Wednesday, August 30, 1944. End of Operation Overlord.

Operation Overlord officially concluded.

A French government was operating again in Paris and massive parts of the country had been cleared of the Germans.

The Red Army took Polesti, the oil refining center of Romania.  Most of the Romanian oilfields had already been taken by the Soviets.

The 8th Army commenced assaults on the Gothic Line.

Three soldiers from 7th Regt., 3rd Div. on patrol north of Montelimar. 30 August, 1944.

Filipino writer and guerilla Manuel Estabillo Arguilla was beheaded by the Japanese.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 29, 1944. Marching in Paris, crossing the Foglia, the Slovaks rebell.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle for Paris, Battle of Marseille, Bulgaria, Eastern Front, Italy, Operation Goodwood, Paris France, Polish Home Army, Slovak National Uprising, Slovakia, World War Two

Wednesday, May 31, 1944. Advances in Italy.

The Canadian 1st Corp took Frosinone; the British 10th Corps Sora.  The US 6th Corps captured Velletri and Monte Artemiso, unhinging the Caesar Line.

Casper Durband, of Worthington, Minn., 163rd Signal Photo Co., looks at an abandoned German half-track. Between Cori and Artena. 31 May, 1944.

US forces on the north coast of New Guinea come under heavy Japanese attacks.  The Australians took Bunabum.

The Government of India formed the Department of Planning and Development to plan for the postwar future of the country.

Sarah Sundin reports that Japanese Gen. Sato Kotoku ordered Japanese forces to withdraw from Indian, against his orders.  More here: Today in World War II History—May 31, 1944

She also reports that forces for Omaha beach began to load.

Polesti was bombed by the U.S. Army Air Force with heavy aircraft losses.

The USS England sank the Japanese submarine RO105, the sixth sub victory by the England in twelve days.  The HMS Milne sank the U-289 in the Barents Sea.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 30, 1944. Loading up for Overlord.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Ireland, Irish Free State, Italy, Monaco, Monarchy, Monte Cassino, Operation Overlord, Politics, World War Two

Saturday, April 15, 1944. Romania attacked from the air, Teenagers lose at Tarnopol, Politics in Minnesota, Hydro-Québec

PB4Y Photo Reconnaissance Liberators on a photo mission in the South Pacific , April 15, 1944.

PhoM1c E.S. Ujvarosy and PhoM1c R.M. Rhodes check their cameras, magazines, and data sheets before taking off on a mission in a Navy PB4Y photo reconnaissance plane. Cameras, left to right: F56-40”, two K-18’s 24”, K-17-12” and a K-17-06”. Lying on its side is vertical view finder. April 15, 1944.

The US 15th Air Force sent 500 sorties to Bucharest and Ploesti.  The war had reached the point where the Western Allies air attacks were now directly assisting the Soviet offensive in the east.

The Red Army took Tarnopol. German commander Gen. von Neindorff was killed in the fighting and nearly the entire German garrison was lost.

The original German commander at Tarnopal had deemed the defense hopeless and had reported it so.  The garrison of the doomed city was made up of new troops, most of whom were recent German teenage conscripts.  Only 55 of some 4,000 troops escaped the city.

British X class submarine, in this case the X25.

In Operation Guidance a British midget mine laying submarine, the X24 attacked the floating dock at Bergen, but the raid was not successful as the boat's charges were placed on a large German merchant vessel rather than the dock.

Aircraft from the USS Yorktown raided Chichijima and Iwo Jima.

African American troops on Bougainville, April 15, 1944.

The Minnesota Democratic Farm Labor Party was founded by the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the larger, yes larger, Farmer–Labor Party.

The left wing Farm Labor Party had been hugely successful in Minnesota. Founded in 1918, it's run to 1944 is one of the most successful state third party stories in the US.

Montreal Light, Heat & Power was taken over by provincial entity Hydro-Québec.

Last prior edition:

Friday, April 14, 1944. Indian drama.

1940s, 1944, Bangladesh, Battle of Kohima, China Burma India Theater, Eastern Front, India, Indian Army, Indian National Army, Pakistan, The Law of Unintended Consequences, Ukrainian National Army, World War Two

Sunday, August 8, 1943. No Photos.

The United States banned taking photos or making illustrations of Atlantic beach resort beaches.

U.S. troops landed at Sant'Agata di Militello, Sicily, in an amphibious end run. German forces had succeeded in halting the US advance, which resulted in a series of beach landings.

