohima and into Japanese territory.
The U-68 and U-515 were sunk in the Atlantic by U.S. aircraft flying from the USS Guadalcanal.
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The Red Army commenced the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, the invasion of Romania.
Or maybe it did. This is asserted by historian David Glanz, but the Soviets themselves don't really acknowledge it, perhaps because the effort was botched, as will be seen.
It seems to me that Glanz is likely correct.
The Luftwaffe began cargo flights from Polish airfields to Manchuria, using Junkers Ju 290 A-9 aircraft. Or at least maybe they did. This is fairly consistently asserted, but the details are obscure and there are obvious problems with the assertion, as common as it is. For one thing, even at very high altitude, it would be surprising that the Red Army would not have shot at least one of the planes down. Sill, at least some experts on the Luftwaffe claim it occured. Others are skeptical.
I'm pretty skeptical.
For one reason, Imperial Japan was at peace with the Soviet Union, and I don't imagine that it would have wanted to risk that in 1944 when it was already losing in the Pacific. It was doing okay in China and in Southeast Asia, but it didn't have the manpower to add the USSR to its list of enemies, particularly over something of such doubtful utility.
Secondly, flying clean over the USSR and not getting shot down would be tough. Even if we assume, and we probably can, that for much of the flight it would not have encountered any opposition, early on it certainly might, and then again nearer its destination.
Finally, the Germans kept records on everything they did, and such records seem to be lacking here.
The Red Army began a determined assault into Crimea through its land bridge with Ukraine.
The Battle of the Tennis Court happened within the Battle of Kohima. It was a pitched, hand to hand, battle that went on for several days. It has been referred to as one of the greatest battles in history, and a British/Indian Thermopylae
The German submarine U-2 hit the German trawler Helmi Söhle and sank off of Pilau.
The U-962 was sunk off of Cape Finisterre by the Royal Navy.
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From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—April 7, 1944: Slovak Jews Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Auschwitz; they will write a detailed report that will be published in Geneva on May 17.
All laws in Berlin were suspended and Joseph Goebbels was made the sole administator of the city.
The land bridge held by the German 17th Army connecting Crimea to Ukraine came under Red Army attack.
The German 1st Panzer Army broke out of encirclement at Buchnach.
The Britisih XXXIII Corps was encirced by the Japanese at Josama, Burma. Fighting will shortly become hand to hand.
The U-856 was scuttled in the Atlantic after sustaining heavy damage from U.S. ships.
It was Good Friday.
Polish troops observed the day in Jeresualem.
The Battle of Kohima began around the town of Kohima in British India. The battle would prove to be the turning point in U-Go, and also prove to be long-running.
Japanese forces were depending on taking the town in order to resupply their provisions. In their initial attacks they cut off all access to the town.
A German counterattack by the 4th Panzer Army retook Kovel, a city in pre-war Poland, which is now in Ukraine. The attack blocked the Soviets from gaining a pass through the Carpathians.
The city had a large Jewish population before World War Two, and in fact had a large Ukrainian population that were members of the Communist Party. The Soviet invasion in 1939 had accordingly been largely welcomed. The German invasion would, of course, prove tragic, with 18,000 Jewish residents of the city being murdered. The city became a refuge for Poles escaping Ukrainian partisans late in the war. After the war, the Polish population of the city was forcibly relocated to post-war Poland.
A de Havilland Mosquito from the SAAF 60 Photo-Recon Squadron, flying out of Foggia, Italy to photograph the IG Farben photographed Auschwitz as part of a filming overrun, the latter of which was a practice in photo recon missions. It was the first instance of Auschwitz being photographed by the Allies from the air.
Six Valentine DD tanks sank in Exercise Smash I with the loss of their crews.
Charles de Gaulle announced changes to the Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, including the appointment of two Communists.
In France, the resistance halts aircraft parts production at Bronzavaia.
The First Partisan battalion Pino Budicin in Yugoslavia, made up of Italian Communists was formed.
The Work Truck Blog: Caterpillar Crew.:
Charlie Chaplin was acquitted of violating the Mann Act.
The suit was somewhat ironic in that it stemmed from Joan Barry's pregnancy. While FBI files suggest that Barry aborted two children during her affair with Chaplin, which did occur, this child was not Chaplin's, as blood tests proved. Chaplin, in a separate suit, would nonetheless be ordered to pay child support for the girl until age 21.
Moreover, Barry was 21 years old with her affair with 52-year-old Chaplin began. Chaplin definitely fished in the shallower end of the pond, but Barry was of age, which at least one of his prior conquests, whom he married, was not.
Barry was sliding towards insanity, and after her affair with Chaplin ended, stocked him. She'd end up being committed to a mental institution at age 33, by which time she had married and had two additional children.
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Today in World War II History—April 2, 1944: Soviet troops enter Romania. First US B-29 Superfortress bomber arrives at Kharagpur, India, near Calcutta. Armed revolt erupts in El Salvador.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The entering of Romania was more proof, if anymore was needed, that the Third Reich was in its final act. Romania had sought to exit the war, but had been dissuaded from doing so by the Germans. It would start pondering that once again in earnest.
Romania, although somewhat forgotten in the West, was not a minor power in some significant ways. The country had the third-largest army in the Axis in Europe, behind Italy and Japan, until Italy's 1943 surrender, at which time it was the second-largest Axis power. Its army was in fact the fourth largest in the world. It was plagued with internal problems, however, with a rank and file that was woefully uneducated and an officer corps that was condescending towards its men. Generally, Romanians fought better under German officers and NCO's.
It was a monarchy, but a monarchy which was, at the time, led by a military dictator.
Hitler issued his directive 54 with the topic of stopping the Russian advance, which obviously wasn't going to happen.
The rebellion would be violently put down, but it would nonetheless lead to Martinez' fall a month later.
Martinez was killed in a labor dispute with his taxi driver in 1966 while living in exile in Honduras.
The Japanese 15th Army (Mutaguchi) continued to advance.
The Italian Communist Party declared its support for the Badoglio government.
The 1944 Tour of Flanders bicycle race commenced.
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The Japanese 31st (Sato) Division cut the road between Imphal and Kohima. Gen. Slim, British 14th Army, decides to supply Imphal by air.
The Red Army took Kolomya, which was in Poland prior to 1939, but which is now in Ukraine.
The Royal Navy sank the U-961.
Lithuanian pilot Romualdas Marcinkus, part of the Great Escape, was executed by the Gestapo.
The Columbian Navy destroyer ARC Caldas engaged and damaged the U-154 while escorting the MC Cabimas.
The first award of the Expert Infantryman Badge was made.
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The British Parliament voted to give female teachers the same pay as men.
The Italian Communist Party declared cooperation with "bourgeois" parties.
The Red Army took Nikolaev.
Fighting carried on in the CBI.
"Infantrymen of the 66th Regt, 2nd Bn, 22nd Chinese Division advancing upon a group of tanks upon which a Jap Magnetic anti tank mine has been set off by remote control ordnance Intelligence purposes.
These tanks had burnt out. They belong to the First Provisional Tank Group and maintenance men of that outfit will salvage the salvageable parts left on these tanks. They met action against the Japs in the area a few miles north of the village of Shadeazup, Northern Burma. This photo demonstrated though, how the Chinese troops had actually fought with the tank group. This tank group is an American trained Chinese outfit, they having received their training at Ramgarh, India from U.S. Army Armoured Corps instructors. These infantrymen are also American trained. 28 March, 1944."
Ships were inspected:
For distinguished conduct in battle, engagements of Vera Cruz, 21 and 22 April 1914. Lt. Wainwright was eminent and conspicuous in command of his battalion; was in the fighting of both days, and exhibited courage and skill in leading his men through action. In seizing the customhouse, he encountered for many hours the heaviest and most pernicious concealed fire of the entire day, but his courage and coolness under trying conditions were marked.
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