U.S. soldier receives plasma from a pipe smoking medic at Sant'Agata di Militello

The Tripitz and Scharnhorst lead a task force to bombard Longyearbyen, Barentsburg and Grumant on Spitsbergen.

Ambassard Steinhardt wrote back to the Secretary of State regarding U.S. aircrewmen in Turkey.

The Ambassador in Turkey (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Ankara, August 8, 1943—11 p.m.

[Received August 9—9:30 p.m.]

1388. I discussed with the Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday the status of the various American aviators interned in Turkey after the Ploesti raid. I suggested to him that the survivors of the crew of the Liberator which crashed off the coast and who were rescued by the Turkish coast guard be regarded as “shipwrecked mariners” and be released, and that all of the wounded aviators (some of whose wounds are very light) be regarded as unfit for further military service and be released and that subsequently the Turkish General Staff be instructed not to interpose too many barriers in the path of attempted escapes by others. Numan replied that he would give serious consideration to the release of the “shipwrecked mariners” and the wounded, and that he would suggest to the General Staff that they should not take “exceptional measures” to prevent escapes but that we must not embarrass him by “too many escapes” in the immediate future and particularly while the internment of the planes and crews was in the public eye. He added that “unfortunately” there were no German or Italian internees whose release could constitute a basis for exchange. He agreed to the immediate transfer of all the wounded to the American hospital in Istanbul.

Please inform General Arnold of foregoing.

Steinhardt

Sunday, August 1, 1943. Operation Tidal Wave, Murder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Airborne accidents and losses.

Operation Tidal Wave, the low level U.S. Army Air Force bombing of Polesti with B-24s took place.

The raid involved 177 B-24s, of which 54 were lost.  Oil production from Romania, Germany's largest supplier, was temporarily halted but would ultimately be restored.

Germany scored an inscription success with the raid as it was able to decipher Allied radio traffic regarding it and that the planes would fly from Libya.

The Gestapo executed a party of eleven nuns of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, a Polish Roman Catholic community, at Navahrudak, Poland, which is now in Belarus.  The Sisters had offered their lives in exchange for those of Polish prisoners, and were executed in defiance of their offer.  They have been declared Blessed by the Catholic Church for their martyrdom.

Japan affected to grant independence to Burma, while in actuality governing it.

Race riots broke out in Harlem due to a white NYPD police officer shooting and wounding Pvt. Robert Bandy during a fight.  Rumors spread that he had been killed, and the riots ensued.  The riots would result in the death of six African American New Yorkers.

William D. Becker, the Mayor of St. Louis, died in a Waco glider accident.  He was a passenger in the military glider, whose wings buckled in flight.

Military gliders of the era were frightenly dangerous, and I can't imagine riding on one voluntarily, let alone as part of a demonstration.  Maj. William B. Robertson, President of the Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which built the gilder, also died in the crash.

Soviet pilot Lydia Litvyak, who had scored eleven areal victories against the Luftwaffe, was shot down and killed in the Battle of Kursk.

Friday, June 12, 1942. Day of the Submarines.

Anne Frank received a diary on this day for her 13th birthday.

The U.S. Army Air Force bombed Polesti, Romania in a mission which saw 13 B-24s fly from Fayid Egypt to an intended landing in Iraq.  Four of the bombers made emergency landings in Iraq, and two in Syria. The ones in Turkey were interned. 

The bombers were actually in transit to China.  This was not part of Operation Tidal Wave, the famous low level raid that was also performed by B-24s.

On the same day, the Army Air Force raided Kiska for the second day in a row.

The Germans breakout in Libya and close to within fifteen miles of Tobruk.

The British launch Operation Harpoon in a desperate effort to resupply Malta by sea.

The Soviet Navy resupplied Sevastopol by sea, brining in 2,314 additional soldiers to the defense of the besieged city.

The Japanese submarine I-24 sank the SS Guatemala off of Sidney.  The I-16 sank the Yugoslavian flagged Supetar, the I-20 the Panamanian flagged Hellenic Trader, and the British Clifton Hall, all cargo vessels, in hte Mozambique Channel.

The German U-77 sank the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Grove off of Baria, Libya.  The U-124 sank the SS Dartford off of Newfoundland, the U-129 sank the SS Harwicke Grange off of Puerto Rico, the U-158sank the US SS Cities Service Toledo,an oil tanker, off of Louisiana.

The USS Swordfish sank the Japanese transport ship Burma Maru off of Cambodia.

George H. W. Bush graduated from Phillips Academy, turned 18 years old, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy on this day.

The recently completed Grand Coulee Dam was photographed.

Grand Coulee Dam, Washington.